Has anyone tried to kitbash a Lion class BB for their WW2 fleet?
I have a KGV that can either be the Anson/Howe or attempt to modify into a Lion - as the overall sizes were planned to be similar, the big difference being the main armament. I can use some extra 16" triple turrets from the Nelson/Rodney kit, or some from an Iowa or even an Alaska. The overall design of the UK ships has me leaning towards using the guns off of another UK ship, as the US turrets seem to stand out to me. The problem is fitting a triple turret on the barbette designed for the KGV's super-firing double.
Any thoughts on how to accomplish this? Any alternate ideas on how to convert? Any other UK triple turrets that would work better?
Thanks.
RN Lion Class kitbash?
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cbovill
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It would be crude, but it could be done. But I would recommend using the turrets from the Nelson/Rodney kit. USN turrets would look very wrong. Also, you'll need to file off the degausing cable from the KGV and cut the stern off. For these reasons I'd rather wait for them to produce the Lion, but then she's not high on my list right now because there are simply too many British ships that were built and that actually fought in important engagements that haven't been built yet.
Chris
Chris
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Donald M. Scheef
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I agree with cbovill about the concept of kit-bashing a KGV into a Lion. If you do try this, be aware of the following:
Lion is about 5% longer than KGV with just a small increase in the beam. For a quick kit-bash, this is not a major issue. However, the Lion hull had a transom (squared-off) stern. Just cutting off the stern of a KGV to match the shape would make the model even shorter compared to the correct Lion hull. Also, rather than being longer relative to beam, the model would be shorter. This just wouldn't look right. Lion would have had internal degausing, but the effort required to cut off the external degausing cable from KGV probalby isn't worth the return.
Although the superstructure shapes are similar, there are detail differences. These are probably not worth correcting.
Neither the Nelson/Rodney turrets nor North Carolina/Washington/South Dakota turrets exactly match the turret design of Lion. Based on appearance only, take your pick. For practical reasons, I would recommend Nelson/Rodney because the turret mounting peg is smaller. North Carolina, etc. have much larger mounting pegs that present practical problems in mounting them on a KGV hull. Do not use turrets from an Iowa model - the 16"/50 guns are noticably longer than the 16"/45 planned for Lion, especially considering that the model of the hull is too short to begin with.
Whether you use Nelson/Rodney turrets or North Carolina/Washington/South Dakota/... turrets, there is insufficient room for the 'B' turret on the KGV model. This requires either moving forward the turret or moving back the superstructure. Moving back the superstructure includes cutting back the second deck on the hull and displacing everything else from the bridge aft. This will upset the entire geometry of the midships section. Moving forward the turret either gives too much overlap between 'A' and 'B' turrets or requires moving 'A' turret forward as well. This upsets the geometry of the bow area.
As far as increasing the size of the turret base to match the larger size of the triple 16" turret, this would be a lot of work for a minor improvement in a model that is not going to be accurate anyway. It's not worth the trouble.
My overall suggestion - if you want an interim Lion, just take a KGV hull as-is and replace the turrets with those from a Nelson/Rodney. For 'B' turret, either cut off the mouinting post & glue in place or drill a 1/16" (1.5 mm) hole about 3/32" (2 mm) forward of the existing hole in the KGV hull. Maybe I would glue on some more 8x2 pdr or quad 40 mm Bofors mounts to represet the increased AA that would be expected if Lion were actually completed during the war years. Anything more than this requires a major renovation (e.g., scratch-building a new hull) or is wasted effort.
Lion is about 5% longer than KGV with just a small increase in the beam. For a quick kit-bash, this is not a major issue. However, the Lion hull had a transom (squared-off) stern. Just cutting off the stern of a KGV to match the shape would make the model even shorter compared to the correct Lion hull. Also, rather than being longer relative to beam, the model would be shorter. This just wouldn't look right. Lion would have had internal degausing, but the effort required to cut off the external degausing cable from KGV probalby isn't worth the return.
Although the superstructure shapes are similar, there are detail differences. These are probably not worth correcting.
Neither the Nelson/Rodney turrets nor North Carolina/Washington/South Dakota turrets exactly match the turret design of Lion. Based on appearance only, take your pick. For practical reasons, I would recommend Nelson/Rodney because the turret mounting peg is smaller. North Carolina, etc. have much larger mounting pegs that present practical problems in mounting them on a KGV hull. Do not use turrets from an Iowa model - the 16"/50 guns are noticably longer than the 16"/45 planned for Lion, especially considering that the model of the hull is too short to begin with.
Whether you use Nelson/Rodney turrets or North Carolina/Washington/South Dakota/... turrets, there is insufficient room for the 'B' turret on the KGV model. This requires either moving forward the turret or moving back the superstructure. Moving back the superstructure includes cutting back the second deck on the hull and displacing everything else from the bridge aft. This will upset the entire geometry of the midships section. Moving forward the turret either gives too much overlap between 'A' and 'B' turrets or requires moving 'A' turret forward as well. This upsets the geometry of the bow area.
As far as increasing the size of the turret base to match the larger size of the triple 16" turret, this would be a lot of work for a minor improvement in a model that is not going to be accurate anyway. It's not worth the trouble.
My overall suggestion - if you want an interim Lion, just take a KGV hull as-is and replace the turrets with those from a Nelson/Rodney. For 'B' turret, either cut off the mouinting post & glue in place or drill a 1/16" (1.5 mm) hole about 3/32" (2 mm) forward of the existing hole in the KGV hull. Maybe I would glue on some more 8x2 pdr or quad 40 mm Bofors mounts to represet the increased AA that would be expected if Lion were actually completed during the war years. Anything more than this requires a major renovation (e.g., scratch-building a new hull) or is wasted effort.