GarethR

Hi Exkiwi- best of luck with your builds! It'd be great to see what you come up with. Its a fascinating period of history with so many "what if" potential- I'm certainly inspired by the various designs and a twin island effort is certainly on my list. Btw, according to the "Royal Navy Model Ships" group on FB Imperial Hobbys are due to bring out a 1/700 HMS Colossus this year- should be ideal for a Melbourne conversion?

"There was a good article in one of the old Conway Warship quarterlies about the 60s cruiser designs" A-ha! I found this on google books yesterday- Warship 2006? Article by George Moore? One of the drawings took my breath away- a flush decked cruiser with a raised shelter deck (plated up) with turrets arranged in a diamond/lozenge fashion like the old French pre dreads- in fact the whole thing looked like a 50's take on the Rurik or a late C19th armoured cruiser. I'm guessing the "wing" turrets afforded considerable arcs for AA guns.

Indeed- the 18,000 ton Sea slug armed cruiser simply wasn't going to happen, but its an interesting exercise to think about how they could have applied those principles to existing hulls. Modernised ships (such as the interwar QEs) seem to retain a lot more archaic features and interest than shiney new stuff. Btw- how do you post pics on this forum?

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/warships1discussionboards/out-to-get-the-rn-the-1952-54-radical-review-t38215-s120.html Bit of a discussion here about an alternate CW RN (I'm "sunk") - lots of potential "what ifs" for cruiser rebuilds in which the use of re built "light fleets" require a cruiser escort with flag facilities and fighter direction radars. I've gone for a stretch on the current project to rebuild surviving "counties" along the lines of the "1960 cruiser" designs from the late 40's. The sketch is of a Fiji but I've not been able to resist having a go - using the Spanish Canarias as an example of how these old ladies could carry on until the mid 70's! So what are you planning Exkiwi? Cheers!

Hi Niall- I'd certainly be interested in a few of them. Not sure if the drawing posted by bootneck is sufficient to scale from? G

Thanks for the great schematic Mike. I was thinking about the conical end of a Bic pen lid and wrapping some plastic sheet around the end! Not sure about the scale though! Cheers

Good afternoon folks! My current project is an "alternate post war RN" - a fascinating topic- various alt designs require a 984 radar perched somewhere- I've scoured the internet for suppliers of said 3D searchlight radar but to no avail...not even Shhhh....you know who ..can supply 😞 So, has anyone tried scratchbuilding these little beauties? If so, any tips would be most welcome! My modelling skills are...lets say.. primitive... I can cope with bits of plastic but PE is beyond me! Cheers G