USS Albany 1/700th Scale

[air5]

I have finally finished the Cyber Hobby USS Albany. I did not like the Large Height finding dishes the kit came with,so they were binned! The bridge and foreward mast was rebuilt, a new radar was made, other antenas were added. Some life like detail were added, Capt's gig was left off, but the tie downs were added, a gun crew. cleaning the 5" mount, with an accident, who dosen't spill the bucket. As a distraction from the planes, this was fun, I have another ship, the USS Long Beach now on bench and intend to bring it up todate, just prior to her decommissioning.

Thanks for looking, any comments welcome.

[jimbuna]

She looks well detailed for such a small scale...very nice.

[Phil Reeder]

Very nice build of an unusual ship.

Cheers Phil

[surfsup]

You have done a very nice job on her.....CHeers mark

[Guest raiderhall]

nicely done. gonna put her in water?

[air5]

To answer your questions, Stability; I have not read anywhere that the Albany or her sisters had stability problems, one would think so due to the bridge alone.

Am I going in to put her in water; still concidering this, but it would be a calm bay setting because of the small boat handling drills, she would have to be at anchor.

[Alan P]

Very nicely done, looks bigger than 1/700 with the fine detail you've crafted there.

I scratched my head over the stability issue: as CA-123, the armoured hull was designed to support 9x 8-inch guns in armoured turrets, 12x 5-inch guns in twin turrets, plus numerous 40mm / 3"/50 installations, all of which were removed for its conversion. Despite this, its draught increased by 4ft over its previous incarnation! I think the greatest threat to its stability was as CA-123 in the fitting of the 3"/50 twins in place of the 40mm quad mounts it previously carried.

Al (obviously not a naval architect!)

[seadog]

To answer your questions, Stability; I have not read anywhere that the Albany or her sisters had stability problems, one would think so due to the bridge alone.

Am I going in to put her in water; still concidering this, but it would be a calm bay setting because of the small boat handling drills, she would have to be at anchor.

She looks really fine and Jim Bauman's watercolour paper trick would work nicely for a still water base! Go for it!

[FIGHTS ON]

I think for stability they built the whole superstructure out of aluminium. Remember the hazards of this weren't apparent until the Falklands in '82. I type this without access to reference, did she serve in Vietnam? I know other un-converted cruisers did & served on the gun line (great photo somewhere of one being bracketed by N Vietnamese gunfire) & I think the Chicago shot down a Mig 21(?) with a talks/terrier SAM.

[macgregor]

Lovely build, great finish.

Mac

[TCinLA]

I remember back in 1963 when the USS Chicago (the other of this class) showed in San Diego. She was moored over at North Island and one night some idiot decided the radar needed testing and it "clanged" every set of braces and false teeth in San Diego clear up to Miramar and damn near caused an international incident putting out the lights in Tijuana. That was one powerful radar. They had to get at least 30-40 miles out to sea for tests and trials afterwards.