Tugboat, if I could put a single 50-round cannon in the "B" turret position, with about 270 degrees of rotation, that would be great. Archer, that's an interesting-looking cannon there. Does it get any more compact if you just do one barrel? And is there any chance that a two- or three-barrel version might fit in a Emile Bertin? Kevan, I believe that a single rotating cannon will prove more useful than several fixed cannons can. Having fought my own torpedo-cruiser against both fixed-bb-gun cruisers and other torpedo-cruisers, I cannot count the number of times I wished I could stand off 2-3 feet and fire from unusual angles like 30, 60, or even 135 degrees off the bow. While a single bb cannon probably won't sink a torpedo-cruiser in a 15-minute sortie, a destroyer with one can harass and distract several torpedo-cruisers and cut down their effectiveness.
Carl, The tone has 4 twins with 200 round mags, the houston 3 triples with 300 round mags, they were both rotatable but have been fixed in place like a fast gun sidewinder so that they deliver 8/6 rounds in roughly the same place . Takes care of merchies pretty quick and also suitable for rear passe on torp cruisers. These 2 only have guns but a Gearing with 2 of Greg's rotatables & 10 torps together with a 15 gun 12 torp Mogami are in the works. The gun cruisers are close enough in speed to the torp only scipioni africani & Le fantasque to make it more of an even contest for them to get amongst the merch's & even as a BB screen . Regards, Kevan
Jay, Contact me re the rotating systems I used in HMS Courageous and Hood. Mike is right about the system I installed in his Courageous - simple and reliable. I have a 3 channel add-on to my radio that rotated the gun 45 degrees port or starboard via a 3-way toggle switch. I used the same basic design for Hood but installed a lay-shaft parallel to the gun's turntable shaft. 2:1 gears on the shafts increased rotation to 90 degrees to each side. Unfortunately that system went missing after I sold the Hood and it passed though 3 owners. I'm helping Ian rearm the Hood for Treaty Combat - we'll probably make a duplicate rotating system for Y turret. The first system I used for the Courageous used a Tamiya 260 motor and planetary gear system roating the turntable shaft by worm gears. It worked well but took 6 seconds to turn 90 degrees. That was too slow for IRCWCC speeds but might be OK for Treaty. Bob
Thanks Bob, but I have decided to not use a rotate in Scharnhorst, since he worked so well at CANNATS. J
Jay, You're better off with fixed BB cannons. Rotates are interesting but I didn't find them very effective. It's better to get used to shooting from cannons in fixed location on you model IMO. Bob
I agree. During CANNATS I found that the fixed cannons were tricky enough to get into the correct firing position let alone trying to move one from side to side. A pivot gun on a larger ship would be more useful I think. Greg I don't think that elevation control is allowed in fast gun are they? J
Jay Scharnny is not a small ship. I think a pivot gun in your B turret would work just have it switch between two positions such as one side quadrent to the other. at the same angle, you could look down at your radio and see which side the gun is on from the position of the switch. This would lessen the confusion and would give you a little more choice in how you use him.
Yes elevation is allowed in fast guns f. Turrets on any ship having them may pivot. Pivoting turrets can only be used to move guns as permitted within their appropriate quadrants. i. No firing cannon shall be positioned so that it fires at an angle above horizontal. No firing cannon shall be positioned so that it fires at an angle greater than 20 degrees below horizontal.
and it is much easier to set up elevation control. I remember one particular battle where a north carolina decided to tango with my Yamato... After erring and parking itself in range of the dual side mounts, it decided to break off.... He did not realize I had elevation control. and commented after the battle on how I just kept hitting him as he disengaged... I stopped hitting him when he was ~10 feet away. That elevation control got me quite a few good below hits on that NC.
This sounds like something to look into, it could be fun. How did you hook that up? Could you pass on what you have learned? Please, please, please. J
for setting up BC style guns, buy the coiled mags. Solder some 1/4" ID brass tube to a brass rod such that they are parallel. The barrels of the cannons go through here. zip tie or clamp cannons in place to the rod by pulling zip tie around rod past back of breech. Then I clamped a linkage to the barrels and put the rod in a pair of bushings mounted on the top of the casemate. Pull down on linkage, barrels point further down, push up, they go up.
You can take the basic idea of the big gun magazine (the flat plate like mag) and if it is divided up to hold only 50 rounds in each area of the disk and pipes directly to the selector/barrel and has its own fill area it should be ok, this disk/plate magazine would solve your rotate issue. But mounting a BC rotate cannon with a inline-swivel on the gas supply line also works and is not a new engineering feet. a simple waterproofed servo can be used to drive the belt to rotate the gun (modify for continuous rotation)and you have yourself a nice rotate cannon, if you want to get fancy you add a second micro servo and allow the guns to elevate and depress. but make sure you can follow all relevant rules.
Ran onto a part at McMaster & Carr that might be useful for this,PN 4480K11. Check it out. It may be a little bigger than you need, But a compression fitting to 1/4" pipe adapter would solve that. At least it's a lot easier than encapsulating a bearing.
