Egilman

Thanks Mike.... Making progress.... Finishing up the base assemblies before detailing.....

I can imagine...... Stunning work brother....

Well Done Graham, VERY well done....

So I finally got the starboard side K-guns reinstalled in their correct positions..... Don't have a pic of it simply cause I forgot.... I've set about getting the splinter shields installed in their various locations..... But I do have to note, those Kraken parts are gorgeous, but very very fragile.... wound up breaking the after deck three times.... Twice separating it from the base and once modifying it to match the ship... thankfully it was easily repaired... The recommendation is to cut the stilts at the part then snap off the stilt from the base... but they tended to pop off upwards against the part and snapped the part...... I did inform Matt at Krakken about my difficulties while asking him to send me the 4 extra splinter shields I needed... Then set about gluing it back together.... The freshly repaired part outside of a tiny glue line that will disappear when dry Gator's glue made short work of it.... The repaired part and a surprise that came in the mail.... Matt sent me another part along with the extra shields... Wonderful guy that Matt and and Kraken an excellent company to deal with.... I KNOW I will be doing more business with him in the future... I want to send him more money, but he won't give me his paypal address..... Next up is installing the shields on the midships deckhouse, for these I need to re-create the deck under the shields.... Those pins you see sitting there is a result of some of the research I've been doing.... They are some kind of storage rack, when empty it looks like a stanchion with three flat plates to hold four items each plate.... Right in the center of the picture above.... But this is the USS Kearny, with the Monssen behind her after she was torpedoed during the neutrality patrols in '41... So I had to check and see if the Gwin had them..... They stand out quite a bit... And after extensive searching I could come up with no pic of the USS Gwin with those devices under the machinegun position.... so I looked for her sisters and any other Gleaves class ships that might have it... (see if it is standard equipment in the class) Next is what I came up with, then I found the smoking gun..... USS Grayson, 1941, that big white thing next to the aft stack is the rack with a canvas curtain surrounding it... USS Monssen, 1941, has it as well.... And before the King Board modifications giving it the machine guns... The only broadside shot of the Gwin I have, and I suspect that white block under the aft stack gun is the rack but it is too far to really say.... USS Meredith, 1942, after the Doolittle raid, clearly has them and they are covered with the curtain..... USS Grayson, 1942, again after the raid and she clearly has them as well.... So, at least for all the sister ships that were with her during the raid have them both before and after the raid, I decided that the USS Gwin must have had them as well..... Then a friend of mine sends me the smoking gun pic.... USS Gwin herself 1943 clearly has them covered in a canvas curtain....with two stanchions to either side as well..... more details to install.... In scale they measure about 1/16th inch across and run from the deck to the tub floor.... Still need to add the stanchions and shave them all for the correct height, but I'm getting there.... Slowly..... The forward splinter shields in place, and I see I need to correct the port side on the pilot house roof, it not sitting flat to the deck.... But that's where I'm sitting right now..... At least it's some progress... EG

Not worried brother, trying to get a lot of research done while RL is trying to take all my time.... Finally managed the maze and got the wife shot up, she's feelin a lot better now that she's gotten it and the second one is scheduled.... So hopefully I'll be able to get back to this.... everyone is is feeding the beast but me.... And fast, don't know if I can catch up..... {chuckle} RL issues will pass.... Thanks brothers ALL of you...

The locals automatically understand that, what's funny is those that are new to the area and seeing their first real snowstorm.... OH yes, and slow, everyone either puts away the 4 wheel drives or lock out the hubs.... you nose into a snowbank it might be a few days before you get dug out..... Light pickups or station wagons with multiple sets of chains, real chains not those silly cables they call tire chains today...... Snow shovels and tow chains in the trunk cause you helped your neighbors when they got stuck, everyone pulled together when the white stuff comes....

Up where I lived, near the Canadian border we would get 4' of snow a night for 3-4 days in a row... The second story door was required..... You didn't need snowshoes but they sure made it easier.....

Several decades ago I moved out here, have never regretted it...... I miss the quaint houses with exit doors on the second floor, but I've learned to live with it....

I stand corrected..... The PBJ when first built exclusively used the Bendix 250CE-3 & 4 top turret, it was a partial framed turret.... https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ref/AirGunnery/TURRETS5.html (scroll down for the top turret) There are lots of shots of B-25's with non-framed Everson, (which most of them had when built) or restored postwar with the readily available surplus Martin B-26 top turrets, but the Bendix was also manufactured as a wartime field replacement...... Nevertheless, the original PBJ had a framed forward top turret....

Who was it saying that Japanese Kows don't moo...... That is one mean lookin' machine.....

They also had shrapnel charges as well, invented by a Lt. Shrapnel of his majesty's own in the 1780's....

Round ball fused shot, commonly known as "Bombs" as in "Bombs bursting in air" from the National anthem were around since the 1300's, in the late 1700's the british refined them by adding a sabot, a round piece of wood so the fuse would always face the muzzle when loaded.... lighting the fuse was enacted by the flash blowby in the barrel from the propelling charge.... they were an effective anti personnel weapon but the fusing was completely unreliable only actually working about 40% of the time..... Just before the civil war they went to pointed "Bombs" which were a bit more reliable but still less than 60% effective.... During and shortly after the civil war they went to percussion fuses and detonators which made them 80% effective..... Grenades date back as far as the 1200's.....

Resin aftermarket is my guess....

