nikomoo

Those triple 20,3 cm turrets are now available in 1/700 scale, so you can try your hand!

I need to dig it out of my stash to tell you more. Actually, I got two kits to upgun the second to 20,3 cm guns. There is also destroyer design by Schichau (also released as 1/700 kit) as well as two alternatives for M-class cruiser (1/700 kits are in preparation).

This is cruiser proposal by Schichau yards, 1/700 kit released as "Berlin" by HP-Models.

This is good old "Umcompleted ships file". Descriprion says this project was inspired by Dido class cruisers and was shelved in favour of Akizuki class destroyers. I suspect 10 cm guns are speculative attempt to depict possible late war modernization. Yes, there are four directors, one per each three turrets. That is alright with 12,7 cm guns layered like on Yamato, but given historical example of Akizuki class destrpyers that were armed with 10 cm guns there was one director per two guns. This makes very sence given improved rate of fire that 10 cm guns potentially had compared to 12,7 cm ones. I concur on parallels with Tenryu conversion plan. Also, take into account initial plan for Kitakami and Oi conversion, as well as actual ultimate refit for them and Isuzu, and Maya, to an extent. It looks like cruiser conversions were thought more in terms of 12,7 cm rather than 10 cm guns.

Well, there are no guns in the kit at all. The kit is craftsman like IHP and Mirage Ocean, there is only hull and superstructure parts. Modeler is encouraged to use spares or dedicated weapon sets to add standard pieces. I also have Japanese warship design book somewhere that shows 12,7 cm mounted on this AA Cruiser design, and I believe that was what IJN wanted if they really wanted it. Newer 10 cm guns were supposedely substituted later by an artist as speculation. I have several ideas about who did that, but that is different story. What bothers me in 10 cm version is the lack of appropriate number of fire directors, let turret weight calculations alone. To our regret, little information survived bombing, so we have to be very careful when something like this cruiser design comes into consideration.

Tzoli, I have W.W.S 1/700 kit of this cruiser concept in my collection, and there is a drawing in instructions showing it with 12,7 cm guns that look like those on Yamato. Comparing weight of those to what you calculated there is huge weight reduction. Might 10 cm guns have been chosen by an artist because they look impressive or just late-war?