Your favorite-looking warships?

[Crossroads Inc.]

Sweet Jeebus/... how could no one mention the Yamato yet?

Just LOOK at it!

And lets not forget my own personal favorite.. the SUPER Yamato ;3

[Frank Hipper]

Yes, that red x is really something else, Crossroads!


Anyway:

Charles Martel, the ultimate in sex appeal.

Nothing, but nothing, says "Suck My Imperialist, Warmongering Cock!" like
the Borodino Class.

More incontrovertable evidence of the beauty of that class.




You're turning the central battery ironclad Devastation on; bend over.




Armored cruiser Rurik, tarted up, JUST FOR YOU!

[Tsyroc]

Pegasus class hydrofoil missile boat, sure it was canned, but it just had a nice look.

I'll second that.

Start the Wagner.



Drug runners beware! Kind of over kill to have something packing 8 harpoon missiles chasing down drug runners but that's mostly
what these were used for. They were primarily stationed out of the Florida Keys.




PHM-2 USS Hercules

I'm pretty sure that while I was stationed in Mayport, Fl I saw every one of the PHMs at one time or another. I might have missed Pegasus but I've seen the others. They kind of move like tug boats when they aren't up on their foils.

They also showed up on our radar scopes doing much faster than their supposed top speed (48 knots). Pegasus_class_hydrofoil

Some other ship types that I saw in Mayport that I liked the look of.


The USS Belknap CG-26

Not my favorite of this type since it only has missile rails on the front,
but I like the low profile of the ship, and I like the mobile missile rails that
are fed from that ramp looking thing behind them.





The USS Leahy CG-16. Kind of like a double ended version of the Belknap. Much better.




The USS Bainbridge CGN-25 a modified nuclear version of the
Leahy class cruiser. Like I said, I like missile rails and I really like the
little "ramp" this class has that the missiles come out of when they get
autoloaded onto the rails.


The USS Vigirginia CGN-38

Another nuclear guided missile cruiser. I really like the clean look of
them. They look sturdy, fast and they have those moving missile rails I
like so much. VLS is so boring to watch.



The USS Mississippi CGN-40 another in the Virginia class.


When it comes to looks I just never was a Tico fan. The big boxy parts they have for the SPY-1 radar make the thing look like too much was shoe horned into the hull. Plus the nose of the things always looked to me like it'd bust off if it hit a strong enough wave. I thought the Spruance and Kidd class destroyers made that basic hull type look much better.

[Raesene]

A good-looking never-were is the CGN 42 concept, even better if the launchers are replaced by a VLS.

[Patrick Degan]

CG-10 awesomeness.

Oh yeah... The old Cold War era Albanys —three converted Cleveland-class ships. Those beauties were in one of the very first Navy books I ever checked out of the library. Always like those ships.

Because the US was unable to build Ships of the Line, they built frigates. But they were the best damn frigates in the world, thick hulled live oak construction and pushing 56 guns.

The U.S. Navy did have line-battleships. The first one, the America, was actually constructed during the Revolutionary War but was not completed before Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown. She was given to France. There were also the post-1812 Independence-class vessels, 74s, and the larger USS Pennsylvania which carried around 120 guns in array but proved a very unwieldy beast to manage. Also very profligate in crew requirements. Line-battleships did not last long in U.S. Navy service and spent most of their lifetimes laid up in ordinary. One which was never completed was the USS New Orleans, which was actually being built to control the Great Lakes during Thomas MacDonough's campaign against Sir James Yeo, but she never made it off the stocks. She sort of lay forgotten for about fifty years before eventually being broken up.


A painting of the Pennsylvania (120) with an American 74 and a schooner.

[Vanas]

I have a soft spot for Hood and the Queen Elizabeth class Super Dreadnoughts and the frankly bonkers Nelson class battleships.


Queen Elizabeth class (HMS Valiant)


HMS Nelson

Modern warships just lack a certain something, in comparison.

[Kitsune]

I like the looks of the Burke class over the type 45...just something almost wrong about the Type 45 appearance to me



For battleships, the Iowa class with its long lines...especially hauling butt



Older, it is hard to say for me.....

[Sidewinder]

My list is based largely on how much damage each ship can cause to an enemy vessel.

Yamato class battleship
Iowa class battleship
Alaska class large cruiser (battlecruiser)
USS Enterprise (nuclear-powered aircraft carrier)

Akula class SSBN (NATO reporting name "Typhoon"; not to be confused with the Shchuka class SSN, NATO reporting name "Akula")

Ticonderoga class cruiser (Aegis cruiser)
Zumwalt class destroyer (DDGG-1000)

[Sea Skimmer]

The USS Bainbridge CGN-25 a modified nuclear version of the
Leahy class cruiser. Like I said, I like missile rails and I really like the
little "ramp" this class has that the missiles come out of when they get
autoloaded onto the rails.

