World Of Warships Tier 7 Richelieu in Type 3 Camo

[Madhatter]

Hi guys

As some of you know, I am a massive WOW fan, and I had built a 1/570 Scharnhorst for my friend who is also an avid player. I had a blast making it, so decided that I'd build a ship for myself. I bought the Flyhawk Konigsberg as well as this, the Trumpeter 1/700 Richelieu. In the game (XB-1 / PS-4) this is the top tier French Battleship (alongside the Jean Bart) and I love it. It's fast and maneuverable for a battleship and it just has that French beauty to it with its raked funnel and those awesome secondary batteries on the rear end.

I used the Flyhawk PE set and the Artwox Wooden deck set. I think PE is wasted on me really. I'm not that good with it, which some of you may find surprising given the small nature of my other stuff, but PE is a very different animal to styrene.
At any rate, it looks like the ship from the game, so that's all that really matters to me there

















The stand was just an exercise on rusting effects. I cut notes out of the top bits to try and make them look like hard rubber.









Suppose I'd better go back to the SD but I am going to finish off the Konigsberg first. Besides, I don't have enough bench space with me working from home now. My work stuff takes up the rest of the space
Anyways, thanks for stopping in and having a look
Si

[NARSES2]

What an earth can you say about that ?

Magnificent, or should that be Magnifique 

[PR19_Kit]

Cor, that's impressive! Both the model and the ship itself. 

So it had two four gun main turrets forward and none at all aft? That's most unusual, isn't it?

I know the Nelson and Rodney were like that, but they were limited by some Treaty as I recall. Was it the same for the Richelieu?

[Madhatter]

thanks guys
Yeah kit, it was. The Richelieu was also limited by the Washington Naval Treaty like the Nelson etc were. The Richelieu basically followed suite from the smaller Dunkerque (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkerque-class_battleship)  ship with it's main battery forward positioning
It's quite an awesome ship in-game. You don't want to be broadside in a Cruiser (or another battleship) against this
I have a Konigsberg to finish as well before I go back to the SD. It too will be in the Type 3 camo (splinter schemes basically)

[Dizzyfugu]

Wow, that's impressive (both the model and the complex paint scheme applied to it)! 

[Old Wombat]

Well done, mate!

WOW is harassing me, trying to get me back playing, but, now I've got my modelling mojo (mostly) back, that's not likely in any big way in the foreseeable future.

[zenrat]

That's lovely.  Almost makes me want to build ships again.

[Weaver]

That looks gorgeous. I like these ships (and their battlecruiser forebears too): if I was building battleships with 20/20 hindsight, mine might be along much the same lines.

Cor, that's impressive! Both the model and the ship itself. 

So it had two four gun main turrets forward and none at all aft? That's most unusual, isn't it?

I know the Nelson and Rodney were like that, but they were limited by some Treaty as I recall. Was it the same for the Richelieu?

The idea with both the French and the British ships was to reduce the length of hull that needed to be protected by the heaviest armour belt, thus allowing them to stay within the treaty limits. The French turrets had a problem with excessive dispersal of shot, which was eventually traced to the projectiles' supersonic bow shocks interfering with each other (not an easy thing to diagnose in the 1940s!). The solution was to introduce a slight firing delay so that barrels 1 & 3 fired at a different time (a matter of milliseconds) from barrels 2 & 4.

Another advantage of the layout was that air facilities could be placed at the stern, well away from the blast of the main guns. The Richelieus originally had a hanger just behind the aft guns and catapults on the quarterdeck, but this model shows the later configuration, where all the aircraft gear was pulled off in order to plaster every square inch with AAA.

[PR19_Kit]

The French turrets had a problem with excessive dispersal of shot, which was eventually traced to the projectiles' supersonic bow shocks interfering with each other (not an easy thing to diagnose in the 1940s!). The solution was to introduce a slight firing delay so that barrels 1 & 3 fired at a different time (a matter of milliseconds) from barrels 2 & 4.

That's fascinating, but how DID they discover the shock wave business back then? Did they even know such things existed?

[I Wiki'd 'Shock waves' and got buried in adverts for hair spray....................  ]

[Weaver]

The French turrets had a problem with excessive dispersal of shot, which was eventually traced to the projectiles' supersonic bow shocks interfering with each other (not an easy thing to diagnose in the 1940s!). The solution was to introduce a slight firing delay so that barrels 1 & 3 fired at a different time (a matter of milliseconds) from barrels 2 & 4.

That's fascinating, but how DID they discover the shock wave business back then? Did they even know such things existed?

[I Wiki'd 'Shock waves' and got buried in adverts for hair spray....................  ]

Well it was 1948 when they figured it out, so there may have been more of a suspicion about the cause by then, based on aeronautical developments. As far as I can see, the fix resulted from at-sea firing trials, so it may have been an empirical process, i.e. they suspected shockwaves, introduce the firing delay, and then played around with it until the accuracy got significantly better.

[Mossie]

Lovely work, paint and plastic both.    

The rigging is pretty fantastic too. 

[Glenn Gilbertson]

That looks magnificent - great job

[Madhatter]

thank you guys - especially you Weaver. That was really interesting to know about the shock wave timing. Very ingenious really
I hear you on the mojo call Wombat. Bets to answer it when it comes around

[zenrat]

The French turrets had a problem with excessive dispersal of shot, which was eventually traced to the projectiles' supersonic bow shocks interfering with each other (not an easy thing to diagnose in the 1940s!). The solution was to introduce a slight firing delay so that barrels 1 & 3 fired at a different time (a matter of milliseconds) from barrels 2 & 4.

That's fascinating, but how DID they discover the shock wave business back then? Did they even know such things existed?

[I Wiki'd 'Shock waves' and got buried in adverts for hair spray....................  ]

Ernst Mach photographed shockwaves around a supersonic brass bullet in 1888.  So, yes.

[PR19_Kit]

1888? 

Amazing, that's very interesting.