[]i just saw teh Bismarck on the BC site. Looks like one of Ralph's hulls. Excellent. That's a fantastic hull. Looking forward to seeing the deck kit. Hmm finally everything in one package. I may be tempted to cut out my Tirpitz hull and get the gun package for it and drive system package. However shouldn't the drive sytem package be for the single drive system instead of the 2 outer shafts? I remeber when I had Swampwork's Bismarck the hardware package was for a single large drive engine direct drive.That made sense and it worked very well. Looking forward to seeing developments on this long awaited and Overdue kit offering from BC. Way to go BC. []Adm Stokomoto
I talked to rick, and they are coming out with a bunch of ships in the near future. keep your eye out for them.
I know. I thought I had one more but it looks like two more. I am looking at one of Bob's QE's when he makes the mold and an Iron Duke. Might as well get the Brits back into the game.
No, No, No! Get it right! The Brits are going UP! (afloat) The Germans are so going DOWN!!!!!!!! (sunk)
Let's see could their be a British Fleet of : Vanguard, KGV, Dreadnaught, A few QE class, Iron Duke and a cruiser or two. German Fleet: Bismark, Tirpitz, Scharnhorst, several Graf Spee Class pocket Battleships.
Hey if you guys come down next year to NATS, and i make it (with a completed ship), you can add another pocket battleship to that number
Thats just a generic picture Curt, when Don and I was looking at the hull the week before last, he has 2 in stock right now by the way, he said it was only going to have the center shaft driven. Using the twin motor gearbox, it will have twin 550 motors with a 14 inch center stuffing tube if I remember right, that way the motors and gearbox do not get in the way of the 2 rear turrets. The motors run cool since there are 2 of them, and give plenty of thrust. Right after Christmas BC will have the Aoba comming out, thats a very nice class 3 Jap heavy cruiser with twin rudders. Curt you will need one of those for sure, not as nice as the Mogami, but close.
Aoba only has single rudder IIRC. Mogami is the only twin rudder IJN CA. I'll look it up in my Japanese cruisers book.
My books shows it as a single rudder also, but some of the guys wrote to some researcher in Japan, Lou VVman was one of them, and they were able to dig up photo's of the Aoba in drydock showing where it was refitted with twin rudders, to give it better turning. They gave all the info to the MWC ship committee, and they decide that the the info Lou and his group provided did prove that it had dual rudders at some time. The MWC lists it as either 1 or 2 rudders to reflect this. But Lou may still have copies of his documentation, again it was before my time.
Hmmm, interesting. They don't mention it in the cruiser book, and no solid images or diagrams as well. Something that I have commonly seen is that as refitted the Aobas were reduced to only two shafts, but my cruiser book clearly shows 4 shafts remaining. Now if only the Tones had twin rudders...
[]Thank God that is only a generic picture. Whew. Good then I know I will be getting that drive system for my Tirptiz yessir. OHHH stop tempting me to cut out that beautiful hull and build it for combat! Anywhoooo.ah AOBA? Nooowayy.. really?... The reason...my first big cruiser was AOBA built completly out of Balsa. I had it for 6 years and sold it back in 1994. At the time I used 1 rudder on it. Far as I know it had only 1 rudder but maybe more research will say otherwise. Either way I am very very familiar with this cruiser and though my first had everything except for a freon source it gave great surface and I got my teething through it. I would certaintly build another one that is more accurate.That means I come full circle in this hobby.. ok SOLD! SHIP #AHH ..ERR ..11..YES 11... am I being presumptous?Yes you bet I am.. heh heh. [][][][}]ADM STOKOMOTO
I think it's great that BC has the Bismarck mold. I can't wait to see what they come up with after the Aoba.
