Kits For "Never-weres"

Ajax

Ajax

Member
Apr 20, 2004
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Hi all,

I was looking at the JSC website and noticed that they have a brand new kit out for a WW2 German H-39 class "super battleship," dubbed the "Grossdeutschland." Only one H-39 was ever laid down by Germany and construction never really went anywhere because of other wartime needs.

This got me wondering, have any other card model manufacturers offered kits of "never-weres" over the years? If so, of which ships?

If I were to put together my wish list of never-weres, being the battlecruiser nut that I am ;) , I would love to see a model of a WWI German Battlecruiser of the Mackensen Class (Mackensen and Graf Spee were launched, but were never fitted out).

Also a kit of the US Lexington class battlecruisers would be great!

Anybody else have ideas for never-were kits? :D

AJ
 
^ That's be a great one as well, Mark!

I've thought of some Japanese ones that'd be neat to see too: the Akagi and Kaga completed as originally planned. Akagi would have been an Amagi class battlecruiser and Kaga would have been a Tosa Class super-dreadnought -- and both would have been armed with ten 16" guns! :shock:

AJ
 
^ That sounds like another good one!

And here I thought the funnel on Barry's Takao looked like a hard one to build, that South Dakota funnel would be downright diabolical! :D

The cage masts on Lexington and South Dakota would be tricky to build as well, maybe a kit could have optional tripod masts insead, since they would have eventually been upgraded with them had the ships actually been built?

AJ
 
Prolly not Ajax. The last ships modernized before the war were the New Mexicos. They had their battery control towers removed completely. They were replaced by a greatly enlarged bridge structure.

They did similar "chop job" California, Tennesee, and West Virginia, when they made it to the west coast, after Pearl Harbor.

This change was, I believe, due to the ability of the battleship fleet to use float planes for gunnery spotting. There was no longer a need for observers 80 feet above the water, when they could put one 5000 feet up and several miles downrange.
 
^ Thanks for the info, atomsk! I did manage to satisfy my curiosity on the subject when I found this webpage that has some drawings of US never weres:

http://home.sc.rr.com/dwspage/MISC/Never_Weres/united.htm

It also has different variations of the ships showing how they might have looked over the years. The artist has his own conception of what the Lexington Class United States (CC-6) would have looked like in 1935 with a tripod mast and also shows South Dakota in 1936 with tripod masts.

AJ
 
Ajax said:
^ Thanks for the info, atomsk! I did manage to satisfy my curiosity on the subject when I found this webpage that has some drawings of US never weres:

http://home.sc.rr.com/dwspage/MISC/Never_Weres/united.htm

It also has different variations of the ships showing how they might have looked over the years. The artist has his own conception of what the Lexington Class United States (CC-6) would have looked like in 1935 with a tripod mast and also shows South Dakota in 1936 with tripod masts.

AJ
Click to expand...

Interesting site, have to look in on it occasionally, almost like a wet version of Luft '46
 
Hi
The German WW2 Aircraft Carrier Graf Zeppelin was another never happened - it got built, sort of, but it never was commissioned.
There is a kit of it I'm sure - and I have decent plans to make a radio controlled model from plywood - or whatever
J77ason
 
USS Georgia BB-71. Would have been the last of the Montanas, and I'd love to build her.

Preferably about 1/200.

4 x 4 - 18"/47 Mk III Rifles... sheeeeeeesh!

Anyone have any idea how to modify a big Iowa into this? As I understand it, the Iowas were 887' long, 108' beam. The Montanas were supposed to end up 927' long, 122' beam. Is it possible to add to a model like that? (Especially when you don't know what you're doing? LOL!)
 
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