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My Iron Duke will ship out Monday. I'll need to wait to order the NNT barrels for her. There is something beautiful about the lines of a WW1 battleship and the uncluttered deck.
On a side note, I'm to the point in "Castles of Steel" when Jutland was fought. While the losses to the British battle cruisers cataclysmic, the High Seas Fleet really took a beating. It doesn't surprise me that the German ships took such a pounding but refused to sink. Reminds me of the Bismarck's encounter with the Home Fleet.
Kenny
Let's not overlook dangerously faulty British doctrine: in an effort to "artificially" enhance their firing rates, a fleet-wide order was sent to front-load the gun mounts with shells and powder beyond the immediate needs of the guns when action appeared imminent. The result was the stockpiling of explosives in the turrets, the barbettes, the handling rooms, as well as magazines. German shells penetrating anywhere near all of this about guaranteed a catastrophe.
Had the Grand Fleet not implemented this policy as the war started, their battlecruisers (and possibly Arbuthnot's armored cruisers) might have fared better. However, this does not take anything away from the accuracy of Teutonic gunnery.
--Karl
On the ways:
1:350 Nevada & Arizona
1:125 New Orleans
Fitting out:
1:350 SMS Kaiser
Sea Trials:
1:350 SMS Kronprinz
