For those renders when a New Orleans class cruiser just won't do. The shipyard has been busy. Here for its first outing is the USS Chicago, a Northhampton-class heavy cruiser. The Northhamptons were 9x8-inch gun "Washington Treaty" heavy cruisers completed in the years between the world wars, like the New Orleans Class. Their tripod masts gave them a distinctive silhouette. I chose the Chicago while collecting reference info for a model of the Yokusuka "Glen" submarine-launched floatplane. The connection was the IJN night-time midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour in 1942. Chicago was one of the plum targets during the raid, but apparently the midget sub that drew a bead on the big cruiser proved too cantankerous for the crew to aim accurately. Not so lucky were the inhabitants of the converted ferry HMAS Kuttabul nearby. Two other mini-subs ultimately ran foul of the harbour defences, but the one that fired on the USS Chicago never made the rendezvous with its mothership offshore... and its final resting place and that of its two crew remained a mystery for decades. It was only discovered in 2006, just to the north of Sydney. Which is probably why no one found it earlier- the rendezvous point was SOUTH of Sydney. Modelled in Shade 10.5 (with searchlights, boats, catapaults and secondary armament borrowed from my Vincennes model). Rendered in Vue 8 Esprit. Thanks for viewing...