After Wade’s the Doria structurally is bad shape. She 30 plus years old time has caught up with her. I was eyeing the Littorio in the box.
The Littorio is pretty, but 3 turrets limits your choices in arming her. The rear turret is also located pretty high with the step deck making it not as good as an NC for stern guns. You could go for the funky setup similar to Jeff's Yamato with a sidemount in the rear and first turrets and dual funny guns in the 2nd turret (make the "inside" gun technically a sidemount with the "outside" gun a bow gun with converging angle maybe?), but, I dunno. Interesting, but, I think you'd get shot up more than you shot people up. She is just too long and narrow to turn great, I think. Could try it, I dunno...but traditionally set up with 2 sidemounts up front and triple sterns...not so great. Anything you do a NC can go better and expose less hull to get shot.
I think she can be viable. She certainly has some downsides relative to most popular axis boats, but I think she can match up well against most allied boats. It would require a different battling style - more cruiser-like early in the battle, save sidemounts for self defense or chasing down cripples. If you prefer using sidemounts, probably not a good choice. Allied boats that would be a threat would be well-run cruisers and maybe dual sidemount boats, or smaller sidemount boats if you drive it poorly. To turn, probably need 1.75" props but coverage should be great with the barn-door 6.5" rudder. I'd like to see more of the club move away from the 'not optimal = can't build' mentality, but I'd agree that you should make sure the boat you pick matches your desired battling style.
I battled mine for years, more of a "super-cruiser". I did have fun putting an air piston in the stern tripples that would depress the guns to hit the water about 2-3 inches from the stern. Would back down on ships that were occupied or hurt and get tripple belows. Best looking ship in the hobby in my opinion. Now, you can have dual sidemounts, but you leave one entire side open in that config. A and B turret does not impact the water in the same place/angle, so questionable in that setup. This is the best boat for campaign, with the height of the tripples you can knock down all the targets by shooting over the block ships. Would not have one as a primary boat, better return on time with a cruiser.
Do you have pictures of that air piston setup? From your description, I am picturing that you had a "longer range" down angle and then flip a switch for close-in work, is that right?
My self like every one else wants to be competitive. I do like Italian boats although they have plenty of weakness. At the moment I have three possibilities. 1. buy a new hull for the Doria and transplant her organs 2. Buy Littorio and transplant most gear from the Doria 3. abandoned the Italian food cause and choose a ship that’s more cookie cutter like 24sec less free board, duel rudder option one would get me back on the water sooner option two would take a little more time and $$$ I like the idea of MORE! Units lol. Also Italian boats are not real common in our hobby. building one that is reliable battler is very gratifying when so many steer clear. The Doria held her own at Wade’s this past weekend. Once matt and I dial in the pump she could stand toe to toe.
Dude, what happened to your Doria? It'd take a LOT to put a hull out of action. there's at least one original boat that is still in action.
She’s been around a long time 30 years. I bought it from Johhney who got it from Peter Kunich wife after he passed. I was told Peter got it from someone else. The hull was rough when I got her. I put a lot of time into her installing new ribs most where missing lots of glass work since the glass was so thin in this hull. The deck is built out of wall paneling and the SS is balsa. During my time building her I new she was a starter ship After the battle at Wade’s I new her time was drawing to an end. All the paneling is warping and the balsa has rotted from inside out. Many of my ribs, Backers and armor belt are gone along with fiber glass. I played hard even snuggled up with the Yamato. Doria could be saved but it would take a lot of work and there would hardly be anything left of the original boat. My plan is to save her as is and make a shelf queen. I think time would be better spent on a new hull
I think if you were going to build Littorio to go with the Jeff Yamato style setup. It's different and the dual funny guns would be really effective angled and ranged so if your bow was touching the side of a ship you could shoot ons or belows. Just bring lots of patch material.
There's an idea. Like I did with the sterns in the SMS Schlesien. Wouldn't be easy with traditional cannons, but 3d print some BICs and you're in business.
I'll have to see if I have any pictures of my ship. The air piston let me range the tripples, used a switch on the transmitter to go from flat to 2-3 inches from the stern. As to rotating the tripples, good luck! Not only does everything need to fit in a tall barbet, you will have to have something to angle the gun down. I played around with a cam and springs, another air piston, servo, etc and could not get it reliable. I even made an aluminum barbet and roller bearings (its somewhere here on the site), but at the end of the day I want to be on the water. Littorio would make a fun campaign ship, but in my opinion not a fun primary.
I heard you were very competitive this past weekend, sorry I had to work and miss out on that. In fact 'never seen a doria battled that well' or something like that so I say stick with it, fix the hull, transplant, whatever. The ship actually came from a guy in Houston named Paul (not Paul Block) that passed away and had battle in the 90's I think? Gerald or Dirty Dave may know who he was. I have no idea of the history of that ship for all I know HE bought it from somebody else. My baden had the same paper thin hull so I scraped it out and laid thick fiberglass on the inside and recut the windows. It is faster than ordering and cutting out a new hull, and then put all your time into the Littorio, my .02 cents.
