The Ship Model Forum

All right, this is the setup. Venerable flotilla-leader Hr.Ms. Tromp is not as worn out as she historically was, and is retained as a fighting vessel. In the early sixties, it is decided to upgrade her to a air defence destroyer. I'm using the HP Models model of her, which I decided I would never build in her WWII config. Changes: Lose the plane, lose the boats save two launched, lose the B turret (or X). Modify the main superstructure. Lose the searchlight platforms at the stack and the foretop.
Install a Terrier on the aft superstructure, or on the aft deck deleting turret X. Not sure yet.
Install the required guidance radar.
Install two Seacat launchers where the boat/plane crane used to be.
Install a 40mm where the B-turret used to be (or retain the B-turret if X-turret is removed, to keep gunnery at 4 guns.)
Install a lattice mast aft of amidships to carry a large radar array.

See the image below (please don't compare with the far better bitmaps schematics we see on this site, this is just sketching poorly). Now is there anything I'm missing, doing wrong or doing which is impossible?

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If all else fails, a complete pig-headed refusal to see facts in the face will see us through. - General Melchett

Michel,

first off, great idea! Turning the Tromp into a vessel similar to the T47 AAW mods is an excellent project. As for the details, I'd look at the way the French turned some of the Surcoufs into precisely such vessels; see for example the Bouvet:



A couple of things that come to my mind when looking at your drawing:

- the necessary guidance systems for Tartar are missing; the whole setup should probably look like in the Bouvet pic above

- you reduced the size of the bridge; to me that seems to be not that plausible, given the increased need for C3 - and the fact that such a ship would probably serve as a flagship

- as it is it's probably overloaded; Terrier requires quite some space, the necessary electronics means additional weight, and by only trading in the airplane and B turret you're probably not giving off board enough weight; in any case retaining y turret is probably not a good idea as the nearby missile and electronics installation could suffer from blast damage etc

- I'd either retain A and B turret (by the way, were these true turrets or simply enclosed twin mounts?) or replace them with a 120mm Bofors twin - which would have the nice advantage of ammunition commonality with contemporary Dutch destroyers

- if you unship y turret, a helipad would be a nice addition; there may be no space for a helo onboard, but it's always good to have a pad

Jorit

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Thanks for the ideas. Here's a modified idea. First, i removed all the portholes, since post WWII few if any were left open. I moved the Tartar to the Y-position, added a guidance radar (if the Bouvet had two for one launcher, I guess Tromp should have them too (note: I have no idea what rationale is behind all this, i just copy)). I added two 20mm single mounts next to the new aft superstructure. Between this and the Tartar there is now a small helipad. (but no helo).
I added some superstructure between the new mainmast and the stack, this mainly to have the old visual guidance for the Seacat on some elevation. I also modified the forward superstructure to have more 'office space'. Also note I'm not going for accuracy here: this is more an excercise in creative robbing of a Skywave weapons sprue.

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If all else fails, a complete pig-headed refusal to see facts in the face will see us through. - General Melchett

Looking really good now!

I could'nt make out the position of the helipad in the drawing - it is meant to be on the quarterdeck abaft the Tartar launcher, I presume?

Jorit

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Here's Tromp with main gear installed. I've added some deck houses and stuff, removed all but one of the turrets, and installed the stuff. The lattice mast comes from a WEM O-class set. All the other additions are from Pitroad weapons sets. The helipad will be completely aft. I'm still thinking about adding 20mm or 40mm guns with necessary control, and will also add more office space to the bridge. All critique welcome.

_________________
If all else fails, a complete pig-headed refusal to see facts in the face will see us through. - General Melchett

The reason for two missile guidance units (spg-50??) was to provide two guidance channels as the original missiles were beam riders. Point the units at target and missile rides the radar beam until merging with target.