Calling all Charleston-class (LKA) amphibious cargo ship fans

[Guest]

Does anyone know of a 1/700 model of the LKA 113 Charleston Class? I have not been able to find one. Is there a model of anything with a simular hull?

Many Thanks

John

[Tracy White]

Here's the Navsource page on her.

[Van halen 217]

Amphibious transports have always been a long interest of mine and I'd thought to try and build a 1/350 model if one of the last Amphibious transport classes the Charleston herself.... To do this I was going to buy a 1/350 iron shipwrights use Mars AFS-1 kit and convert it to LKA 113 Charleston, no simple feat indeed. Does anybody have any tips and tricks for me before I start this build? Especially on how to cut thick resin that's gonna be on uss Mars. Thanks

[Van halen 217]

Cut away the cargo holding structures jutting out of AFS 1 Mars along her entire deck , other than that that ship is a Charleston class LKA minus the landing craft and booms, and I heard cutting thick resins difficult.

[Van halen 217]

Yeah and Mars hulls a little longer but that's just nitpicking I'm not gonna worry about it, but the rest I'm going to gut, the hangar , cargo stores, bridge ect., I've already scratch built LCM8 craft for my LSD 49, so that's covered.... Thanks for the input and assistance David I'll try to keep this updated.

[Van halen 217]

I was in the process of buying a powered mini circular saw to cut all the resin, but a band saws better? I'm also going to try and carv a shallow vehicle storage bay, below the Landing craft storage areas. Also happy thanksgiving!

[Van halen 217]

A good friend of mine owns a shop with all sorts of heavy equipment , I may ask him if he has that band saw and May actually try to cut this thing now, but since it's resin is there a possibility of the entire model fracturing?

[Rick_H]

Don't know if this is too late for your purchase, but I really like the Ships & Co kit of the Charleston class. The ship is just under 10" long.
Rick

[Van halen 217]

Where is this Charleston kit? And is it 1/350? And a reasonable price? Because for me buying the ISW Uss Mars was my best shot at building an LKA......

[Van halen 217]

Will using a hand held hair dryer do it? Or some serious heat like an open flame? And I think I'm still gonna stick with my original plan for a 1/350 LKA, the 1/700 looks nice but it'd be out of proportion with my planned 1/350 early 90's ARG.

[Rick_H]

Sorry, I should have mentioned that the Ships & Co kit is 1/700.
Rick

[Van halen 217]

It's alright Rick thanks for the information anyway though.

[gtbred]

You have a update on your build?