HMS Belfast 1982 side profile

[raptormodeller]

Title says it all really, had some fun making this.

In other news, it's the end of summer, which means... as a raptor I can come out of (modelling) hibernation and get back to some real world modelling. . Time to some models.

chomp chomp

-raptor

[Julien]

HMS Belfast is still probably more seaworthy than a Type 45

[Crackingjob]

HMS Belfast is still probably more seaworthy than a Type 45

i remember taking my young sons onboard in the late 90s and realising some of the Ops room kit fitted in the last refit was still in use when I joined the RN in 1978....so yes problebly in better Nick than type 45 etc....

Not certain re Helo deck mid ships...too much clutter to hit on the way in.....would move to rear with Sea Dart or modern version in place of the turrets, and put anti ship and or sea wolf etc mid ships.....keep guns forward but upgrade with mix of 4-6" with larger underneath. They will be great for surface action and gun support for shoreside units.....just a few thoughts.....building?

[Francis Macnaughton]

Seeing this prompted me to see what plans if any there were for Tiger or Blake which were still in reserve at the time and were actually of comparable vintage to Belfast as far as their original construction was concerned. The wikipaedia article for Tiger makes interesting reading and suggests that a 1982 reactivation could have been on the cards although mainly to provide an extra flight deck. The torpedoing of Belgrano put a stop to this as it highlighted the vulnerability of old cruisers and the large ship's companies that went with them.

I can't make out the detail on the suggested Belfast (1982) to see what is proposed but I would have thought lots of Seacat launchers and 40mm mountings would have been the quick solution to beefing up AA protection.

[Crackingjob]

I remember Blake and Tiger in 78 and they could carry 4 Seakings....it was a preamble leading to the Through deck cruisers....which we now know as the Invincible carriers....if things were drawn out in the south Atlantic and because we needed to fulfil our NATO anti submarine and anti ship role in the Iceland Gap, then deactivating recently out of commission ships was the way forward.....Sea Cat would have been a cheap way forward....though when we went south, for emergency anti missile protection etc, we had old ww2 twin and single Orlikan 20mm guns (last seen on MTBs) and my LMG 7.62mm was a recalibrated Bren gun mk4! And the press guide book for reporters was last issued in the Korian war!!!

They were quick to develop various plans such as the AEW Seaking....4 weeks, British Gas piping to be the structure, , motorcycle sprocket and chain system to winch up and down, and a Nimrod radar adapted to go around and not side scan.....amazing plans for container ships as carriers, containerised sea wolf launching vertically....and so on....anything goes and it did.

You can do anything as long as it was viable and available then and did not matter if old.