The Ship Model Forum

Hello
I am working also in the other two classes. Is the boot topping also tapered?

I checked out the drawings in Garzke and Dulin and no taper is shown. But... The drawing for the Iowa's does not show a taper either.

Good question!

A question came up regarding the effectiveness of hollow charge weapons against Battleship armor. Certainly the ability of such weapons to drill a (small) hole through thick armor is not questioned. However much of the armor on an Iowa is interior and the ship is replete with honeycombed compartmentations, heavy shell plating and various void and liquid loaded compartments which I would guess would largely defeat such weapons unless they hit something like the coning tower, turrets or barbettes where the armor is directly exposed.

No - they are completely different and have no parts for WWII components. Your best bet these days for a 1/350 WWII Iowa class is the Very Fire version: http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/sh ... ssouri.htm

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De quoi s'agit-il?

Another bunch of questions if I may.....How accurate are the main gun turrets, direction finders, gun barrels on the modern New Jersey kit ? Do they need to be modified or replaced with say the Model Monkey parts ? I don't have the Tamiya kit in front of me so please excuse me for what might be obvious. Also, does anyone have any thoughts on the Pontos upgrade kit ?

How about a 22' long 1/48th scale all-brass model of the USS New Jersey?
It's in the Atlantic City Expressway rest stop.
https://www.gloucestercitynews.net/clea ... ssway.html

http://www.snjtoday.com/story/35385613/ ... expressway

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Current build logs -
1/72 110' Subchasers as Rum Runners
1/96 Japanese 'Steel Truck'
1/96 12cm pre-Dreadnaught deck gun
1/124 CS Privateer 'Beauregard'
1/124 CS Blockade Runners Pevensey & Ella Warley
1/192 scale whaler PEQUOD

There is a similar one of Missouri in the Honolulu Airport. I understand these were built for radar evaluation.

That is what the two articles (links above) elaborate upon.

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Current build logs -
1/72 110' Subchasers as Rum Runners
1/96 Japanese 'Steel Truck'
1/96 12cm pre-Dreadnaught deck gun
1/124 CS Privateer 'Beauregard'
1/124 CS Blockade Runners Pevensey & Ella Warley
1/192 scale whaler PEQUOD

Thanks Timmy C for that reply. Guess that I'll be building at least 2 1/350 ships, a Modernized NJ and WW2 Missouri I'll have to look into the Very Fire Missouri Kit but I do have a Tamiya NJ kit that I've pulled out of storage. I'm now retired and can give the kit proper attention now that I have the time. I have found a copy of Paul Stillwell's Battleship New Jersey Book which I hope will help reference wise.

Bob

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Currently on the bench: 1/350 USS Indianapolis (1945)
Future builds: 1/350 USS New Jersey Modern, 1/350 USS Missouri WW2, 1/350 USS Hornet CV-8 Doolittle, 1/350 USS Pennsylvania BB-38, 1/350 USS Arizona PH, 1/350 USS Hornet Apollo Recovery

Also, hollow charges are effective egainst tanks because the interior of the tank is small and very tightly packed with killable crew and explodable ammunition. So a small penetration by a thin gas jet has a good chance of killing the crew or setting off the munition. The interior of the even very crowded ships are cavernous by comparison and mostly air (hopefully). A thin hot gas stream cutting through steel has little chance of doing catastrophic damage unless it enters the magazine. A antiship missile with a shape charge warhead that explodes outside Iowa’s belt but cuts through the belt seems unlike to do nearly as much damage to the vitals of the ship as a 16” or 18” APC shell that penetrates the ship’s sides and properly detonate inside the citadel, Except of course the shape charge warhead, in the process of penetrating armor, is likely to do a lot more damage to the surrounding area outside the armor because in a shape charge, only a fraction of the energy is directed towards forming and propelling the armor piercing jet, the majority of the explosive energy will be dissipated as a normal outward explosion.

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Assessing the impact of new area rug under modeling table.

Another problem is the layers. A side shot on IOWA would have to go through three layers of steel to get to the armor. Then it would have to go through a layer of concrete two more layers of steel to get to the vitals. It about 15 feet of penetration that would be required.

In the best case, a top shot would have to go through four layers of armor. In that case the distance is even greater.

