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[srcampb]

Has anyone ever seen a definitive picture of how the roof armor on these gun mounts was fixed in place?

I have pretty clear pictures of the turrets on HMS Hood, and of the 16" mounts on both of the Nelson class- both appear to be bolted in place.

My model is of HMS Abercrombie (WW2 monitor) in 1/48, so I better get this detail right!

Many Thanks for any help,

[dreadnought72]

Bolts seems to be right.

Here and here.

[rsm]

It certainly looks like its bolted on in this image (www.steelnavy.com/images/Combrig%20Abercrombie/Aber2307PM36midplan.JPG) in the Profile Morskie book HMS Abercrombie.
You can buy the book here: www.gpm.pl/eng/index.php?akcja=produkt&edycja=696 .

[Colin Bishop]

That's a lot of useful information in your first reference Dreadnought, very interesting.

Colin

[Niall]

The turrets in the Profile Morskie books are not quite accurate. Looking closely at photos in the book Big Gun Monitors by Ian Buxton(Seaforth Publishing) the bolts don't seem to be as pronounced as those on the Hood.

This review is of a more accurate model than the Combrig one -
http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/ships/hms/abercrombie/350-wem/wem-review.html

[Colin Bishop]

I don't know if it is relevant to the 15 inch mountings but after Jutland additional roof armour was applied to the turrets of many British capital ships. Presumably this was bolted on to the existing?

Colin

[srcampb]

Dreadnought-

The pictures of Hood frustrate the heck out of me-very definitive, and very clear. The photographs in "British Battlehips of World War Two" by Raven and Roberts were one of the first examples I saw, and almost what I used.

Same for Nelson and Rodney- The turrets are also bolted, clear as day. Someday when I get around to building one of them (my favorite RN class, by far- unique, historically significant, and great camouflage choices) I won't have this problem.

RSM,

The Profile Morskie books are useful as a class-specific reference, but just slightly suspect in detail (those were the firsty set of hull lines I pored over, until finding the NMM had the actual hull lines available). I already enlarged of their plans to get an idea of how the mount sits on my hull. LOVE how big the turret turns out- gonna be a real grabber at the pond! Thanks for the reference.

Niall,

I have both editions of Dr. Buxton's book- I've even been lookign at the pictures under a magnifying glass out on the workbench. Obsessive? NO, not me!

Here's a thought I had, and would appreciate any thoughts- is it possible the armor attachments were countersunk, and the bolts (my leading hypothesis, too) are flush to the upper surface of the armour?

Once again, all- many thanks for taking the time to respond, much appreciated!

[srcampb]

You know what, I think I'll award Niall the gold medal on this one-

I just went back to look at the Abercrombie's pictures in the second edition of "Big Gun Monitors", and I think I can see (under the magnifying glass) turret armor roof bolts in the picture at the top of page 212.

Close enough for me!  Thanks again, all.

[Canopus]

I believe that like most armour they were bolted on but from the inside. The bolts do not go right through as it would weaken the armour. The side armour of ships is fitted in this fashion. After Jultand additional 1" armour was added to the roof of the turrets and this was clearly bolted on from the outside as an expediancy.

Hood shows this quite clearly as I believe her turret armour was increased after the original plates had been roled/formed. A tell tale sign is a the ridge around the top of the turret as the origianl designs it was all flush to avoid catching the point of a shell. In some WW2 ships the turret armour was bolted from through the outside as a matter of expediency to assist in replacement of the guns as the turret roof invariably has to be removed to lift them out.

Hope this helps

Geoff