RE: USS Unites States project (part 1) Refitting for Treaty Tom Z. has given us the go-ahead to make the conversion of his big-gun battlecruiser USS United States into a Treaty boat, so that we can get the old girl back into service in the near future. The project will be made up of two parts. In part 1 we will be taking the existing hull and superstructure, and installing a set of Treaty format internals into her. This part of the project was kicked-off today at the build-session in Miamisburg. Ohio. We are not entirely certain that we can get her ready for the up-coming Treaty battle in Versailles, Ohio in two weeks. But we hope to at least have her ready for sea-trials by that event. We do feel fairly certain that the ship will be combat-ready for our event coming up on the July 4th weekend. We have invited Tom to come down and take his old ship in harm's way again with us. Part 2 of this conversion will consist of building a brand new Battlestations boat around the big-gun main cannons, and torpedo tubes. The ship has 4 main turrets (quarter inch twins), and eight torpedo tubes. This part of the project is in the planning stages. But we hope to have up-dates in the near future. We will start another thread on this part of the project. Tom and his grand old battlecruiser were staples of the old Midwest Battle Group back in the day. And it would be great to see both Tom, and the United States back in action again. We will keep you all posted. Mikey
RE: USS Unites States project (part 1) Refitting for Treaty I noticed that I misspelled the ships name in the subject line, and can't figure out how to fix that. Can one of the moderators possibly fix it? It is supposed to be USS United States. My bad! Mikey
"CC" =Battlecruiser for Americans BB for Battleship, yes nikki thats the Hood, the wooden hull next to the United States is a G3 for big gun, that I have modified to make it treaty legal.
Yes the Lexington class, pretty interesting, the first iteration was a desired 35 knot ship, with 10x14" guns, which some sources portray as having been tripples in the elevated positions over the end double turrets, to allow the hull to be narrower. The machinery would have required some of it located above the protected deck with seven! funnels. The design evolved to five, then ultimately two funnels, and an increase in protection and main armament to become an "Americanized Hoods". A Beautiful ship, having been very partial to the look of the Admiral class Battlecruisers, the Lexingtons are smiler, but not a carbon copy. The Hood was basically a 31+ knot version of the QEs, the Lexingtons would have had much less armor than the Hood was completed with.
Nice to see another Lex out there. She really is a beast. 8-16" 14-6" w/ 8 tubes. How does she handle?. Any pitfalls you found working this particular hull? Mines is about 35% hull comp. Gotchas would be great.
The hull form is deeper than the Hood, which should add a degree of survivability, and even though its a little longer, the more full shape of the hull again adds to the volume of the hull itself. We have a pair of Alaska class Battlecruisers in the club and are planing to have the three American Battlecruisers on the water at the same time. I am trying to utilize most of the original structure, I have replaced the masts to depict the scale cage masts. I have also decided to use the angular turrets used on the Marylands, which I beleive the US would have used rather than the rounded ones depicted in plans, did not make much sense reinventing the wheal as far as turret design goes. With any ship the trick is to limit the weight at either end, and put as much of the mass of the ship in the center of the models hull. With some manipulation of the rudder shape, and a lot of internal weight shifting I was able to get the Hood to turn much much better, I am confident the United states will be a better model for combat, atleast in the Treaty format. I will try to get some photos uploaded soon.
