The Ship Model Forum

Very good pics! I've never seen some of those, but now I can see there is something like a two lenses stereoscopic device under the black hood and it was not some kind of observation platform as I supposed. the hood may well be some kind of rotating cylinder covering the device when it was not in use, but I wonder why have them it painted black under the Mediterranean sea...
What also makes me wonder is the height of the Barbette base under the RF which seems to be quite high and slender, probably slightly higher then the device itself. With no parapet installed is really stands out! I wonder if I correctly calculated the height of the quadripod, because the top of the Range finder doesn't seems to outreach the top of the 4 legs where the top range finder base starts...
Now, if I try installing the range finders on the platform like I did on a pic above, they seems correct but I came to the conclusion that they were too small...
Looking at the scale drawing I have the height of the structure is correct, so may it be that these RF are smaller then I suspected?
On other, more recent pics anyway, the Barbettes looks pretty squat rated with their height, like if they were inscribed in a cube. I hope they did not changed the whole stuff during one of the re haul of the ship!
I need to do some experimental tweaking of the ones I already made trying to resize them a bit and see what happens before starting with new ones.
I used a smaller Barbette there (about 1.1cm instead of 1.2) and a bit higher then what I've drawn here so may be the problem is an over-scaling of the platform itself...

This one is amazing and very crisp! I'd like to get the "not scaled down" version if it's better and you can send it to me.
You can see the parapet is very similar to the one you find everywhere with a flat profile and two angles. you can also see the shape of the hood which now I suspect is metallic and not canvas. It has the exact size of the central section of the parapet meaning that probably the device itself has that wideness and the lower rail is just to help keeping it dry in case of rash weather.
Also, there is a man sitting beside the device on the other RF, meaning it has to be quite small and that the top object we see on some pics is probably a hatch to get there.

Let me check and I'll post something tomorrow.

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"For the one who walk in darkness with a stick is blind, but the one who sticks out in the dark is... Fluorescent!"

Yes, it's my opinion too. The only observation here is, may be it's not a black painting but some kind of black rubberized material to protect device against humidity and salt.

I sent you a PM about some news informations, please let me know what think about it.

In my sketch I used the same barbette from the original piece, with 9,0mm diameter and cuted with 6,0mm high. To me rangefind itself is about 5,5 mm high, 1,1cm long and 8,5 mm large.

Best Regards,

Ricardo

Ok, I was trying to correct the RF in 3D when the program crashed I lost the changes.
Anyway here is what I came off so far: given the size of the man on top of the RF, I'd rescale my drawing to about, 0.8 for a correct 1/350 ratio.
The upper parapet is just a wave cutter in case of foul weather. there is no room for human inside
The black stuff is a semi cylinder cover which can be moved to enclose the optical device inside.
The water protector has tree section, the forward and parallel one, as large as the device it protects and two folding back until they disappear inside the inclined metal plate. The Water protector has the same upper folded design as the metal parapet on the bridge platform.
The device inside the black cover is a vertical plate in black colour and has two round lenses: My guess is that it is about 1.2m wide
The object visible on top I'd guess is an hatch or there would be no way for the man in the picture to get up there.
Albeit the RF has to be rescaled to 0.8 the height of the Barbette should remain unchanged from the old drawing making it less squat. Whatever happens on the platform, to get the model right, has to be tweaked on the platform itself, adjusting it so that the round base of the Barbette perfectly adapt to the outer edge of the platform.
Tomorrow I'll try rescaling two RF I already built to see how they look

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"For the one who walk in darkness with a stick is blind, but the one who sticks out in the dark is... Fluorescent!"

I did not understand if you realized the black canvas cover is there because there's an opening on the frontal plate, and the windshield is there to protect the lookouts that were under the canvas cover. The RF turret is opened there, to give llokouts a better view and situation awareness.

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Yes Gianluigi, I think you're correct in your observations. Do a mockup with these measures to see if it will look good with the other bridge parts.

Best Regards,

Ricardo

Here is what I came out with so far:

The optic structure on the inclined plate is still missing and so are the black cylindrical cover and the hatchy thing on the top. The proportion with the top of the quadripod seems about right and so is the size of the Barbette (about 11mm).

_________________
"For the one who walk in darkness with a stick is blind, but the one who sticks out in the dark is... Fluorescent!"

I added this image of the front range finder mock up. I don't know what to think of it: it has about the same size of the Side upper RF barbette as it looks like in the photos, but the lower curve on the command tower seems a bit off. In some photos I have it looks about the same radius as the RF above, but this would mean a compete rework of the structure itself: comments?

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"For the one who walk in darkness with a stick is blind, but the one who sticks out in the dark is... Fluorescent!"

Hi Gianluigi,

My observations about your work are:

RF body forms looks fine to me, but I think the front object needs to have some refinishing. For example its front plate looks to be at 90º from the soil at your piece. But seems to me its a little bit slanted at real thing, parallel to the green line I inserted at picture below.



About your question, if you're talking about the contour I pointed bellow.



Looking at pictures, seems to me tower base at this place is the RF barbette body itself, and consequently has the same shape.





But may be you don't need to change the entire base to fix it. Try to cut this area in square form and insert a platicard piece where you can carve the correct contour.

Best Regards,

Ricardo

Thanks Ricardo, at the moment the base of the side RF is just a shape to be refined but you are right and the whole thing seems to keep following the platform instead of keeping a round shape of a typical barbette.
What I was referring in the second post is the shape just under the forward Range Finder, the half cylinder in white which seems to me to be a little oversized. The problem is that I don't have a clue about how to correct it. Once I miss good plans.

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"For the one who walk in darkness with a stick is blind, but the one who sticks out in the dark is... Fluorescent!"

I think I understand you now, you're talking about the objects I pointed bellow. I had the same problem than you and my conclusion was: Is very difficult to represent it in the correct measures without good plans and at this uncorrect kit. As I said you before, to do this kit is not only a question to do parts with correct mesures but we need to conciliate parts too. And to conciliate this RF with the elements around as better I had can did, I had to sacrify in some ways it's correct size. May be I change something before finish it, but I'm sure it will never have the correct measurement or it will never have the near to correct "look together" the others parts around.



When I did it I consider not only it's correct size but the conciliation with the distances from the bridge and from the 2nd gun turret too. I remember too I had to reduce in some millimeters the superstructure base too to put the elements at near the appearence of the distances I can see at pictures.



Best Regards,

Ricardo

Finally something to work with!

Thanks Giampiero!

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"For the one who walk in darkness with a stick is blind, but the one who sticks out in the dark is... Fluorescent!"

Hi Gianluigi,

Very good purchase, I'm sure they will go fine with your Pola.

I'm waiting some pieces from Giampiero and other sources for my Pola too.

Best Regards,

Ricardo

Hello. Bought the same kit to refresh skills. Could you please tell me if you have the picture or a blueprint of how the forward funnel is attached to the superstructure? I have some nice pics from the internet but there is none with a view from the top.

PS The kit is insane. As much as I would tolerate such inaccuracies in my teens as much I hate them now. If I read your thread before, I would go for Trumpeter's Zara

You can make one for 1 Euro !!!

Oups I was talking about vacuum forming machine

Just found this thread. Lovely work. Hope we'll see more.

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