germanie's strangest looking ship to me. I wanted to get some opinions of the ship. i found it pretty cool because it had two turrets, one in the front and one in the back facing straight back. ( figure i could get some good shots coming to a ship dead on )
It'd be okay, I like slow boats (like my HMS Invincible). I'd go with double sterns for max damage output.
I have one that I am working on. Probably going to name it Gneisenau as I like that name better. I purchased it as it was the only armored cruiser that was available with a fibreglass hull. I am not quite up to building my own wood hull just yet. Currently working on fabricating the superstructure and already have all the innards save the radio gear. I am going to arm it with 2 stern guns...not sure if I will mount them in the aft turret or the rear casements. Pax, A.
Ken Kelly has a wooden Scharnhorst in the IRCWCC that is just nasty. He armed his with a bow and a stern gun in the casements. Arming the casement guns gives the advantage of running the magazines along the inside of the hull, allowing the center to be dedicated to everything else. Mike D
That was one of the advantages that I see in that arrangement as well. Plus the aesthetic value of not having to gouge the fairly small turrets out to fit the barrels. Pax, A.
If you're doing MWCI, you have to mount the guns in a main turret, can't go in the casements. If you build to IRCWCC rules, that's cool, but you'd have trouble battling in MWC (which is pretty much the only active 1/144 club in FL). You could mount both guns in a forward turret (WWI ships have low bows that'd let you fire in that direction). I would go with the twin sterns, but it's up to every captain
I found that section of MWCI's rules to be unclear. It said you can if the original ship's main guns were so mounted. The main armament of a Scharnhorst Class armored cruiser was 8 8.2 inch guns. 4 in turrets, 4 in casements. Perhaps I am misremembering. Oh well as I have not mounted them yet it will induce no stress in me. pax, a. p.s. Just checked MWCI rules. Section E. 5 says main armament in turrets or casemates...which would clearly apply in this case. N.B. It must be noted that the Scharnhorsts and the Omaha's are the only ships I can think of where this would apply.
Looking for others, but the closest thing I can find is wing turrets. SMS Blucher, HMS Warrior (armoured Cruiser)
I would think that mounting the cannons in the casements would be a better idea because you get the cannons closer to the waterline. That way at close range, you'd be scoring hits nearer to your opponent's waterline than if you were firing from one of the twin turrets. Also freeing up centerline space lets you have a better weight distribution, and thus better turning. Three shafts, two rudders, also good for turning. Its simple superstructure makes for (relatively) easy construction. All in all, not a bad little bugger. You could probably do quite a bit of damage with it.
Not really in this case. The 8.2 casemate guns are on the same level as the 8.2 turrets. It still has the same advantages in freeing up interior space though. Pax, A.
