A great idea indeed to make now the third "big gun" turret of three of the main combatants of WWII in 72nd scale. The "Mighty Mo" is in the spotlight this time, with her Mk.7 16"/50 Gun turret No.1 getting takoms treatment. We look at the gun and what we know about the kit in our preview...
Preview: Takom's new 72nd scale USS Missouri Battleship Mk.7 16"/50 Gun turret No.1
USS Missouri Battleship Mk.7 16"/50 Gun turret No.1
From Takom
1/72nd scale
Kit No # 5015
Designed in conjunction with Snowman Model
The 16"/50 calibre Mark 7 – the United States Naval Gun is the main armament of the Iowa-class battleships and was the planned main armament of the cancelled Montana-class battleship.
The No. 1 and 3 Mark 7 16-inch/50-cal. gun turrets are fired during a main battery firing exercise aboard the battleship USS MISSOURI (BB 63). The ship is en route to Sydney, Australia, during a cruise around the world
These guns were 50 calibres long—or 50 times their 16-inch (406 mm) bore diameter, which makes the barrels 66.7 ft (20.3 m) long, from chamber to muzzle. Each gun weighed about 239,000 lb (108,000 kg) without the breech and 267,900 lb (121,500 kg) with the breech. They fired projectiles weighing from 1,900 to 2,700 lb (860 to 1,220 kg) at a maximum speed of 2,690 feet per second (820 m/s) with a range of up to 24 mi (39 km). At the maximum range, the projectile spent almost 1½ minutes in flight. Each turret required a crew of 79 men to operate. The turrets themselves cost US$1.4 million each, to which the cost of the guns had to be added.
A cutaway of the same gun on the Iowa
The turrets were "three-gun", not "triple", because each barrel could be elevated and fired independently. The ships could fire any combination of their guns, including a broadside of all nine. The turret interiors were subdivided and designed to permit the independent loading, elevation and firing of each gun. Each turret was also installed with an optical rangefinder, a ballistic analog computer, and a switchboard. The rangefinder and ballistic computer permitted the turret's gun captain and crew to locally engage targets, should battle damage disrupts communication with the ship's primary or auxiliary fire control centres. The firing switchboard allowed any remaining fire control computer to send data to or control the firing computers of other turrets in the event of battle damage to the primary and secondary artillery plotting rooms.
Turrets 1 and 2 on the USS Missouri.
Contrary to popular belief, the ships did not move sideways noticeably when a broadside was fired; this is simply an illusion. With the enormous mass of the vessel and the damping effect of the water around the hull, the pressure wave generated by the gunfire was felt much more than the slight change in lateral velocity.
The Missouri deck including the massive main turret and guns in 1944
The guns could be elevated from −5 degrees to +45 degrees, moving at up to 12 degrees per second. The turrets could rotate about 300 degrees at about 4 degrees per second and could even be fired back beyond the beam, which is sometimes called "over the shoulder". A red stripe on the wall of each turret, just inches from the railing, marked the limit of the gun's recoil as a safety warning to the turret's crew.
The Mighty Mo fires a salvo of 16-inch shells on Chongjin, North Korea, in an effort to cut enemy communications in October 1950
The Kit: Takom's 72nd scale USS Missouri Battleship Mk.7 16"/50 Gun turret No.1 kit.
It seems like a great alternative to the 72nd scale Bismarck and Yamato turrets that Takom has already announced, now the "Might Mo" gets a show also in the same scale.
It seems like a great alternative to the 72nd scale Bismarck and Yamato turrets that Takom has already announced, now the "Might Mo" gets a show also in the same scale.
Kit Features:
Designed in conjunction with Snowman Model
Two marking variants included in the box
Photo-etch parts included
A base is included in this kit
The turret's guns can be posed in two positions
That is all we know about this release for now. You can see more about Takom's kits on their website or on their Facebook page
