1:32 scale 16" gun turret

[LSP_K2]

I started this a few years ago, and it's beckoning me again. All in all, a fairly straightforward effort. Base will depict a small deck section for the forward #1 (A) 16" turret. Turret drawing were scaled up to 1:32 from a plans book, and should be reasonably accurate, though far from complete here. Breakwater as depicted, is just faked in at this point. There will be railings, cleats, and all other necessary deck fittings in this area, to represent a 1944/45 time frame. Teak deck, as well as other deck details, will be faithfully reproduced to the best of my ability. Base will be terminated immediately aft of turret to avoid having to begin the raised deck that supports the #2 turret. The 40mm quads and 20mm singles are fore and aft of turret on deck, so shall not be included, though inclusion of the two 40mm tubs fore, is intriguing. I anticipate getting back to this sometime in September, if not before.

 

Rough turret dimensions (in 1:32)


Elevation & plan of assembly:

Deck section/base:

All of these dimensions are to be considered rough at this point, I'll finalize later. The breakwater, for instance, is totally faked here, and no where near accurate. I've already determined with 100% certainty that the breakwater will be the single most difficult item to recreate for this display.
 

[ladder4boy]

Looking forward to this one!! I wanted to do this with one of the main batteries off the North Carolina.. building the mount and doing a cutaway the 3 decks down to the powder magazine loader, etc! If the North Carolina class is the same as the Missouri (main gun dimensions, etc..) or close, i've got some plans of the NC's 16" guns and a section through the turret all the way down 3 decks.. plus pictures i took inside the gun and down below. If you think it'd be useful, i'll copy them and send them to ya. Hell, i may even try to build mine with ya.. that way i'd have someone to steal.. uhm.. i mean, TRADE ideas with! I've got some teak here at the house.. i could plane it down to about 1/16" thick by 1/8" thick (or whatever it scales out to) for ya.. just a thought!

 

Clearing my plate for September..

 

Jerry

[LSP_K2]

Looking forward to this one!! I wanted to do this with one of the main batteries off the North Carolina.. building the mount and doing a cutaway the 3 decks down to the powder magazine loader, etc! If the North Carolina class is the same as the Missouri (main gun dimensions, etc..) or close, i've got some plans of the NC's 16" guns and a section through the turret all the way down 3 decks.. plus pictures i took inside the gun and down below. If you think it'd be useful, i'll copy them and send them to ya. Hell, i may even try to build mine with ya.. that way i'd have someone to steal.. uhm.. i mean, TRADE ideas with! I've got some teak here at the house.. i could plane it down to about 1/16" thick by 1/8" thick (or whatever it scales out to) for ya.. just a thought!

 

Clearing my plate for September..

 

Jerry

I considered a cutaway, but that would be an incredible amount of work to make look right. As to the teak, I'll definitely keep that in mind; thanks. My goals for september are to finish my Nieuport, Big Boy, and F-100. If these are all complete, I'll be set to rock on this baby, (as well as a couple of other projects).

[LSP_K2]

It shouldn't be all that long now; all sheet plastic for this effort has been ordered, and is on its way to me now. Once it arrives, I can begin forming the teak deck and continuing work on the turret. I'll be ordering this book very soon to add to my already beefy supply of Iowa class battleship data.

[spacewolf]

Oh my ...this will be one to watch ! What an awesome project !

 

 

Vaughn

[LSP_K2]

Well I'm off to a grand start; proportions of this shell hoist boom arm are way off. Looks like I'll have to build another. (I was in too big of a hurry, as usual.)

[LSP_Ron]

Kevin, I hate to say it but I don't think the plans you are using are accurate. My first trade is a Draftsman and these plans are lacking in the simplest of rules. Lines from plan to elevation should project to each other. In these plans they do not. I've highlighted a few examples in red below. Also, there are features in elevation that are not in plan. I've shown these circled in blue. Sometimes things like this are omitted for clarity but should be mentioned on the drawing. In this case no mention. I would also argue the guns appear seriously under scale but that's a Mk1 eyeball call, I did not measure them then calculate that measure against called out measures to see if they are scale. They just look small in diameter. Anyway, I just wanted to point out that you may want to question these plans before committing cash money on building against them.

