Japan - Never built IJN ships.

[Colosseum]

Truly amazing work.

[emperor_andreas]

Saweet!

[Gonzo]

here it comes also the Ibuki class Heavy Cruiser.
a further improvement of the Mogami class, based on the hull of suzuya sported a radar suite and aft superstructure similar to that of Tone and a mainmast shifted aft like Takao, torpedo armament was increased to 4 quadruple launchers (it was 4 triple on mogami); the gun's barbettes where designed since the beginning with a roller path of 5 meters (instead 5,7 on mogami, wich was planned as a light cruiser), still the guns of turret 2 cannot be trained below 12° like the older Mogamis.

What sort of radar were the Japanese using at that point in the war? All of the reports on the battles of Guadalcanal made extensive mention of Japan’s excellent optics, but no mention of their radar, except in its absence. Would these newer ships have had effective radar equipment, or would it have been the same relatively limited equipment used on their earlier ships.

[BB1987]

i'm not a great expert on radars (of any navy, not only IJN) but by mid 1942 radars began to appear on japanese ships also, and by 1944 the usual fit was a Type 21 air search on the foremast, one (or a pair on larger warships like battleships) type 13 air search on the mainmast and a one (or two, again on larger warships like cruisers and battleships) type 22 surface search radar fitted on the foremast or near the main guns director; given a possible completion date around 1944 it's quite possible that Ibuki would have sported all three of them.

[Hood]

Lovely, the Ibuki is one of my fave IJN never-weres. Can't wait to see the other goodies this thread promises to provide.

[eswube]

Great work.

[BB1987]

Another entry, this time two preliminar design for the Myoko class heavy cruiser.

the first, dating early 1923, features no torpedo armament (following Yuzuru Hiraga remarks about their dangerous placement just above the engine room), anti-aircraft suite composed of four 4.7-inch (120mm) single guns, and no shelter deck near the bridge; still, the most evident feature is the absence of trunked funnels, a smaller bridge structure and the fire-control platform mounted on top of a tripod mast surmounting the bridge.


the second is the "final" design adopted in august 1923, the bridge structure had changed to reach the shape it will feature as actually built, the spotting tripod was removed and the first two funnels trunked togheter, anti-aircraft armament was still composed of four 4.7-inch (120mm) single guns, no torpedoes where embarked and there was still no shelter deck abaft the bridge. despite beign labeled as "final" the Myoko class appearance will change before their commissioning, the torpedo armament composed of four triple fixed sets above the engine room initially considered and discarded was put back up, and the 4.7 inch guns where increased from 4 to 6; the last addition was the shelter deck added abaft the bridge when the ships where already under construction.

[emperor_andreas]

Great work!

[Colosseum]

You are unfairly good at this!

[eswube]

Yeah. BB1987 - You're just too good.