Hi everyone,
SeanF:
This
click: Wikipedia entry about East Asian age reckoning supports your statement. Thank you so much for helping out.
Dan:
Problem is, there are so few photos of Mikasa, that I did not spot in any of them what those metal mounts were used for. I checked whatever photo I have in books and online. Seems only the aft turret had that equipment. I found a photo of Mikasa around completion, which might indicate it was there from the beginning. Look at the red marked spots please when zooming in.
- Mikasa around completion Date unknown
SRC: Unknown
I will investigate and report back if I get something substantially worth thinking about.
DariusP:
1. Indeed, but when there was no camera, naval paintings were all there was. For this, I would have expected something else.
2. Thank you for providing the drawing. I know, EJFoeth investigated the
click: inside funnel structure of HMS Hood. He was lucky to have at least one photo at avail, which partly showed what the funnel looked inside.
From my understanding, the metal structure on the funnel top was necessary so the crew could raise a tarpaulin over the funnels to prevent water (rain) to get inside. Other than that, I have no clue why someone would bother to have such a metal structure on top of the funnel.
If I recall right, this tarpaulin was most likely installed, when the ship was at anchor or berthed somewhere as then the funnels were not in use - in terms of heated and venting a lot of smoke.
If I am not totally mistaken by this, then there must have been a way to get to the top of the funnel to install the tarpaulin. Taking some artistic licence, I presume, that inside the funnel there were stairs / a walkway up to the top with possibly a platform there. I assume this, since it would greatly help to install the tarpaulin if someone from inside could help those outside to stretch the tarpaulin over the metal cage. Since HMS Hood and NTK Mikasa were of British design, I assume some similarities at some point.
3. First I am happy you took the time to figure a use for that equipment. I am not confident about them being iron sights though. While an iron sight makes sense with a rifle because you can move the whole rifle to your needs while aiming at a target, it would make not much sense to me on a turret, where only the barrels can be moved but not the whole turret. I am not ruling out your explain though. Maybe some details about the inside of the turrets can give further clues about this idea of yours.
If it is an iron sight, then I assume a kind of notch / device inside the turrets observation station / lookout. Not much room in there though.
3. Thank you for warning me about the Hasegawa kit. I have no plans to correct each and every possible error I may find or read about. It is just a kit after all and sure saves me a lot of research. When done, even out of the box, it will represent more or less the NTK Mikasa.
At the same time I simply love investigating the mechanics of ships, read about their history, reflect their impact on history and alike.
This said, my interest in a kit is many fold whereas the kit itself is just one part of my interest. I never forget warships are not built for aesthetic reasons though.
A while back I wrote a couple of reviews about various ship kits. Those were published online in English and German language. Doing research on the original ships made me fully aware, that one can praise a kit or let it just down at will.
No matter the rating I gave to a kit, there always were a ton of stuff others would call unforgivable errors. That noted, I always had to decide at which point a negative comment makes sense for the audience and at which point to just keep silence. This was truly sometimes a hard decision to make even though I bought the kits from my own money and was not in dept to anyone ever.
This said, I am quiet sure I will correct some of the parts of the Hasegawa kit and maybe add here and there missing elements. For doing a truly accurate and convincing model of the Mikasa though, the scale is not helping much, if I was asked.
Thank you for the superb link. Google translate is getting more and more a kind of friend since I started researching Mikasa in depth.
(inboard view)