I second ‘VLS is boring’, and I just love the internal magazine arrangements on those early Mk 10/12 Terrier/Talos launchers. You’ve got anywhere from two to four huge rotary drums of twenty missiles each for storage, then an elevator that lifts the missile vertically through auto opening blast doors into a handling space while mounted on a rail. Then men ram on fins by hand, the missile rail angled upward, and then the missile is rammed through the ramp and onto the rail on the actual launcher. You even had a guy in a little armored cupola on the deck to report if a missile fired or needed to be jettisoned.

The later power worked launchers with vertical missile storage are still cool, but a hell of a lot less complicated and with no manual intervention in the loading process.





Missile Handling Space on USS Manhan for her Mk10 Terrier launcher (upgraded to Standard so finning was no longer needed), the blast doors are open and the drum magazine can be seen below.

[Ender]

Keep your head on a swivel, and keep givin' 'em hell.

[Aquatain]

My old ship, but sadly it's impossible to find any good pictures of the old girl.[/img]

[Lonestar]

Yes, that red x is really something else, Crossroads!


Anyway:

Charles Martel, the ultimate in sex appeal.

Wow! That's really....

...uhm.....

yeah.





I actually like the post-Pearl refits of the damaged BBs.

[CaptHawkeye]

Man I love the Standards. It's so awesome to basically watch them evolve from the pre WW1 Nevada to the post WW1 Colorado, and watch the line change radically as it moves along, yet still provide a single homogeneous line of battle. American pre Standards were pretty hokey designs of quality ranging from decent to disastrous. To me, the STs were the first truly "modern" battleships the USN had. No nonsense with incremental armoring, "all or nothing" for the win.

[Simplicius]

I don't care to pick favorites. But two I like that I don't expect to see here are the Clemson flush-deck destroyers:



and the 110-foot sub chasers used in World War I:

[Patrick Degan]

Some of my favourite Civil War ironclads:


Hard to beat the elegant simplicity of the Monitor.


One of Pook's Turtles —the City-class river ironclad gunboat
(USS Cairo pictured)


Ironclad ram CSS Albermarle, which had some fine lines
on her (here depicted following her salvage) —a low, sleek killer

[wautd]

I always liked the Bismarck/Tirpitz. Sleek looking ships and nice paintjobs

[Isolder74]

For my pick of best looking Warship I have to say....


THE IOWA CLASS




My pick for the worst looking warship ever goes to HMS Rodney



I wonder who thought up that one....

[Stuart Mackey]

snip Rodney

I wonder who thought up that one....

Nelson and Rodney are a result of certain design compromises on an existing plan to fit within the 3500 ton limit inflicted by the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, which resulted in two warships that were slow, ungainly with difficult arcs for a third of the main armament and ruined a reputation in RN ships for good looks.

[Thag]

I always liked the New Orleans class cruisers:



The Kongo class battlecruisers are up on my list as well (one of the best looking of the Japanese classes):

[clone1051]

I don't care to pick favorites. But two I like that I don't expect to see here are the Clemson flush-deck destroyers:

Damn. You beat me to it.

I've always thought that Japanese ships could be divided into two categories: really cool-looking ones and really stupid-looking ones.

I also kind of like the J. C. Butler destroyer escorts. The image really doesn't do it justice.

One of these was the first model ship I ever built. The model was much sleeker-looking than the ship in the picture.

[Kronos]

And just for the sheer hell of it, the Graf Zeppelin



The only Nazi aircraft carrier. Ever.

[Rogue 9]

For my pick of best looking Warship I have to say....


THE IOWA CLASS

I concur, and curse you for getting to that image first.

I suppose I'll just have to make do with THIS ONE.

[Stuart]

My old ship, but sadly it's impossible to find any good pictures of the old girl.[/img]

Let me know her name and dates of service and I'll see what I can do.

My favorites for looks were the South Carolina CGNs



Even if it did take two years to get them to work

[Isolder74]

snip Rodney

I wonder who thought up that one....

Nelson and Rodney are a result of certain design compromises on an existing plan to fit within the 3500 ton limit inflicted by the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, which resulted in two warships that were slow, ungainly with difficult arcs for a third of the main armament and ruined a reputation in RN ships for good looks.

Still doesn't explain why the third turret isn't located on the back of the ship where it might actually be useful. The impression I get from the design of the Rodney was to have a ship that "crossing the T' would be mainly academic. Sadly the design is such that Rodney can't fire its third turret forward other then at high angles.

[Falkenhayn]

Takao Class CA's. There's just something very AEGISy about that superstructure, and the fact that like all Japanese WWII ships, if she wasn't bursting with torpedo tubes, she was festooned with guns.





Montana Class. And come on guys, how has it taken this long? I'm especially disappointed in the Iowa Mafia.