HMS Temeraire

[Joe C-P]

FINALLY this is finished, mounted, and photographed. Story to follow.



(Note the "shipyard" in the background. Only two ships have emerged from there so far, but I have plans, literally.)

[Joe C-P]

[Joe C-P]

[Joe C-P]

The inspiration for the model:

[Jschmus]

All that work, and no one's posted any commentary?  Beautiful work, as always!  Does this tie into the stuff you posted last year about raiding cruiser-carriers?  Looks like an Iowa-type battleship with RN-style secondary weapons.  The Corsair floatplane is a nice touch.

[Geoff_B]

Wow looking superb Joe, now thats what i call a British battleship. Looks like an Iowa hull with KGV superstructure and Nelson Armament so i guess that puts it as an early war design when they were designed to fight other capital ships and not become NGS units and AA floating Citadels. Would give the Hindenburg a run for its money. Now doing a Malta to go with it or waiting for Mike Bartels to come out next year (ish) ?.

Cheers

Geoff B B)  

[Joe C-P]

Yes, it's bascially an Iowa hull with KGV superstructure and Rodney armament, with modifications to each.
It's from a different timeline than the USN alternate history. I have the next model in that history all set to begin construction once I finish off the Rotodyne and the USS Saratoga.

Thank you for the compliments!

Here's the backstory:

HMS Temeraire

Before WW2, the Royal Navy had planned a follow-on class of battleships after the KGVs. Armed with nine 16" guns, the Lion class was to be the equal of any other navies' most powerful warships. But having laid their keels, the RN realized they could not afford these ships.

However, the United States had a surplus of new battleships building. The last two Iowa class, Illinois and Kentucky, had been halted only partially completed in favor of aircraft carriers, freighters and landing ships. RN engineers examined the ships and reported that Kentucky could be completed armed with the new RN 16" guns and other armament and equipment, so that a new battleship could be had for the price of a cruiser. FDR agreed to turn over the incomplete ship to the UK.

RN naval architects and engineers adapted the barbettes to take the new model 16" triple turrets, and reworked the 5"/38 locations for RN" standard 5.25" mounts. The superstructure was to be rebuilt in a design similar to the KGV class.

The former Kentucky, now HMS Temeraire, was re-launched in June 1945, left incomplete due to the end of the war. Only HMS Vanguard would be completed, reducing the once-mighty fleet of Royal Navy battleships to a solitary vessel.

Temeraire sat in mothballs with the remaining KGVs until late 1946, when the Soviets launched the first of three 70,000 tonne 16" armed battleships, followed by two 12" gunned Kronshtadt type battlecruisers. The West needed to combat these new threats, and so the battleship would serve for one more war; a long, cold one.

The US retained their four Iowa class, and considered rebuilding the South Dakota and North Carolina classes, but determined the latter would not be cost-effective. Despite the threat of the Kronshtadts, the Alaskas were scrapped, since design studies had established the Des Moines a match for the Soviet BCs, and much less manpower intensive.

Italy was allowed to repair and return Vittorio Veneto and Littorio to service, France completed Jean Bart and even considered restarting Gascogne, and Japan was allowed to restore Nagato, which would be rebuilt to a modified design as the first BBG. Turkey sent the pre-WW1 battlecruiser Yavuz to West Germany for refurbishment and updating, and also took over the USS (District of) Columbia, the captured-and-converted "pocket battleship" Deutchland. Chile and Brazil did the same, the former paying the UK to have Almirante Latorre updated, and Brazil sending Minas Gerais to a US shipyard for an overhaul and upgrade.

In the UK, work on Temeraire was restarted, while the last KGV class, HMS Howe, was given an austere reactivation until Temeraire could be completed. Howe completed only one deployment, a training cruise around the Caribbean, before being paid off a month before Temeraire was commissioned.

Temeraire had undergone further redesign, the 5.25" mounts replaced by six new dual-purpose twin 6" mounts, and most of the lighter AA weapons left off.

The last battleships regularly exercised together, culminating in 1955 with a show of force by the Western allies. HMS Vanguard sailed with USS Iowa and Wisconsin, Jean Bart, Littorio, Vittorio Veneto, and Yavuz in the Bay of Biscay, while in the Pacific HMS Temeraire joined her half-sisters USS New Jersey and Missouri, plus Richelieu and JMSDF Nagato off Hawaii. These were as much photo ops as battle exercises, to demonstrate that the West would have the firepower to match the Soviets in both oceans.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Great back story and I really like what you have done with the superstructure on that mdoel.  It looks quite convincing and that modified Corsair is also a nice touch and great for the small details that make for a good model.  Got to ask a question about one of the RN Battleships that underwent refit here in the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard during WWII.  I don't remember the name right now, but I do recall seeing a model of the ship in the shipyard museum a few years ago.  What class was this battleship and what was her name?  

On a side note, I had an idea or was it a "vision" for a modified Iowa class BB that would be equipped the gas turbine power plants from a pair of the AEGIS cruisers.  This arrangement would take up much less space and still provide as much if not more shaft horsepower in comparison to the original steam turbine power plants.  Due to the kit costs, it would require a lot of disposable income (which I am short of for the next thirty years since I just made my first mortage payment yesterday) and some very serious kit-bashing to pull it off.  The main armament would be the venerable 16 inch gun but with longer barrels to provide even greater ranges and the secondary battery would be the more modern 5.0"/54 caliber automatic weapons in single mounts.  The lighter weapons for close in defense would be the Vulcan CIWS since it looks so much like "R2D2" and some kind of vertical launched missile system that would contain Harpoons, Tomahawks, Sea Sparrows, and Standard missiles in the area that was previously occupied by the tomahawk armored box launchers and the harpoon launchers.  No AEGIS fit, but some kind of rearrangement of the superstructure to give it a better low observable look would also be in order.  Now is anyone up to the task or the cost of the project?

[proditor]

Funny you should ask and make such specific notations.    I hope I do this right...

[Captain Canada]

Cool, Joe !

Love the Corsair...really makes the boat stand out !

And cool BBG........I've got the deck cut for mine, but that's about it    

[proditor]

And in my worry to get the pic thing right, I forgot the most important bit:

That's a seriously beautiful ship Joe!

[elmayerle]

To both proditor and Joe, those are seriously beautiful jobs.  Proditor, I love that FACES II variant you have there.

[Big Tex Red]

Add a Welldeck

Good mix of capabilities.  Has missiles (Vertical Cells, unarmored but a mini arsenal ship) and electronics, large, old fashoned naval rifles, armor (presumably thinner for the AEGIS superstructure), and room for a small VSTOL airgroup.  Lacks a welldeck from which to launch amphibious landings, but this would cut down on armored prortection on the back.  Nonetheless the missiles, aircraft and naval rifles would provide excelent amphibious support.  the ship I someday hope to kitbash will be a combination of a battleship and carrier which will have a longer flightdeck for larger airgroup.  Saw the JMSDF CVDN and unfortunately the Zbir will not fit, something to work on.

[Guest]

BTW what were the scales of the aegis and Iowa (if they were not the same scale).
Forget gas turbines go hybrid nuclear like a kirov

[Guest]

What Aegis did you use to get the white sensor tower?  Saw something like it but could never track it down