U.S.S. Connecticut - 1/250 Scratch Build

[georgerutherford1861]

So impressive!

Doug

[Michael Mash]

Thank You Doug.

An update: The first two images show the completion of the forward 305mm gun turret.

Connecticut class battleships were equipped with eight 8-inch guns in four double turrets. They were commonly referred to as wing turrets. I want to complete those next. The barbettes are made entirely of card.

The turrets themselves use card for the floor and roof, and paper for the sides. The gun barrels, turret face, and remaining parts will all be made of paper.

The old photo (from Navsource) shows one of the 203mm Gun Turrets (wing turret) aboard the U.S.S. Kansas. I like the field gun in front of the barbette with the spoked wheels.

Regards,
Mike

[CharlieC]

Originally Posted by Michael Mash

The old photo (from Navsource) shows one of the 203mm Gun Turrets (wing turret) aboard the U.S.S. Kansas. I like the field gun in front of the barbette with the spoked wheels.

Regards,
Mike

The gun looks like a 3inch landing gun - the artillery put ashore with the Marines. Its presence on a capital ship wouldn't be unusual at this time.


Regards,


Charlie

[Don Boose]

More outstanding work, Mike.

The field artillery piece definitely looks like a landing gun, as Charlie says. I don't know enough about such ordnance to make a positive identification.

Don

[birder]

Progressing nicely Mike. I like the port side ship picture looks nice and becoming bristled with gun barrels.. I like the nicely coiled ropes in the photo

[Paperclip]

As always, master craftmanship.
Rick

[Beachead]

I seem to keep repeating myself but your work is just incredible!

[Michael Mash]

Charlies, Don, Glen, Rick and Greg: Thanks for the feedback.

Another round of images shows the work and completion of the 203mm gun turrets.
Generally they mirror the design of the 305mm turrets, but with a steeper roof pitch.
They all have rotation capability and are removable.

Regarding the (navsource - after 1909 refit) image of U.S.S. Kansas: Note the devices that look like guns strapped to all the gun barrels. They can be seen particularly well on the 203mm turret on the left. Since that seems an unlikely place to have a small gun, I speculate those are aiming calibration devices?

Regards,
Mike

[Don Boose]

Outstanding work on those secondary turrets and guns.

They look like 1-inch aiming rifles or devices for crew training. See this discussion: https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/...e-what-was-it/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-caliber_training

About 70 years ago, when I was a platoon leader in a rifle company, our 81mm mortar crews used subcaliber devices with similar ballistic characteristics to the mortars for training, and the 106mm recoilless rifles were fitted with sub-caliber aiming rifles that fired tracer rounds.

Don

[Michael Mash]

Originally Posted by Don Boose

Outstanding work on those secondary turrets and guns.

They look like 1-inch aiming rifles or devices for crew training. See this discussion: https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/...e-what-was-it/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-caliber_training

About 70 years ago, when I was a platoon leader in a rifle company, our 81mm mortar crews used subcaliber devices with similar ballistic characteristics to the mortars for training, and the 106mm recoilless rifles were fitted with sub-caliber aiming rifles that fired tracer rounds.

Don

As always, your expertise is appreciated Don. The link you provided was informative, and referenced their use on large naval guns.