Thank you Europete... damn this is a big kit - with almost too much scope for re-modelling and upgrading.
The past week or so has been spent adding details to the turrets and poring over photos trying to make sense of the various fittings.
I started redoing the X-Turret platform and spend most of the last two days building two versions... the Pontos version, which simply doesnt fit (although it looks great!) and a ‘test’ scratch built one, which also looked good, but although it would just about fit, the test showed it wasn’t right. I got the rear deck on the bench and added the after section (with the admirals day cabin etc) to check the rotation of the turret. It was close, but no cigar, even with my scratch built version (the Pontos version wasnt even close...).
Over the past few days this has been bugging me because it simply makes no sense at all. Either the barbettes are slightly too far back (forward, actually, but you know what I mean), or there is something else very wrong here in terms of the other sizes/spaces. I have photos of the X-turret with at least one full square section projecting beyond the rangefinder, with what appears to be two angled plates, one following the cross piece in the platform and butting up against the rest of the turret, angled quite aggressively and running very close to the final support bracket with a further support running across the top of that section onto the turret roof at an angle.
The first picture is a good, clear photo of the platform... and it looks very much like the solution Pontos arrived at, although to get the first end panel plate to end up on the turret rear, as designed, the platform has to sit too far back (the Pontos instructions seem to suggest it should sit on the turret side... which gives you a little less rearward projection, but I dont think thats right at all as far as support bracket layout - not according to the photo anyway).
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File comment: This is a clear picture, and I suspect this is the basis of the Pontos solution... the shapes aren't quite right and the attachment points differ, but everything else is close.
X Turret platform 1.jpg [ 227.72 KiB | Viewed 2063 times ]
Then looking through some more photos this evening (and finally giving up on both the scratch built platform and the Pontos one (and there were several attempts at the scratch built one!) I found this photo, which I hadn't looked at before while researching the X-Turret platform...
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X Turret platform 2.jpg [ 106.99 KiB | Viewed 2063 times ]
This looks pretty interesting. It looks like the rearmost square section of the platform has been removed, as have the two support plates on the rear corner of the turret. Or it could be that the last section is in fact the 'middle' section of the three, the one right under the rangefinder.
What is interesting to me in this photo is there is the possibility that the rear platform section folded back onto the turret roof. There is a multilayered section to the left, on the turret roof that’s appears to be in exactly the right place for this final section to be hinged back 180 degrees. It is far from clear, but there is also what appears to be a line of rivets on the edge of the turret rear, but there is also something that could possibly be a shadow of the hinge allowing the rear section to fold back.
If this is true, then I could use the Pontos platform, cut off the last section and fold the whole assembly back onto the turret roof and remove the supporting plates. This would allow the turret to rotate fully with absolutely no fouling... but is it true? I have no idea.
What is clear though, I think, is there is no additional square section extending beyond the rear of the rangefinder. Also, the support which is really clear, is the inner one, which we know is attached to the turret side (one hole in the plate, not two as in the corner section, and its in completely the wrong place for the angled rear support, so it absolutely isnt that).
If all you looking into Hood concur, I think this is what I am going to do (there are limits to the number of platforms I can make without going totally mad!). I would be interested to hear if EJ or Frank Allen have a better copy of this photo which shows this section more clearly. (Its also good to see yet another photo with the flat section of the splinter shield for the rear XIX 4" HA).
But then there is this photo...
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X-turret platform 3.jpg [ 392.39 KiB | Viewed 2063 times ]
Which doesnt look like either of the previous 2 because of the shadows and the way the supports appear to be a different shape... They are not, as far as I can tell... they are more likely to show that same section, with various bits foreshortened and with the angles looking very different due to the camera position. I think this photo shows the same layout as photo 1...
Which leaves me with photo 2... which I am hoping is what the platform looked like in 1941... with that last section folded back.
Anyone like to comment? EJ? Frank? Got a higher res. version of that photo?
Anyway... to finish off, I thought I would show you the results of my scratch built platform... I thought the Pontos version was too 'flat' on the top part, the visible bit, so I would have remade it anyway.
It looks ok... but I broke it up, so I wouldn't fall into the temptation of using it... I didnt think it was good enough and although shortening the sections and making them square (using the width of the Pontos platform as a starting point) reduced the length considerably, it was still too close on rotation and once the shelter deck was on and the splinter shields in place, would have fouled (it doesnt look like it would in the photo I have added - but trust me, once everything else was tacked in place, it did!)
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File comment: This shows the platform top itself (well, I had to use my new Chopper for something!) compared to the Pontos platform top
IMG_2357.jpg [ 297.14 KiB | Viewed 2063 times ]
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File comment: This shows the rotation arc... it looks like it would clear easily... but it doesnt...!
IMG_2363.jpg [ 135.69 KiB | Viewed 2063 times ]
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X Turret 4.png [ 283.82 KiB | Viewed 2063 times ]
And finally, my scratch built version of the same thing... which I have now removed from the turret and taken apart...
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IMG_2359.jpg [ 103.7 KiB | Viewed 2063 times ]
And here it is with the turret mounted on the barbette... it is
so wrong on so many areas I had to take it apart... the shape of that rear support for example is completely wrong. However, this was really just to see what the platform itself looked like and whether I could get away with it. The rear support shapes could easily be changed had I thought it was a good enough starting point.
But this kit is going to take ages... I want to reduce the number of poor decisions about the build I will come to regret... there will always be some, but I'm just starting, so I had better keep some discipline!
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IMG_2365.jpg [ 143.7 KiB | Viewed 2063 times ]
Anyway... if anyone would like to comment on the second picture and their thoughts on a folded (or removed) rear platform section, I would be delighted to hear what you have to say.