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How mdiehl can come up with an all US lineup is beyond me...

I forgot to include CBs. Throwing those in, Hood wins the blue ribbon in the CB category.

Yamato is butt ugly. An ungainly, squat, dull-witted looking thing that looks like somone tipped a pile of office buildings onto a pointy-ended barge. And the German BB entries look like cubist art gone wrong; it makes it worse to know how wholly ineffectual and useless BMs secondary armament were for AAA. Function contributes to beauty in my view, and American ships combine compactness, function, parsimony, effectiveness and elegance.

There are some appealing UK designs. But the thread asked for the best looking, not the runners-up, silver medalists, and those, like Yamato, that could only be competitive in a "special olympics" format.

ORIGINAL: mdiehl

How mdiehl can come up with an all US lineup is beyond me...

I forgot to include CBs. Throwing those in, Hood wins the blue ribbon in the CB category.

Yamato is butt ugly. An ungainly, squat, dull-witted looking thing that looks like somone tipped a pile of office buildings onto a pointy-ended barge. And the German BB entries look like cubist art gone wrong; it makes it worse to know how wholly ineffectual and useless BMs secondary armament were for AAA. Function contributes to beauty in my view, and American ships combine compactness, function, parsimony, effectiveness and elegance.

There are some appealing UK designs. But the thread asked for the best looking, not the runners-up, silver medalists, and those, like Yamato, that could only be competitive in a "special olympics" format.

Wow,again,typical steakhouse opinions.[8|]

The most beautiful individual ship ?? Woof !! Too many really lovely ones out there, but I’m going to have to say So. Dak.

In terms of overall fleet designs, I very much like the elegance of the Italians. German and mid-war US design were very pretty too.

Howard Mitchell has it right: line, proportionality and elegance.

I guess everyone has their opinion on what 'best looking' is.

While I think Yamato had good lines, I personally think the Fuso class battleships were the best looking. Those superstructures are incredible.

Runners up include the Takaos, the Alaskas, Kongos and the Scharnhorst.

If I was to do a 'by class list', It would look something like;

BB: Fuso (Kongo, Yamato, Queen Elizabeth)
BC/CB: Alaska (Scharnhorst)
CA: Takao (Baltimore, Deutschland)
CL: Atlanta (Yubari)
DD: Fletcher (Shimakaze, Sumner)
CV: Taiho (Illustrious)

Italian heavy cruiser Pola.

Best looking?

This One

It's a pity that everybody seems to ignore the French. For my two cents (Note: I'm just rating looks, to my personal taste!):

CV: Shokaku. Nice, clean lines. Maybe Taiho and the British armoured CV's, especially Indefatigable.

CA: Algerie (France). The County-class ships are quaintly old-fashioned, like those pseudo-gothic Victorian public buildings. The Italian CA's have this boxy superstructure that I don't like. The Hipper class look unproportioned; the hull seems too short.
CL: the La Galissonniere class (France). Perhaps Leipzig (Germany), low-slung ship that looked rather more effective than it was.
All US cruisers look merely utilitarian, like pickup trucks.

DD: Close run, but I'd go with Shimakaze (that elegant bow!), Le Terrible (France), Karl Galster (Germany). Maybe the British J class. US destroyers are functional and lumpy rather than good-looking, and the Sumner and Gearing classes look like they're buried under those twin turrets to boot.

ORIGINAL: mdiehl

How mdiehl can come up with an all US lineup is beyond me...

I forgot to include CBs. Throwing those in, Hood wins the blue ribbon in the CB category.

Yamato is butt ugly. An ungainly, squat, dull-witted looking thing that looks like somone tipped a pile of office buildings onto a pointy-ended barge. And the German BB entries look like cubist art gone wrong; it makes it worse to know how wholly ineffectual and useless BMs secondary armament were for AAA. Function contributes to beauty in my view, and American ships combine compactness, function, parsimony, effectiveness and elegance.

There are some appealing UK designs. But the thread asked for the best looking, not the runners-up, silver medalists, and those, like Yamato, that could only be competitive in a "special olympics" format.

you are kidding, aren´t you?

ORIGINAL: castor troy

ORIGINAL: mdiehl

How mdiehl can come up with an all US lineup is beyond me...

I forgot to include CBs. Throwing those in, Hood wins the blue ribbon in the CB category.

Yamato is butt ugly. An ungainly, squat, dull-witted looking thing that looks like somone tipped a pile of office buildings onto a pointy-ended barge. And the German BB entries look like cubist art gone wrong; it makes it worse to know how wholly ineffectual and useless BMs secondary armament were for AAA. Function contributes to beauty in my view, and American ships combine compactness, function, parsimony, effectiveness and elegance.

There are some appealing UK designs. But the thread asked for the best looking, not the runners-up, silver medalists, and those, like Yamato, that could only be competitive in a "special olympics" format.

you are kidding, aren´t you?

StarBlazers version aside, I'm not a fan of the Yamatos either. The Fusos look much cooler.

you are kidding, aren´t you?

Yeah, I was. The Alaska really is a better looking design than Hood.

ORIGINAL: anarchyintheuk

Have to disagree on the Tones. It looked like someone dropped the deuce on the forecastle and didn't pick it up.

Agreed w/ bradfordkay on the Gneisenaus.

Oh, I definitely couldn't agree with that. The sleek forecastle is part of what stood out. The whole ship seemed to have a very low profile.

BB Vittorio Veneto



CA Tone

CL Guiseppe Garibaldi

ORIGINAL: mikemike

It's a pity that everybody seems to ignore the French. For my two cents (Note: I'm just rating looks, to my personal taste!):

CV: Shokaku. Nice, clean lines. Maybe Taiho and the British armoured CV's, especially Indefatigable.

CA: Algerie (France). The County-class ships are quaintly old-fashioned, like those pseudo-gothic Victorian public buildings. The Italian CA's have this boxy superstructure that I don't like. The Hipper class look unproportioned; the hull seems too short.
CL: the La Galissonniere class (France). Perhaps Leipzig (Germany), low-slung ship that looked rather more effective than it was.
All US cruisers look merely utilitarian, like pickup trucks.

DD: Close run, but I'd go with Shimakaze (that elegant bow!), Le Terrible (France), Karl Galster (Germany). Maybe the British J class. US destroyers are functional and lumpy rather than good-looking, and the Sumner and Gearing classes look like they're buried under those twin turrets to boot.

Hit the nail on the head there for me. I like that sort of look about them, almost classical looking in their construction.

Generally I don't really rate most of the US ships either (cruisers or otherwise).

EDIT: Most of the RN CLs, whilst not ugly are not good looking either. The exception to this is the Edinburgh class which is a hideous looking ship IMO.

Well Kumano:)

I say Renown.

For me the Littorios' appearance is spoiled by the oversize X turret barbette.
 
mikemike knows a good ship when he sees one: Algerie.
 
I also find the Kongo a handsome ship class, in final form.
 
But it's hard to beat Salmon and Gluck for looks, even if 11 inch is a piddling main battery calibre.

Algerie with that monstrous tower?

There is a recent Japanese movie about Yamato last action. The effects look good. here's the trailer: http://youtube.com/watch?v=PcxXmfFDXG0

It's all in the eye of the beholder...

Personally, I love the fact that each country had its own design 'look'. As an American, I always loved the look of these two...

Opps couldn't get the picture uploaded.
Well - it won't display -so the picture was Heavy Cruiser San Francisco and Light Cruiser Phoenix [:@]