On the turrets, the three layers are not spaced, so it would be easier to penetrate. While theoretically, a shaped charge could go through a turret face, it would be hard to do from a fired shot.

The Fritz x was able to penetrate Roma's magazines and also Savannah's. Sinking the BB but not the CL! Not sure how their warhead was configured or what the watertight state Roma was at since they were on their way to surrender.

Modern tanks and warships have some Kevlar incorporated in their protection schemes, anybody know much about this?

While the force was in the Strait of Bonifacio, Dornier Do 217s of the German Luftwaffe's specialist wing KG 100—armed with Fritz X radio-controlled bombs—sighted the force. The first attack failed, but the second dealt Italia (ex-Littorio) and Roma much damage. The hit on Roma caused water to flood two boiler rooms and the after engine room, leaving the ship to limp along with two propellers, reduced power, and arc-induced fires in the stern of the ship. Shortly thereafter, another bomb slammed into the ship and detonated within the forward engine room, causing catastrophic flooding and the explosion of the #2 main turret's magazines, throwing the turret itself into the sea. Sinking by the bow and listing to starboard, Roma capsized and broke in two, carrying 1,393 men—including Bergamini—down with her.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_b ... Roma_(1940)

A radio-controlled Fritz X PGM gravity bomb had been released at a safe distance by a high-flying German warplane and it exploded 49 ft (15 m) distance from Philadelphia. Savannah increased her speed to 20 kn (23 mph, 37 km/h) as a KG 100 Dornier Do 217 K-2 bomber approached from out of the sun. The USAAF's P-38 Lightnings and Savannah's anti-aircraft gunners, tracking this warplane at 18,700 ft (5,700 m), failed to stop the Fritz X bomb, trailing a stream of smoke. The bomb pierced the armored turret roof of Savannah's No. 3 gun turret, passed through three decks into the lower ammunition-handling room, where it exploded, blowing a hole in her keel and tearing a seam in the cruiser's port side. For at least 30 minutes, secondary explosions in the turret and its ammunition supply rooms hampered firefighting efforts.[4]
Savannah's crew quickly sealed off flooded and burned compartments, and corrected her list. With assistance from the salvage tugs Hopi and Moreno, Savannah got underway under her own steam by 1757 hours and steamed for Malta.[4]
Savannah lost 197 crewmen in this German counterattack. Fifteen other sailors were seriously wounded, and four more were trapped in a watertight compartment for 60 hours. These four sailors were not rescued until Savannah had already arrived at Grand Harbor, Valletta, Malta on 12 September.[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Savannah_(CL-42)

Thanks David, I was a little familiar with both scenarios. As I understand it the trailing smoke was to help the individual guiding the glide bomb. In the case of Savanna it was a case of less (armor) is more, allowing immediate flooding to smother much of potential magazine fires. A little like the 18" AP shells from Yamato passing right through the escort carriers without exploding. The accompanying DD's and DE's unfortunately had a lot of solid stuff like machinery taking up much of their length.

Amazing how quickly radial countermeasures were developed!

Cheers: T

don't you mean " radical" countermeasures not "radial" countermeasures?

Radio

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De quoi s'agit-il?

Spel Chequr....

: )

I believe roma’s Touch construction was her undoing. Savannah’s explosion ripped open her magazine to the sea and the flooding prevented her magazine from being detonated. Roma was not able to flood her magazine in time, and it detonated.

I believe Kevlar armor is largely for protection against fragments and kinetic energy projectiles. The Kevlar layers are often added to the inside of tanks to contain fragment that would spill off of the inside of tank armor from non-penetrating hits on the outside. These fragments would otherwise be enough to kill the crew. I don’t believe Kevlar is much use against Heat Or shaped charge explosives.

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Assessing the impact of new area rug under modeling table.

Has anyone seen any plate expansion plan for the Iowa class? I am using primer to build up the overlapping hull plating on the Iowa, but I have no photos that shows how the plating seams are laid out on the bottom of the ship, along with shapes of external sea chest openings.

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Assessing the impact of new area rug under modeling table.

All the sea chests are on the flat bottom and are if I remember correctly shown on some of the general arrangements drawings of the double/triple bottom. The only photos I have seen of them are in the Missouri Grounding Report (available at HNSA) and are generally rectangular with a coarse louvering.

Good Luck!