Floating Drydock Plans - Don't Leave Port Without Them

Product Review: Floating Drydock – Large-Scale Ship Plan Drawings:

1/96 USS Atlanta CL 51 Class Anti-Aircraft Cruisers (1942 fit) – 3 sheets, $35
1/96 USS Greenling/SS213 Fleet Submarine (December 1943 fit) – 1 sheet, $30
1/96 USS Notable AM267 Ocean-Going Minesweeper (1945 fit) – 2 sheets, $20 (also available in 1/48 for $30)

Reviewed By Ned Barnett
Review copies provided by Floating Drydock

The Floating Drydock (http://www.floatingdrydock.com) has been my source for ship-reference materials, especially plans and USN wartime camouflage schemes, since the mid-‘70s (they got started in ’73). Tom Walkowiak remains a prolific writer and plan-drawer, and offers one of the greatest resources available to ship modelers. He carries information books and plans, kits and after-market materials – but mostly, he carries his own creations – books and plans – that are beyond belief.

These sets of plans offer incredible level of detail, as well as remarkable drafting quality. Years ago, I studied drafting when I planned to go to Annapolis (before failing the eye test) – it’s incredibly difficult to do what Tom does, yet he makes it look easy. These are the kinds of plans that make you wish you had acres of unused wall space – you want to hang them up and just appreciate them. But their real value is in modeling. Each fitting is carefully shown – many are also shown in scrap views and blow-ups, and you get side and overhead views to put it all in perspective.

The Atlanta was really more a super-destroyer than what we normally think of as a gun cruiser. She carried a double-load of destroyer’s armament (5” 38s and torpedoes) on a short-coupled Cleveland Class cruiser hull. Meant to fight aircraft, she was out of her league when slugging it out with heavier Japanese cruisers. But the Atlanta was a heroic ship. Vastly outclassed in the Battle of Guadalcanal, she nonetheless gave a good account of herself before succumbing to superior Japanese forces. The night she went down, the Atlanta was painted in a remarkable Measure 12 Modified scheme – and some sources contend that the blotches which broke up her outline were green, designed to blend in with the Guadalcanal shoreline.

The plans do justice to the Atlanta – every detail and fitting is covered in plan-sheets so large I had to use the living room floor to lay them out. Call-outs identify most of the items included (there’s even a glossary of common abbreviations), as well as a few photos of the completed ship. Any modeler wanting to build the Atlanta (or one of her sisters) should grab these plans and mount them over his (or her) workshop table – and get Kinkos to photo-reduce them to your scale for an even more precise reference.

The Greenling was one of the tough little fleet subs that took the war home to Japan, wreaking terrible destruction on her merchant navy – and doing substantial damage to Japan’s fighting fleet (including 8 carriers). The Greenling has one sheet only because fleet submarines are smaller, handier ships with fewer details. However, each detail is caught, and items are labeled for easy reference. Though I can’t imagine wanting more, Tom notes that for those interested, Floating Drydock offers a Gato/Balao Plan Book – and since I’m a sub-modeler (Revell’s new 1/72nd Gato is on my list of “next” models), I suppose I’ll have to succumb to his tempting entreaty. If you model US fleet subs, this plan sheet is worth its weight in gold.

I confess to not knowing much about the USS Notable or her class of minesweepers, though I know they took a hellacious pounding from Kamikazes off Okinawa, but managed to give an excellent account of themselves. These tough little ships carried an extraordinarily heavy weapons-fit – in that they resembled stubby destroyer escorts – but were clearly made for close-in hazardous duty. The two (much smaller than the Atlanta) sheets that cover this ship manage to bring her to life – giving you a sense of the power and purpose of these ships (and the incredible courage of the men brave enough to man them). As with the other, larger plans, these are works of art as well as incredible reference tools. If you’re going to build a minesweeper, you’ll want these plans (even if you’re building another class of minesweeper – the fittings and details are shown with clarity that makes them worth the price of admission).

I strongly recommend these plans, and encourage ship modelers to get the really comprehensive catalogs Tom offers – he has plans covering literally hundreds of fighting ships, each one a valuable resource for those building USN WW-II warship kits.