by Wheelsman » October 17, 2016, 3:26 pm
Ok, we've got them all now, thanks to a friend of mine. I had done a little commentary on the Victory and Carnahan conversions earlier, and just wanted to put in a few words on the Thompson. The third and last of these labor of love jobs was by far the most extensive. The only thing I was really able to use from the hospital ship model kit was the aft third of the hull, a must because of that unique configuration. A portion of the forecastle deck and prow of the hull was used, and even that needed modification with some putty. Pretty much everything else was fabricated with sheet plastic, index cards and a few pieces from the parts box, notably the 2 gun tubs from an old destroyer model cemented together that were used for the pilothouse, and the stack fashioned from 2 old nose parts from an airplane (P38?) model.
It's a good thing I did this one last with the experiences of the first two as it probably would not have turned out as good as it did. I knew C4s, and the Thompson was my fave of the C4 conversions. I did have a chance to wheel a C4 out of Midway Island's harbor. She was none other than the USNS Gen H. H. Arnold, a converted C4-S-A type serving as a missile tracking ship in the Pacific in the mid-70s. Unforgettable in all white with those 3 huge radar dishes, she was a lumbering thing. Her and sister Hoyt S. Vandenburg were frequent visitors for logistics.
I hope everyone enjoys the pictures. They were fun projects.
Ok, we've got them all now, thanks to a friend of mine. I had done a little commentary on the Victory and Carnahan conversions earlier, and just wanted to put in a few words on the Thompson. The third and last of these labor of love jobs was by far the most extensive. The only thing I was really able to use from the hospital ship model kit was the aft third of the hull, a must because of that unique configuration. A portion of the forecastle deck and prow of the hull was used, and even that needed modification with some putty. Pretty much everything else was fabricated with sheet plastic, index cards and a few pieces from the parts box, notably the 2 gun tubs from an old destroyer model cemented together that were used for the pilothouse, and the stack fashioned from 2 old nose parts from an airplane (P38?) model.
It's a good thing I did this one last with the experiences of the first two as it probably would not have turned out as good as it did. I knew C4s, and the Thompson was my fave of the C4 conversions. I did have a chance to wheel a C4 out of Midway Island's harbor. She was none other than the USNS Gen H. H. Arnold, a converted C4-S-A type serving as a missile tracking ship in the Pacific in the mid-70s. Unforgettable in all white with those 3 huge radar dishes, she was a lumbering thing. Her and sister Hoyt S. Vandenburg were frequent visitors for logistics.
I hope everyone enjoys the pictures. They were fun projects.