HMS Incomparable: Jackie Fishers 6 20 inch gun battlecruiser

[acelanceloet]

just to show you guys that this project is still alive, after a long time pending

I'd like to have comments on the weapons and directors I have fitted.... as most of those were done a long time ago, I don't remember my reasoning about them and I want to make sure they are correct before integrating/completing them in the drawing.

[denodon]

Interesting design I'll have to say. That man did have some rather insane ideas.

Your main guns look like they could do with a larger director to operate them. I'm not sure of the timeframe for this but fully integrated FC was a late development for dreadnaughts. Many at the time solely had telescopic lenses on far arms with a central pivot point. Also those secondaries would have their own directors by this time, usually a single one on either side of the ships superstructure at a high elevation to improve range (as with the main artillery directors). The HA/AA guns would likely still be under local control at this point so they should be fine.

I also get the feeling that the ship would likely have had a flying off deck mounted atop one of the turrets for a single fighter (Sopwith Pup? Not sure) as this ship looks large and fast enough to be used for testing purposes.

[KHT]

YES! YES! This will be glorious!
Only critique so far is that the thickening of the barrels of the main artillery half-way up the barrel looks a bit odd..

[dc1]

That would blow any light cruiser to pieces, unless the cruiser hit first......

[Hood]

My thoughts;
The main turrets look very odd, more like uknown's basic work. A safer bet would be take to the 18in Mk I turret off the new Furious drawing (NOT the RN Weapon Sheet as I've slight made changes to it since then) and resize that. All British turrets have a type of style that is continious until the new triple 16in guns post Great War. At a push the new 16in Mk I turret on the RN Weapons Sheet might be usable but it won't look like a 1915-16 era ship IMHO.

The midships single 4in guns don't seem to have been on the plan (as far as any sketch constitutes a plan of such a nebulus idea), the 4in armament is listed as only being the five triple 4in Mk IX mounts. Therefore I would remove them and put more boats there.

The two 12pdr atop the turrets appear on artists impressions but any blast from the guns is going to make those unusable. Perhaps move them elsewhere on the superstructure?

On directors, those from the Admiral Class drawing and HMS Furious should offer a set of good enough styles for now, I'd add another director to the top of the spotting top on the foremast, perhaps a couple of cupola type directors lower down on the mast.

[erik_t]

Two-gun turrets generally balanced with the face plate at or even overhanging the front lip of the barbette. Wider faceplates associated with three- and especially four-gun turrets generally brought the face plate well back from the barbette edge.

[Bombhead]

A good start Ace. Better guns required. I would use these.

[/quote]

[Vice Admiral MTG]

There's a possible sea battle scenario that HMS Incomparable and two more of her sisters could get involved. In Otto Preminger's movie, In Harm's Way, Operation Skyhook(an fictional version of Operation Watchtower or another addition fictional island objective to the Solomon Campaign) is a success, but the Japanese Army garrison was able to alert their Tokyo superiors of the invasion and the Japanese Navy sends a naval task force consist of (I don't know if this is actual ship count because the movie didn't leave any longer scene shots of the CIC Plexiglas radar plot board of the Japanese task force) 5 CAs, 2 CLs, 8 - 10 DDs and one Yamato Class BB against John Wayne's Rear Admiral Rockwell "Rock" Torrey's Invasion Force of 6 CAs, 2 CLs, and 15 DDs. At first, it looks bad for the Americans, but 6 hours before the battle, a coded message from CINCPAC telling Torrey that a small CB squadron from the Royal British Navy is steaming to their fleet in 90 minutes local time to bolster their defences.

[seeker36340]

Beautiful monster bombhead, but I would have hated to be a 40mm gunner near those guns. But, that was a hazard with many ships that were upgraded with additional AA.

[Bombhead]

Not one of mine Seeker that was drawn by Ashley.