RC Artwerks slowly gearing up...

That's OK Tugboat, I wasn't sure who made the Mogami, so I figured I'd ask. I don't blame you for not wanting to duplicate other people's work at all! I guess I'll just have to wait until Ralph comes home.

Mike D

 

Guys,
A few points:

1) 1/144 Mogami - Ralph Coles will be back from Africa in the fall. Mogami is one of his more recent and best hulls. He's uncertain whether he'll continue to make hulls and may sell his molds. I've told him Tugboat is interested but nothing will happen until he's back in Nova Scotia.

2) The reason I made a combined Kent/Canarias hull mold was that they were very close in size. The mold has intermediate dimensions and can 'legally' be used for either by varying the width at deck level.

For those who don't know, the Canarias Class Spanish cruisers were licensed near-copies of the British Kent Class, with the same guns in different turrets, and a completely different superstructure.

Tugboat will be receiving the molds for both types of turrets (they lack the "ears" for the optics, being one piece molds), and the trunked funnels and streamlined bridge for Canarias and Baleares.

I had great fun with my Canarias (now in the US) because it could fight as Allied or Axis. Mine was sunk once in 3 years of competition (due to a ram after a sortie had ended) and did a lot of damage with dual stern guns. The two Kent Class cruisers in NABS were equally hard to sink but not as effective with single bow and stern cannons.

These models have a lot of reserve buoyancy and can take more punishment than 1/144 heavy cruisers with low quarterdecks. Far more staying power than the old Swampworks American heavy cruisers, which tended to have 'unseaworthy sinks' in rough water.

I enjoyed Canarias so much I'm molding parts for another one before I ship the molds to Tugboat.

3) SMS Seydlitz - Around 2005 Ralph made a gorgeous Seydlitz mold and several hulls on commission for David Tuttle of the IRCWCC. To my knowledge David is not making hulls, and might sell the molds. It would be difficult to make a better mold than Ralph's.

4) Tone vs Mogami - They did not have the same hulls, quite different in fact. Ralph has plans for both and considered a Tone hull after his Mogami. There was no interest in Tone at all, probably because of the main armament being forward, and the twin vs single rudders.

5) Invincible - The slightly longer but 1.5 lb. heavier Indefatigable Class hull is available, and the extra room and displacement is significant, especially for battery capacity. It's a lovely hull compared to the semi-scale lines of the old Swampworks I-boat. I think Ralph would sell the Indefatigable mold.

If you want to make an Invincible hull there are excellent hull plans in 'British Battleships of World War I' by R. A. Burt. For Ralph's Indefatigable I scaled up the Invincible cross-sections and modified them slightly to match Burt's Indefatigable side and top views (he didn't include Indefatigable's cross-sections).

6) HMAS/HMS Albatross seaplane carrier - The first hull was made on the weekend and turned out very nicely. Unique appearance and usable as a convoy ship or Class 1 CVE in 'small gun'. I'll take photos to post via the moderator. The mold will go to Tugboat after I've made a second hull for Brett Farquarson in Australia, who provided copies of the actual plans.

7) Russian CL Krasni Krim - The first hull was finished 2 days ago. Great except the plug builder made the 4 gun sponsons too tall. In consequence they extend 1/4" too far down the hull side. Not a big deal unless you're a stickler for accuracy. The excess would have to be cut off to conform to the 3/8" deck stringer 'small gun' rule.

This is a time consuming hull to lay up due to the narrow bow with its two embrasures and 4 casemate guns, 4 port and starboard gun sponsons amidships, and another pair of casemates aft. The ship had a 2 in-line rudders.

I've figured out a fairly easy mod to the hulls to correct the sponson height and will modify the mold (more difficult) if Tugboat so desires.

That's all for now.

Bob

 

A closer examination of the drawings in "Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War" shows your point about the Tone and Mogami hulls. While the text reads that the hull lines are generally similar, the diagrams show that it's not really the case; the Tone's bulges are much less pronounced, and appears as though it would be a FAR simpler hull to sheet then would a Mogami.

As for the Tone hull, although I wish Ralph produced one, I'm probably the only person who would be interested in buying one. He was wise to not spend the time and effort producing one. With the all-forward armament and single rudder there is very little reason to look at Tone at all. Frankly, she's one of the worst heavy cruisers that can be built for RC combat. Under the Washington Treaty rules, she'd be a passable ship; the 35 knots is appealing and I'd be allowed to arm a single secondary as a stern gun. It's not as powerful as dual sterns, but better then dual bows. Realistically though, a captain willing to accept 35 knots and a single rudder would be better off with a Myoko or Takao.

Frankly, I like the Mogami class ships better, but everyone and their brother who wants an Axis cruiser is going to have one in Treaty, so I was going to go Tone instead but now it looks like that won't be an option. Oh well, so much for having an Axis ship!

Mike D

 

Tugboat,
Contact Steve Pavlovsky, Marty Hayes or Carl Camurati on the IRCWCC Yahoo Group - any one of them should be able to put you in touch with David or his father Seale.

Was the $600 book British Battleships of WWI by Burt or British Battleships of WWII by Raven and Roberts? The OOP WWII book usually costs hundreds of dollars for a mint copy but the OOP WWI book has been much cheaper. I paid less than $50 for mine.

Bob