1/700 SLP-4 IHP M.N.F. Gille Class Battlecruiser France - Hull Plus Large Parts - Imperial Hobby Productions
Plastic Model Kit, Box Condition: NM
This kit includes a beautiful high-definition resin waterline hull and the following large parts: main turrets w/guns, fore and aft funnels and main superstructure. Like all IHP 'hull + big parts' models, you will need another kit (or two) to complete them. In some cases the Pit Road/Skywave sets of "Equipment For Navy Ships" works well also for the finer details. Never started. The hull is in mint condition. The small parts are still factory sealed. Please note that the instructions show the placement of the casemate secondary guns but IHP did not included them. Includes instructions with drawings and references. In 1911, Gille went to Britain to observe the construction of the new Orion-class battleships and the Lion-class battlecruisers. The latter ships prompted Gille to decide the French Navy ought to build battlecruisers as well, since Britain and Germany had already begun acquiring them, and they would prove useful as a fast division of the French fleet. Gille decided that his proposed ship would need a top speed of 28 to 29 kn (52 to 54 km/h; 32 to 33 mph) to retain an advantage over foreign battleships, the latest of which had estimated speeds of 22 to 23 kn (41 to 43 km/h; 25 to 26 mph). Gille's battlecruiser design called for a displacement of 28,247 t (27,801 long tons; 31,137 short tons) on a hull that was 205 meters (673 ft) long between perpendiculars, with a beam of 27 m (88 ft 7 in) at the waterline and an average draft of 9.03 m (29 ft 8 in). The ships would have been equipped with four sets of steam turbines rated at 80,000 shaft horsepower (60,000 kW) powered by fifty-two coal-fired Belleville boilers. Each propeller shaft was connected to a high-pressure turbine, a medium-pressure geared turbine, and a low-pressure turbine for forward steaming, and a direct drive turbine for steaming in reverse. The ships' top speed was to have been 28 knots. The ships' main armament was composed of twelve 340mm/45 Modele 1912 guns in three quadruple turrets, the same as in the contemporary French battleships of the Normandie class. One turret was placed forward, and the other two were placed in a superfiring pair, all on the centerline. The guns had a range of 16,000 m (17,000 yd) and had a rate of fire of two rounds per minute. The shells were 540-kilogram (1,190 lb) armor-piercing rounds and were fired with a muzzle velocity of 800 meters per second (2,600 ft/s). A secondary battery of twenty-four 138.6 mm /55 Modele 1910 guns mounted in casemates was planned for defence against torpedo boats. These guns fired a 36.5 kg (80 lb) shell at a muzzle velocity of 830 m/s (2,700 ft/s). The armament was rounded out by six torpedo tubes of undetermined diameter, all submerged in the ships' hulls. The armor protecting both the main armored belt amidships and the main battery turrets was 270 mm (10.6 in) thick.
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