After shelving the project a few years ago I'm planning to build a hull mold for the Hawkins Class British heavy cruisers this summer. The ships were built with 7 x single 7.5" guns in gun shields; just before WWII HMS Effingham was converted to an armament of 9 x single 6" guns in shields. 1/144 scale 7.5" or 6" gun shields will only cover the barrel nut and end of the upfeed tube. With my cannon design all that will be visible forward of the gun shields will be less than 1" of the brass L-fitting used for the top end of the upfeed tube. The IRCWCC construction rules allow BB cannons that won't completely fit in turrets (or in shields I assume) to be installed in the superstructure. In the case of the Frobisher Class stern guns could be installed in the wall between quarterdeck and forecastle deck, and angled out as far as 15 degrees to either side. However, I don't see a rule preventing them from being in the positions of the actual stern guns, which were in line on the quarterdeck. If 'legal' I plan to have a friend print models of the single gun mounts with shields that will slip over the BB cannon barrels and plug into the deck. The ends of the upfeed tubes will be partly visible where they exit the quarterdeck behind the shields. Would there be any prohbition on installing the cannons in the scale positions?
Looking over the pix of the class and the rules, I see no reason not to do this. I have seen a number of setups that show the breech nut past the "cover" in small ships. esp DD's and similar.
Thanks guys! Both guns will probably be in the scale location on the q-deck, though Steve's set up along the side of the hull is an option: the Hawkins Class had main guns amidships to port and starboard. How effective are those guns Steve?
Don't know yet. My nine year old grandson was battling it on it's first and only battling so far. Needless to say, I don't think he landed that many. I plan on taking it out a few times at Nat's to fool around with. Hopefully this "assault cruiser" can shred some balsa!
I'm curious about whether amidship port and starboard guns trained out 15 degrees and down as far as possible would be effective side to side against another ship. At close range they might have enough power to tear a gash in balsa though at such an oblique angle the BBs might just bounce off. The shallow angle of impact will more than double the effective thickness of the balsa.
Gerald Roberts did that with a Japanese light cruiser many years ago. Don't know how effective he was with that set up but the possibilities would be fun to find out
The Atlanta cannons are punching through two soda cans so you would think they would punch through. I'll be gassing both boats up for gun testing shortly. Might stick the Atlanta next to the Barham for a couple of test shots.
Was not great, only made that one showing... Useless against convoys as he had to get so close to hit them, they would just turn into him and call push.
I think an effective tactic might be a high speed bow on approach while the target is duking it out with someone else on the opposite side.
My first thought would be a cruiser-hunter. It's smaller, faster, and more maneuverable than larger cruisers. You can chase a heavy cruiser, cut inside its turning radius, and have better odds of scoring penetrating hits on it than it will on you. Even if you don't score very many hits, it's a sufficient threat to the cruisers that they won't be able to harrass the larger capital ships.
For me the idea would be patience, wait for a capital ship to be occupied in a sidemount dual and pull up on its other side. Or, wait and wait for the crippled ships or ones on 5 and have at it. But, you will need a lot of patience and the other side cruiser captains will be plinking away at you while you wait. Either way, can't wait to hear how it will do at NATS
if the offset gun idea pans out, it'd be neat-o to see somebody do something similar to a Saint Louis class cruiser. those casemates would allow you to mount dual half units on either side. Also quad sterns, but if you build a second deck set, you could alternate between the two and have it all.
That's how I used HMS Courageous 20 years ago. Under local rules it was allowed 2 x 1.5 unit guns that were in A and Y turrets trained out 45 degrees. Used in a run and gun role and strafing in a fast side to side pass it was more effective than with the original rotating bow gun and dual stern cannons (that I could rarely get on target due to the large turning circle). It was still too long a model with too few turrets.
I'm very interested in how the test shots go. If there's good penetration as far as out 2' that's a viable gun installation imo.
Paging @Tugboat You should see Tuggys Omaha cruiser with quad sterns. If nothing else, looks totally badass
I'm planning to try 4 x 1/2 unit cannons in Krasni Krim's/Profintern's casemates. The original concept was 4 spurt guns in the bow casemates, with intent to use the ship in a base defense role at Nats in Campaign Lite. Drive bow on up to stationary battleships firing at shore targets and fire 4 spurt guns at point blank range. (My spurt gun design fires 5 BBs per shot.) Due to space limitations in the narrow bow the gun installation will have to be changed to only 2 guns forward, with 2 aft; if Steve's gun penetration tests are successful all will be trained out 15 degrees. For regular use Krasni Krim will have normal 1/2 unit cannons, but because the barrels will exit the casemates through brass tubes the cannons can be changed from normal to spurt guns as needed.
I SAW HIS FACEBOOK POST. IT IS AMAZING. I think I screwed up in naming the class. I meant Omaha. my buddy had just finished talking about wanting to build a Saint Louis, so I guess the name stuck in my head
Like the Krasni Krim (aka Profintern) the Omahas have a variety of potential BB cannon placements due to the main armament being in both deck guns and casemates. If I thought it was worthwhile I could put 4 x 1/2 unit cannons in KK's 4 sponson positions amidships, 2 port, 2 starboard. That'll depend in part on the outcome of Steve's firing tests.
