I had never heard of the Japanese "Hybrid" Battleship/ aircraft carrier before. It kind of makes sense.

Actually, the RL versions were more seaplane launcher/tenders rather than full on carriers, they couldn't take deck landings or take-offs due to the limited deck space.

The little scout planes? What about the autogyro ones? or were those later?

Oh yeah, two Japanese battleships were coverted to hybird carriers, the Hyuga and Ise, but they really only could launch float planes, like the "Rufe" fighter and "Jake" scout.

If you haven't seen it already, you should get the Japanese movie "Otokotachi no Yamato" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ3L-ETex-U

I've caught major bits of it, but despite it's dramatic set and story potential, I thought it kind of lame due to the overly melodramatic acting and cheezy effects. Very disappointed that it glossed over some of the key battle bits.

Japanese Blockbusters are always melodramatic. The effects weren't that cheesy, though but some were. Using better effects but even more melodrama was this: (This is the payoff for a movie full of crying and goodbyes. Decent CG, but you are pickier than I am)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czAw.....ure=plpp_video

Scott

Not bad, although I wonder about these all being IJA types? And that they don't believe in closed canopies. The effects here are much better than used in Yamato, where the flying scenes were literally cheezy models on strings (and P-47s at that!).

I noticed the blue painted P-47 but only a few were on strings. Others were RC. The kamikaze film had about the same budget, but did not have to spend it building a wooden mock-up of the largest battleship ever.

I may be doing some four Piper and other destroyers on SL if I can manage the technical issues.

Scott

Have you read any of Taylor Anderson's Destroyermen series? Cross-time adventure with 2 WICKES CLASS DD's in another world ca. 1942. much fun.THE COLONEL

Roz has them, and I have asked. When she can give them to me I'll take a look.

Scott

I think you'll like them. Crosstime adventure, Furries[ cats] Lizard bad guys {really nasty]a Japanese Battlecruiser,and later on crosstime Brits and some really nasty humans who would make the Spanish Inquestion Blush. That is in the laterbooks.The first three are the first story arc. The cover of #2[CRUSADE] Is what got me interested.ENJOY! THE COLONEL

Damn, that's really amazing.

Hmmm ... speaking of squirrels, have you drawn any squirrel characters - especially of the female persuasion?

If not, next month I have a $30 budget for furry commissions. Dunno if that's enough, though.

Squirrel babes? Sure, why not?

Hey Stevie....are we a tad bit bored with drawing? Still, 3 kits at once. I'm impressed.

Three? I'm still noodling on the Roma and the Chinese ironclad as well, and when I find the decals, finish off a 1/32 Raiden.

BTW, what are you using for the decking? They offering scale wood decking as extras now in the industry? Afterall, you can get all sorts of photoetched for damn near anything now.

Aftermarket wood decking is available for most anything nowadays. I could have done it for the Ironclad, for example. But I don't really need it. Have a fair painting technique that does the job. On the scratch-built decks, I get Evergreen sheet plastic with groves and dresses up really good. Instead of getting Yamato-specific aftermarket photo-etch, as it would include a lot of stuff I don't need, I'm using generic IJN railing sets and modifying it as needed. However, I've worked up a technique for doing round the hull railings that involves drilling out stanchions made of thin hard steel wire and rigging it with very fine monofiliment leader. Looks great and is much more durable than photo-etch.

I thought most IJN ships had a rust colored linoleum decking?

Don't know about other class ships, but the Yamato and her sisters had the main deck covered in hinoki cypress timber with the forecastle in friction embossed steel and the stern coated in concrete and only a pair of walkways aft in linoleum with brass hold down edging.

You , sir then have the right of it. Carry on.

Scott

Quite a year to Build Your entire Fleet. Victory at Sea guaranteed.

Yay for scratch-building and kitbashing!

We once did a live RP game at a con for 'Starship Mushashi"!

Heeeeeey-oooooooooooooooooooh!

Heh. I once figured that if I had an EDF battlecruiser, it'd be an Andromeda class called the "Olympia" after Dewey's flagship, still moored at Penn's Landing in Philly!

I like seeing this little adventure in 'What Ifing'.

It's always interesting to see what people can do with alternate worlds... but then one stops to think that there were probably good reasons things didn't work out that way. For instance, those mortars... I hope they were muzzle loaded, as most mortars are.

Needs wave motion gun.

BOOOOO

Uhm, wow....

80 cm gun barrel and breach combined th approx 200 tones. add mount and mechanism... twin mount = ~ 450 to 500 tonnes,ex gun house. 18.1" triple mount = about the sane, again ex gun house. might just work but with really slow rate of fire. About 1 round every 15 minutes or so, assuming firing alternate barrels. And I don't really want to contemplate the effect of that kind of recoil. THE COLONEL

The rate of fire per tube might not be too bad, with all powered handling in a fixed position, but still not great. The extra long recoil travel, more than twice the 46cm gun's should be able to mitigate the worst of it. And Definately single shots, to avoid structural issues.

I was thinking of the whole ship moving! The Yamatos were very stable gun platforms but that much force would have interesting effects, espcially in broad side fire. Would result in a truly respectable roll moment.Maybe, if there was time they would ballast down on the appropriate side to counter act the recoil, like was done with british WW1 Monitors. THE COLONEL

I was of the impression that the impulse of fire was too short to impart roll motion, especially for larger ships, but point loads could threaten related structures.

BTW. You realise that what ou are creating amounts to a 80,000 tonne PRE-DREADNOUGHT?????? THE COLONEL LOL

Just looked at the Tamiya site. That kit runs $400.00!!!! Brave fellow tokit-bash that kind of model, three times over. Can't wait to seethe results.BTW how goes the ROMA and the CHEN-YEUN ??? THE COLONEL

Well, the first hull is actually the OLD Tamiya kit, and can be found for $50-$80 in the local market, the second one was an advance sample from Tamiya (not a complete kit, and free) and the third is the new kit, given as a gift (though local market is closer to $350.) . The full kit is being merely back-dated to the 1941 configuration. I'll likely actually buy one of the things to build in the 1944 configuration. I've been noodling with the carrier version right now, massively modifying the superstructure to raise the Flak 12cm guns and ventilation to clear the flight deck. The Roma and the Chinese ship are langushing, though nearly done.

Did you ever see the plans they came up with for the Iowa class back when they reactivated them? Idea was to take off the rear turret and put on a ski jump style flight deck for Harriers. http://www.steelnavy.com/Nichimo%20.....tlecarrier.htm is a model of it.