I got a reply from Blue Bear and he's all for it. I hadn't heard from Staff Jim so I contacted Gun Truck, moderator of the Campaign forum. He says to set up the parameters of the campaign and get 10 or more people who are interested in it, then email Jim to set it up.

So here are my ideas for the parameters. What do you all think.

Name:Unsung Sisters
Topic: Relatively unknown sister ships to more famous ships
Scale: Any scale
Time Period: Any time period
Campaign start date: Here is where I'm unsure. I think campaigns that go from one season to another are easiest to remember. My first instinct is March 21st, or whatever the start of Spring is. Is this time enough to get your kits, and P.E. or whatnot?
Campaign end date: Depends on the start but if we start March 21st then we'll end June 21st.
Categories: Small Scale 1/600 or smaller OOB, Small scale with P.E., Large scale 1/400 or larger OOB, Large scale with P.E. This would depend on how many entries we get, if it's only a dozen or so then we'll just go with a single caterory, or maybe two OOB and P.E.
Prizes: None unless somebody can come up with any.
Judges: I prepose asking some of the forum moderators to judge.

So how about it? Do we have enough people interested in doing it?

For me I want to do the Tamiya 1/700 Indianapolis but as the USS PORTLAND. Two reasons, she was involved in one of the most dramatic sea battles of all time, the 1st Battle of Guadalcanal November 13th 1942 where a US cruiser destroyer force went up against two Japanese battleships. The other reason is the Sweet Pea is the ship that brought my Dad back from Europe in WWII.

Howdy HalfYank!

Boy Howdy! Sign me up! I've already mentally commited to this thing, so, I've got the deck guns loaded and ready for a firing solution.........

Still haven't made my final decision on subject matter, but I'm leaning heavily towards the 1/200th scale Nichimo Yamato. But, I've heard a lot of other good ideas lately.....so, I don't know. But, either way, count me in as the #1enlistee!.......or, actually, that would be #2, since your already signed up. :-)

Tread.

Geeeez, now you've got me thinking (always a bad omen). I have really been considering the 1/350th scale German Bismark, what with the 'dazzle' paintwork and that GREAT big swastika painted on the bow deck!.....But wait a minute, would this ship qualify as a 'sister' to anything?

Tread.

well the Bismarck's sister was the Tirpitz.

That would be the Tirpitz Tread, and thats the one you would want to build. Bismarck is the famouse one.
Same with the Yamoto, it is the famouse half so you would want to build the Musashi for the campaigne ( the lesser ship in the class) I just built the Tirpitz(in my gallery) and she wore a beauifully striking dazzle pattern.

HTH,

Garry

Yeah the Tirpitz, which I think had the same camo, though maybe not the swastika, would follow the spirit of the campaign. The Mushashi would do, instead of Yamato. Lutzow or Scheer instead of Graph Spee, Anson or Howe (sp) instead of King George V and Prince of Wales, Wissconsin instead of Missouri, that kind of thing.

Hey Tread, check out Garry's Tirpitz in his gallery. It's an great example of camo that is designed to make the ship look like something else. The false bow and stern would give a sub skipper a harder time estimating the ships course and speed, therby making it harder to hit.

Great work there Garry.

I'm in Rodger, I will be building the DKM Lutzow, a heller kit in 1/400 scale. She was the under dog of a class of three. Commisioned as the Deutchland, Hitler had her name changed to Lutzow becouse he could not stand the thought of a ship named after Germany being sunk! These were the Pocket battleships, Heavy cruisers with two twinn 11 inch gun mounts. 8 inch being standard for a heavy cruiser. These were the ocean raiders.

Cheers,
Garry

I'd have to say this campaign has caught my interest.
I'm planning on working on a 1/540 Forrestal this spring, and she should technically qualify as an 'unsung sister'
Being the world's first supercarrier, her sisters are USS Ranger, USS Saratoga,
and USS Independence. All saw more combat operations than Forrestal.

Independence was deployed for combat operations in Vietnam, Granada, and Desert Storm.

Ranger was deployed 7 times for operations in Vietnam, deployed for Desert Storm, and for Somalia 1992.

Saratoga was deployed in Vietnam in 1972, Libya in 1985 and 1986, and Desert Storm.

Forrestal was deployed to Vietnam in July 1967.
On the fourth day of combat operations against North Vietnam, a terrific explosion on her flight deck left the men of Forrestal fighting for her life. Almost 200 casualties. The fire ended her combat deployment.
She briefly saw action in 1981 when F-14s from Forrestal intercepted and shot down Libyan MiGs in the Mediterranean.
So, would she qualify?

Peter

Hey can I get in on this with a 1/720 USS Massachusetts. Sister of the South Dakota.
From all the info I can gather she was a ship of some significant firsts and lasts during WWII.

First ship to fire American 16 inch guns in anger sinking 4 enemy vessels and a floating dry dock.

She was also the ship to fire the last 16 shells of WWII bombarding a factory at Hamamatsu.

I would do a bigger scale but all I can find is the 1720 or a waiting list for a bigger vessel. I know there is a 1/350 resin kit out there but right now I just can't spring the $450 price tag.


