Hi, before you go, they are to big let me say I have a plan. I thought about using a wider then average bench work where these would be. They would be on the opposite side from where I reach. That way they don’t take to much valuable real estate. The thing is that I came from modelling warships originally to this hobby and the idea of combining them would be great.
It could be anywhere from lets say 1/70 to 1/150 to match the scale. I can always just say that is far away and looks smaller or something. This is for a future project where I want to include ships and a large port. For this scene I can spare around 10 feet. So any suggestions would be great.
One of the hobby shops here has a 1/72 scale kit for a Gato class submarine. This was an American fleet submarine in service from 1941 until the 1960’s. Many were sold to other nations. They also have a similar sized model of a WWII German U-boat. Unfortunately, I didn’t take note of the brand name. Try searching the web for ship modelers and they will probably have more information.
PS - At one time someone had made a few “kits” for a 1/72 scale model of the USS Enterprise, the model was almost 18 feet long (about 6 meters)!
Check out some of the ship model sites for plans in 1/96th scale. Hardly anybody will be able to tell if its not 1/87. Practically anything you want is avialable in the 1/96th. Most appropriate would be a Liberty ship or a Victory ship. They are also fairly simple to model.
Don’t know what scale(s) they are, but some of our fellow (non-railroad) modelers build models of battleships and cruisers big enough to mount BB-guns, reasonably powerful electric drives and radio control receivers for same. They are NOT small. (They also have light balsa sides vulnerable to BB fire, and can actually sink if sufficiently shot up.)
If the rail facilities are going to be in front of the ship, a slightly SMALLER scale model will look realistic - which means those 1/72 models would be fine on an S-scale (1/64) model railroad, but improbable on an HO (1/87) empire. (“Pardon me. Why are all your deck hands 2.3 meters tall?”) For HO, I’d suggest using 1/96 scale ships.
Why don’t you just leave an empty space at dockside and tell everyone it’s the Navy’s new Stealth Aircraft Carrier, the USS William Jefferson Clinton!!!
I don’t feel that the problem is in size. They are quite narrow [D)] in comparison to their length. If you put one at the back of the bench work it won’t effect the amount of space I can reach over anyways.
Also, this is for my next layout that will happen in anything between 8 months to 5 years now depending on fiscal reasons.(going to expand the house). But where it will be I otherwise need to curve into since the room is irregularly shaped. If I just keep the mainline straight here and let the yard expand 60 cm inward I have an additional 60 cm that is out of reach. Since I don’t need to put tracks 60 cm in I can easily expand this to fit a ship up to 9-10 feet and 20-40 inches wide if necessary.
i see this as an opportunity to combine several of my interests, naval ship building, naval history and railroading, all in the same space. Now I realize that the biggest battleship possible might not be a good idea. But a WWII submarine or corvette should be very plausible.
Cousteau’s research vessel “Calypso” was based on a war surplus mine sweeper. I believe there was a plastic kit that was available in 1/125th (Revell?). It might be possible to kitbash it back to it original military configuration - or use it as reference for a scratchbuilt model.
I like it. Of course my father used to have an HO scale sub chaser that looked really cool and he scratch built a PT boat because he drove one home for awhile during the war (long story). I do not know what happened to them after he died.
If you really want to go all out, these folks http://www.maritimereplicas.com/ will custom build you anything you want (maritime related). They will even build you and entire seaport. Don’t worry about the cost. They are well worth it.
Lillen, when you build your dock,remember to include a two or three track yard nearby so that empties can be pulled out and full loads moved on to the dock tracks.