Yes in fact heated shot was long used by French and British forces, (mostly naval forces) from the early 1700's.... so it's entirely possible that both sides used it..... Below a hot Shot furnace built just before 1800 at Fort-la-latte in France.... In 1792, the Austrian forces besieging Lille used heated shot against the city, which was described as a war crime by the French Republican press. The last known use of Hot Shot was by the ironclad CSS Virginia against the USS Congress during the Civil War successfully setting her afire.... So yeah it's entirely possible.....

Got a pic brother, it is of Kenmore House which was used as a union hospital several times during the civil war, Several of the Battles it was involved in were Fredrickson, The Wilderness , Spotsylvania court house to name a few... It was hit with 11 cannonballs during the war, and this one photo shows the damage resulting from the cannonball penetrating a wood framed roof.... 3x4 timber rafter framing with a 1" board sheathing with a slate roof over that at the time of the war..... You can see how the wood splinters to the inside of the hole and would leave fractured tiles on the outside.... A relatively small hole.....

Well the timbering and lengthwise beams would be the same, but they would nail or peg the slate tiles to the roof, I would surmise that the damage would be represented by a hole surrounded by missing and broken slate tiles, the slate being a dark bluish grey wouldn't show a lot of smoke damage.... I would tile the roof using plates of a suitable material and paint a black spot on the MDF underneath to represent the hole. you probably wouldn't see the timbering cause the timbers would fracture out from underneath the plates leaving nothing but the jagged slate edges..... I'll do some research.....

That era and period it would be a thatched roof, and the day being cloudy and rainy it would have been damp so difficult to really get a fire started, a good dousing would eliminate that threat rather quickly..... Underneath would be timbers making up the sloped form of the roof with cross wise lattices running lengthwise to tie the thatch bundles to..... A good solution would be to cover the roof with thatch and scorch a part of it along one edge feathering the scorch out in a fan pattern, you wouldn't need a hole per-se just a semi circular scorch pattern..... There isn't a lot of information on it, except that the KGL managed to put it out before it did major damage....

Very nice brother, excellent work on the framework... Although the top turret was a solid, built up plexiglass part and would show no framework at all..... (except where the insulators were mounted around the gun barrels) Decided on what decals your going to get yet?

Tank Urban Survival Kits (TUSK) has had two phases Tusk I was the square reactive explosive armor, Tusk II added a few enhancements like the tile shaped charges on top of the square block charges and grid armor to the rear of the tank to improve it's RPG protection... They added a .50 cal to the main gun barrel to add infantry level offensive protection to the infrared targeting system, gun shields to the commander position and several electronics upgrades to make it more survivable in a city environment against irregular troops.... They were first used in Iraq during the first occupation, and upgraded when the insurgents learned how to destroy an abrams with rather crude devices..... (well not so much as destroy it, but render it useless for combat) In places where the threat is more conventional, (normal armor operations against field forces like in Europe) TUSK is not deployed cause it hampers the tanks cross country mobility..... The upgrade kit is TUSK II and you wouldn't see it anywhere except in a city environment....

I agree we are well overdue for several classes of US Cruisers in injection molded plastic.... the Brooklyns head that list....

The Brooklyn class ships were a direct response to the "Mogami" class cruisers of the IJN... (which stunned the world's navies when they were revealed)..... A class of 35+knot ships with 15 rapid fire 6" guns and 8 5" guns... (when the Japanese abrogated the treaty their 6" guns were removed and replaced with 10 8" guns in five turrets in which configuration they served through the war) All designed after the London treaty which limited Heavy cruisers construction and classified cruisers by their gun calibre 6.1 and larger were "Heavy" and 6" or less were considered "Light"...... That was the inspiration for the Brooklyn class...... Very long legged, fast, cruisers that could be used for either commerce raiding or carrier escort as originally envisioned and that could hold their own in a gun battle against any heavy cruisers then in existence..... (given the limitations of the treaty) Of the nine ships built only one was lost during the war, the USS Helena CL-50 to long lance torpedoes..... The last two, the USS St Louis CL-49 and the USS Helena CL-50, were modified Brooklyn's having their antiaircraft armament changed from six 5"25's to 8 5"38's (in twin turrets) The Japanese after the Battles of Savo island and the guadalcanal naval campaign had a nickname for them calling them "Machine gun cruisers" they particularly didn't like them.... Their hulls were based upon the preceding 10K ton New Orleans class heavy cruiser hulls redesigned (longer) to make them faster the only reason they weren't classified as heavy cruisers was the treaty, and as the Japanese action of upgunning their Mogami class to 8" guns showed they were very capable of handling such armament.... Their hulls were the basis of every US cruiser designed from that point forward including the Baltimore class of heavy cruisers and several of the light aircraft carriers (from cleveland class, modified brooklyn hulls) Probably the most capable gun cruisers ever built up to that point in time..... I'm condensing and paraphrasing a lot of Norman Friedman's US Cruisers an illustrated design history (amazon link) here... well worth the read.....

Here's the playlist if your looking for what's available....

Well while yuse guys are giving the synapses a workout, you may want to check out Little Wars TV Here's an example of what they produce.... It is aimed at the wargamer of course.... but their model recreations are excellent....

You got the talent brother.... no question..... I think it's going to look spectacular.....

I agree Lou, after the Hipper Class Cruisers, the St Louis Class and Brooklyn classes are my favorites, followed by the Cleveland class Brooklyn derivatives.... Beautiful ships all.....