Thanks
Paul

Howdy fellas,

Damn! The Bismark is out huh? (so, if the Tirpitz is the 'sister' ship, would that make the Bismark the 'brother'? ). Speaking of the Tirpitz.....superb Tirpitz Garry! Really nice looking 'floaty' there mate! And supremely nice paint work as well. :-) Ya know, it's that kind of work that really inspires me to get into this Campaign!
But, the Tirpitz didn't sport a huge swastika huh?............. darn.

Gotta think..........

Tread.

I would be all for a ship campaign...jsut need a model;) `I was thinking of the Tirpitz...hmmm decisons, decisions:)

Sean

Only problem is that the only 1/700 Bismark/Tirpitz available are a little long in the tooth, and hazy on the detail. It would be nice to have a fresh new kit---another thing would be a set of injected detail parts such as 20mm x 1, 20mm x 4, 37mm x 2 and detailed 105mm x 2 Flak guns, ship's boats, hoses, and float-planes/carrier planes. Some of these are available on various brass detail sets, but it requires a lot of practice to work the stuff in micro braille scale.

BlueBear sends

Do we want to limit prospective entrys only to ships that actually put out to sea, or what kind of guidelines do we want to lay down? I have a bit of an idea buzzing around in my belfrey about making over the Graf Zeppelin as the Peter Strasser in arctic dazzle camouflage.

Oooooooh, I really like the sound of "arctic dazzle camouflage"! Which ships sported clothes like that? And do they have any 'sisters'...and if so, what's their number? #:-)

I really like the Dazzle / Inclination / Dispruptive camo paint schemes (I've been doing some reading ) and would like to find a nice subject matter incorporating it. Any suggestions from the gallery? Oh, and it has to be in 1/350th scale, if I work these tired old eyes any harder, I'm afraid they'll just shut off one day!

Tread.

Hi Tread, Tamiya's 1/350 Tirpitz is the only one I can think of that used a artic dazzle scheme. The Deutchland class did, but the kits are in 1/400 scale. Dang it, we just need more subjects in the 1/350 arena !

Cheers,
Garry

I am thinking of doing 1/350 New Jersey if I can con my parents into buying me one.

Warlocke


One of the Japanese companies did 1/700 scale Alabama and Indiana. check on ebay as I don't know if anyone still makes them or even who the campany was. I remember building the Indiana back in mid 70's though

Your preaching to the choir with that one Garry!

Tirpitz huh? No big nasty swastika huh? Are we sure about the big swastika on the fore deck?

Tread.

OK, I get in with DML's 1/350 OHIO Class SSBN, but as the USS Tennessee - Hardly anyone knows the names of the OHIO-class boomers, other than the namesake. The "Silent Service" needs some well-deserved recognition in this campaign Now you would never get me in one, not submerged

Tread - if you want dazzle or some other disruptive camo, then look at US warships in the Pacific. The USN had a wide-variety of camo schemes. When I get around to start my USS Tennessee, BB-43, I am going to do a "blue, black, grey & white" disruptive pattern (Measure 21, I believe) from late '43, early '44.

A good place to start is "modelwarships.com"

Rangers Lead the Way! - except in building ships!

I am a little unclear about the whole campaign thing, do we have to wait until the start date to start building our models or is that when we are supposed to start submitting them?

Also are we restricted on how many models we can submit during the campaign?

Howdy Ranger!

Many thx for the input on the dazzle/diruptive paint scheme sources. And also big kudos go to you for the modelwarships.com link! That place is a treasure trove of stuff. And, more importantly, I was able to put my "big nasty swastika" question to rest. There is a 1/350th scale Tamiya Tirpitz, built by a Mr. Stuart Hill, that shows the that big nasty thing on the fore deck just like the Bismark had!
So, good news for me if I decide on the Tirpitz (except I'll have to remember to take blurry pictures of mine so it doesn't look so bad compared to our good Garry's Tirpitz ).

Tread.

Scunge, yes the idea of a campaign is for everybody to wait until the campaign starts before they begin building. Obviously this is the honor system, there is nothing anybody can do to make you wait, you would only be cheating yourself out of some of the fun. You might go to the Armorama Home page and go to the Campaign section. It will show you what campaigns are going on right now, and some of the ones that have gone on before. You can see the Anchors Aweigh campaign we had last year, and some of the posts that were put up about it. Ideally I'd love everybody who is in the campaign to post work in progress photos, and how to tips, that kind of thing. The campaign hasn't been recognized yet but it looks like we should have enough interest. I'll send Staff Jim a list of everybody who is interested and hopefully it will be added to the campaign docket.

ahh ok thanks, now i gotta wait to build that NJ.

Howdy Scunge,

I think what HalfYank's trying to say is that it's proper modeler's etiquette to wait on beginning your NJ build-up until the start of the Campaign. But, if I may add. The time before the build starts is a great time to assemble research photographs, accurate paint scheme's, ordering aftermarket PE, or resin upgrades, etc, etc. In other words, it's a good idea to invest this time preparing for the word GO! :-)
hth

Tread.