 

HTH

 

 

Cheers

 

Ron

 

[LSP_K2]

 

 

Kevin, I hate to say it but I don't think the plans you are using are accurate. My first trade is a Draftsman and these plans are lacking in the simplest of rules. Lines from plan to elevation should project to each other. In these plans they do not. I've highlighted a few examples in red below. Also, there are features in elevation that are not in plan. I've shown these circled in blue. Sometimes things like this are omitted for clarity but should be mentioned on the drawing. In this case no mention. I would also argue the guns appear seriously under scale but that's a Mk1 eyeball call, I did not measure them then calculate that measure against called out measures to see if they are scale. They just look small in diameter. Anyway, I just wanted to point out that you may want to question these plans before committing cash money on building against them.

HTH


Cheers

Ron

OK Ron, while your concerns are completely understandable, let me assure you that those are not builders plans, but CAD drawings I created myself simply to illustrate/explore the concept, never having been meant to be accurate or complete. When I stated in post #1 they were scaled up from a plans book, I should also have stated that they were then drawn by me to reflect those overall proportions, (hindsight is so wonderful). That having been said, those drawings should have more closely followed the standard rules of orthographic projection, but were not, as I just wanted to illustrate the concept, as well as develop an idea of how much sheet plastic I'd need to pull this off. There are a few other issues; no bloomers depicted in plan, turntable diameter way off in elevation (the turntable, for lack of a better word, doesn't extend near so far aft as I have depicted it), etc.



As to the guns, the 16" dia bore does at least reflect a 16" dia bore in 1:32 scale, and everything else was proportionalized from that.



Also, the red line you depicted aft is not from the corner of the turret, but the furthest point aft on the turret, and that projection is accurate, as far as this drawing is concerned anyway. Again, just an illustration basically. The biggest problem I have, as you can probably imagine, is the complete lack of specific dimensional data. I know the turret overall length (minus guns), turntable axis, trunnion axis, height, and that's about it. The rest is pure guesswork.
 

[LSP_Ron]

Hey Kevin, no worries and no offense I hope?

 

When I read your initial post I got this impression these were scaled up from a book.

 

Anyway, great project. Please keep posting. My favorite subject next to real Cars, LSP is ships with guns!!

 

Cheers

 

Ron

[LSP_K2]

Hey Kevin, no worries and no offense I hope?

 

When I read your initial post I got this impression these were scaled up from a book.

 

Anyway, great project. Please keep posting. My favorite subject next to real Cars, LSP is ships with guns!!

 

Cheers

 

Ron

Nope, no offense. Like you, I've been doing design and illustration work for many years (when I had a job), and I too get frustrated when I see incomplete/erroneous drawings passed off as "accurate". You ought to see some of the garbage I've run across in all the years I've been working with engineering and architectural firms.

[LSP_K2]

For reasons that escape me, my camera seems to be pixelating these images pretty bad, (might be my monitor settings though). That having been said, I've constructed a completely new boom arm that much more closely approximates actual proportions.

[LSP_K2]

Well here's my first (and last), set of bitts. Once I've finessed this set, I'll cast a copy for the other side.

[LSP_K2]

This thing is going to be Humongo! As I suspected, ladders will be a real pain in plastic, so I guess I'll be soldering brass for those. This, naturally, is the front of the turret with bloomer areas roughly marked in. 1:48 George indicates scale of this beast.

[LSP_Kevin]

Otaki/Arii George, Kevin?

 

Kev

[PhilB]

Did I hear you right, a half inch scale bore?

Wow this is going to be awesome!!!

 

Phil