Shipbucket

I have had these drawings kicking around for awhile, but have not had an AU country yet that I can use them in. I might end up using them for the Commonwealth to replace the A-I Destroyer leaders. They are slightly bigger than the A-I's but with a better bridge and Leader accommodation spaces.

They are based on one of the alternate J Class series I did some time ago.



Displacement: 1700 tons standard, 2300 tons full load
Dimensions: 355 x 37 x 12 feet
Machinery: 2 shaft, steam turbines, 40,000shp,
Speed: 35 knots
Endurance: 6,000 miles at 15 knots
Armament:
(as completed 1930-35)
5 x 4.5" (5x1)
1 x 3" (1x1)
2 x 2pd (2x1)

(dual purpose 1936-40)
5 x 4.5" (5x1)
4 x 40mm (1x2 2x1)

(WW2 upgrades and radar)
5 x 4.5" (5x1)
6 x 40mm (1x2 4x1)

Torpedoes: 8 x 21" (2x4)
Crew: 210 as leaders.

The original 4.5" guns are low angle and are replaced with the dual purpose guns from 1936 onwards. The old Low Angle guns are replaced as those ships go through their refit processes. If I do use these ship for Commonwealth Navies I would replace the twin 40mm with a quad 2 pounder mounting and the single 40mm with twin/single 20mm.

Looks good.
The only thing I would be tempted to change is to make the wheelhouse taller. Right now your wheelhouse, bridge and director are probably a bit low.

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As per Hoods comments I increased the bridge levels, and did the drawings up in a UK/Commonwealth versions.

I think the propellers need fixing. Aren't they a bit large?

But otherwise nice work!

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Nice looking design.

Hi Krakatoa!

Looks like a workmanlike enough design; anywhere outside the open ocean, calibers beyond 120mm make not much sense for destroyers of that era.

What troubles me is the extremely short forecastle. They look like they would be wet as hell (OK, very poor metaphor); contemporary RN destroyers had very long forecastles with the funnel much farther backward, and the farther aft you looked, they looked more and more cramped. Dont' know how the drawings could be adapted to adress that problem, though. Probably the AA mount and the searchlights would have to be relocated.

Greetings
GD

Oh, look at that, UK destroyer designs were notoriously wet forward. None of them had really long forecastles.

All of the UK ship designs during the 'displacement limited' period were much the same. One of the wettest designs of all was the Leander class cruisers. Short forecastles allowed displacement for other factors. The UK was scrupulous in keeping its ship designs within treaty displacement limits, to the detriment of many things, being wet forward was just one of them.

The longest forecastle of the four drawings shown is the Javelin, which had the two twin 4.7" forward and needed a bit more space for the extra weight.



I have no idea what you are going on about with your comment on gun sizes. The drawings I have posted are 117mm/4.5" guns, which I use for my AU in place of the 120mm/4.7" a lot earlier.

If you have a look in the Great Britain never were section I did a series of drawings for the development of what turned into the JKN class destroyers. The designs were provided to me by Smurf. The drawings I did here for the Colour class were based on those drawings.

Hi Krakatoa
That was meant as approval. 120mm is the perfect caliber for a destroyer in that era. I thought my statement made sense in itself - my fault. Next time I try to make the wording so precise that not even someone who wants to feel offended can construe it as offensive.

The forecastle issue remains. I'm not comparing your destroyer to Antelope, which is 350 tons smaller. With the units closer to its size, it compares badly. The whole forecastle deck of your destroyer is 34 meters long; Javelin's is 40,5 meters long, Onslow's 43 meters. A Tribal has nearly 47 meters. The issue is less pronounced for the free deck space between the forward gun and the bow, but yours still has the shortest at 15 meters, against 16,5 meters for Onslow, 17 meters for Javelin, and 18 meters for a Tribal. I'm afraid your destroyer will be the wettest of them - and as, like you said, all are wet forward, this makes yours very wet indeed.

You don't have to defend your choices, you don't have to heed my advice (I certainly don't heed yours) - in AU, anything goes and that's OK. But please consider I usually don't comment on other people's kitbashes unless I see some real potential there.

That's what I mean:


Greetings
GD

Hi K,

One suggestion - I seem to recall that for a lot of lighter combatants one fairly easy and widely-followed practice was for one of the two torpedo mounts to be removed and replaced with AA or ASW gear, depending on the role of the ship.

Have you explored such a possibility for these?

Cheers,
Ad

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