USS St. Louis

This is a model of the USS St. Louis in 1/2400, 1/1800, and 1/1250 scale with versions for .2 and .4mm nozzles.

The .2 Nozzle Profile has a plate for 1/2400 and 1/1800 scales

The .4 Nozzle Profile has a plate for 1/2400, 1/1800, and 1/1250 scales (the .4 nozzle version of the 1/2400 scale model sacrifices some detail, but is almost identical as you can see from the pictures)

Check out my other ships in this scale:

USS Texas

USS Nevada

HMS Carnarvon

In the early 1900s, the United States Navy was transforming from a regional force focused on the waters around North/South America to a global force able to face peer or near-peer adversaries around the world. War with Spain had swollen American overseas assets, the rise of Japan as a major power and potential threat to those assets, and the arms race in Europe prior to the First World War, meant American ships needed to travel far, for long periods, and pack a punch when they arrived. The problem with major transformational change, however, is that the intermediate steps are not always pretty.

Enter the St. Louis class of “cruisers”.  Authorized in 1901 as an improvement over the aging Olympia class protected cruisers, designers soon began to make compromises in the hopes of increasing the vessels range and speed at the expense of armor and firepower. When construction was finally completed in 1905, the original 6,000 ton design had ballooned to 9,700 tons, placing it in the same class as older, more heavily protected, European cruiser designs but without the protection… or turrets… that made those vessels useful ships of the line. This relegated the three St. Louis class ships to convoy escort duty for much of the First World War and fairly rapid decommission afterwards.

A problem I ran into when adding the US Navy to the fast and fun World War I naval miniatures game When Dreadnaughts Ruled the Seas, is the near total lack of printable American ships in their WWI configurations. This meant I had to model them myself. I chose the St. Louis as the “light” cruiser for my forces because it was the lightest cruiser available to the Americans capable of overseas operations. Technically the Chester class was lighter, but it was virtually unarmed and acted more like a scout than a combatant. I also have fond memories of the St. Louis from World of Warships, so, there we go.