Shipbucket

One of the things I enjoy most about Shipbucket is the wonderful design ideas I get from various shipbucketeers. Among the most intriguing of these was the "HMS Mars" designed and drawn by Bombhead as an anti-aircraft cruiser fitted with six twin 4.5" turrets. As such, I think he really nailed it. Yet, I get to thinking a cruiser should be capable of fighting another cruiser with some chance of success and maybe 4.5" guns don't cut it in that respect (remembering the "Toothless Terrors" - HMS Charybdis and Scylla). I therefore set out to re-arm "HMS Mars" with eight twin 5.25" Mk II turrets and, to help compensate for the additional topweight, I reduced the number of Mk VI directors from six to four.

Besides, the whole thing gives me a chance to utilize another of Kim's sensational badges.

"HMS Bellerophon" (click image for full size):

Very cool! At first I thought it was a bit heavy for the armament but for some reason I read it as 8 guns, not 8 turrets I imagine the barrage fire would be quite ferocious...

Regarding the ocean effect, I can't help thinking it could be improved by some kind of blur effect at the horizon to reduce the starkness of the transition?

BCRenown, isn't that the badge for the battleship HMS Bellerophon (1909)? As Kim has explicitly explained in his excellent CoA-thread, there was a break in the way how the CoAs were to be represented after ca. 1920.

Thanks Rowdy. Your suggestion sounds reasonable enough. I'll give it some consideration. I've already tried the blur tool in Photoshop but it did not work out so well. I have something else in mind tho.

bezobrazov, I am well aware of Kim's thread. Since no HMS Bellerophon that I am aware of was actually built after 1909, I doubt there would be a new badge. I like the old style one and decided to use it on a completely fictional design. Geez man, that post of yours is nitpicking at it's worst. You make it sound like I've broken some law or something.

She's a real beauty!

Great stuff Monty I love what you do with these drawings. There was an official badge released for the ship in 1953 but the ship herself was renamed Tiger during building.

Monty-

Really great ! The subject is also very very reasonable considering all the variations the RH subjected their cruisers to.

Very nice work Monty.

My only concern would be space for the side 5.25in mount magazines. Otherwise this looks a really nice light cruiser and would have been a powerful AA asset well into the 1950s.

Al, thanks for the heads up on the Bellerophon badge. I had no idea there was a newer version. Yet, I think I'll keep Kim's version. I like it better and he did go through the trouble of drawing it. I'm not sure it'll be used, otherwise.

eltf177 & Mike, thanks for the comments guys. They are much appreciated.

James, thanks for your excellent input also. I must admit you've given me cause for concern regarding the placement of the beam turrets. I drew a quick overhead to get a better handle on it and seems there's plenty of room - at least externally. I had some doubt regarding blast effects on the 40mm mounts abreast the aft funnel so I relocated them to the boatdeck.

Meanwhile, I've done some further work on the Bellerophon drawing - replaced the Dido-style turrets with Vanguard-style turrets, some minor changes to detail and added lots of gradients and anti-alaising.

My final version (click image for full size):