More ships have arrived in the shipyard in various states of readiness: USS Misssouri 3-4 Libs SMS Derflinger DKM Altmark Dunkerque Richelieu I Richelieu II was having navigational issues and is expected to arrive on Friday. Musashi/Shinano is expected for Saturday. Several other ships remain on detached duty - we hope to see them reassigned to this station this weekend. Most importantly Strike Model's new hybrid action negative pressure operation gun prototype arrived for testing. In a couple of quick comments - it appears to be a significant step forward, and we look forward to it going into full production. It speaks with significant authority and can fire so fast that a single triple 3/16" can ice up the regulator if you fire it way too fast for our ROF limitations, but it takes each subsequent shot with authority, no diminishment in power, so that is to be expected. We are still "oooh'ing and awww'ing, and aha'ing" and appreciate that in comparison to the exact same former gun sold by BDE, it is significantly shorter, only a tiny bit taller, and has a much higher capacity in a magazine of the same size. nice and tight construction with materials that should hold up well. Pondering potential tweaks and passing them on to Stephen. But, bottom line, I think he has about 4 trips and 7 twins sold. More testing will be done, of course. It is our undersanding that this gun, with high tolerance barrels, will also serve the Small.Fast Gun and Treaty crowd. Methinks they will like these puppies, thought they may have to rethink mounting situations in some cases. Also arriving for testing is his new prototype firing switch. This has both fore and aft fire on a single board (or left/right), has greatly simplified hookup (the flyback diodes are built in), etc. It has not been tested thoroughly yet, just looked over. The design appears to make hookup incredibly simple. Lutzow and Indianapolis took of for a gunnery practice against the O'Brien on Thursday as well. The primary cooling stage has been keeping the CO2 liquid for good fills, and we have not yet had to engage the secondary cooling system. All for now - off to breakfast....the steak dinner from last night has finally worn off. Cheers,
RE: 7th Annual NABGO Report #1 (with some thews for treaty Small.Fast Gunners, too) Excellent news. A lot of promising things to look forward too.
RE: 7th Annual NABGO Report #1 (with some thews for treaty Small.Fast Gunners, too) I expect to see photographs of the event, complete with yourself in your Australian battle shirt.
RE: 7th Annual NABGO Report #1 (with some thews for treaty Small.Fast Gunners, too) That is the plan, however, I am currently home sick. Talk about a bummer.....
RE: 7th Annual NABGO Report #1 (with some thews for treaty Small.Fast Gunners, too) Sorry to hear you are unwell, and send the best wishes for a speedy recovery from all here.
RE: 7th Annual NABGO Report #1 (with some thews for treaty Small.Fast Gunners, too) Would that be a big-gun Derf?
Ayep. A Big Gun Derf that is under construction, sadly not completed in time to compete like the Lutzow a few years back. Looking for some of Strike's new turrets to outfit her, but not ready quite in time (and there was other work necessary as well that remained uncompleted, as they left some bits back home, sigh). The Captain was working on cutting the penetration windows when a visitor/guest/probable new member asked if he could give some of the cutting a go. Whipped it out in no time. The volunteer window cutter is a retired machinist who has done parts for 777's, the Memphis Belle restoration, and other strange and "interesting" (read incredibly dangerous) projects like machining solid rocket fuel. Sure knows how to handle a Dremel, too. Sounds like both he and his son are interested in getting involved (his son is a good friend of my son, and it is my son who got me involved in the obsession...). Cheers,
