by Nektarios Koufopoulos
1/700 Arsenal Ship (Jim Shirley)
These are some photos of the old Jim Shirley Productions of the what-if 1/700 arsenal ship.
The armament of each ship would consist on 512 VLS cells and an 8-inch gun. I wanted to add something more in the form of a medium calibre gun. I had two choices Oto Melara 3-inch gun and the Swedish Bofors 57mm gun. I chose the second because it is now the gun the USN did choose for its newer surface ships. I also added four 25mm bushmasters and four 20 mm guns for close in defence against small craft.
The arsenal ship was supposed to be constructed without radar(s) in order to save cost and manpower relying on other accompanying warships for targeting information and defense. I used several domes that are used for communication. Among them are:
I also added SLQ-32. Note that space has been reserved for the addition of Nulka launchers.
One of the less attractive parts in the kit is the mast. It is stealthy huge and looks empty. I thought of how i d fill it with stuff. The solution is the PE-139 set of Pitroad that i bought for the Bushmasters and the 20mm guns. The set also contains the masts for an Arleigh Burke. I thought since the arsenal ship was a mid 90s proposal it would be logical to have a similar mast with the Burkes. As mentionned above AN/SPQ-9 and a datalink for the helo were added atop the mast.
PE-139 also provided the stack ventilators
The helicopter landing area is another part of the model that deserves special attention. I judged that it was so big that i could use its aft part to place electronics. I used decals provided in the Ships and Co generic decal set for the landing area markings. Decals from this set were used also for the hull numbers, the bridge windows, the ribbons and the excelence markings. Fore of the main gun a vertrep marking from the Pitroad USN generic decal sheet was added. Finally on the sides of the ship grilles provided in the GMM USN/JMSDF set were placed.
The aftermarket sets i used on this kit are:
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