Shipbucket

Searching through the net looking for one thing, often throws up other things that you save for use in the future.

This occurred for the drawing I have done below. I started with the hull less drawing with no credits but an idea I could start with. I backtracked the drawing to a person 'Aley' on Alternate History, where I also found some other interesting drawings of his which I might have a play with at a later date. A small problem was the finish of the drawing, with lots of stray pixels and a lot of hazing around the rigging. The drawing required quite a lot of work.




Following on from my superfiring German thread. Finding the Alternate Rurik by Aley, gave me the idea to extend that idea to the early Russian cruisers and dreadnoughts. So the Rurik with its original 4x10" & 8x8" becomes the Nikolayev with 8x10". I do not think the ship will last 30 years to the start of WW2 and neither would the resources be used on such an old ship. The placement of Boiler rooms and engine room are not ideal to lend themselves to being upgraded. A very large renovation project would be required.



Edit:
My apologies to Golly, I only just found your drawing in the main archive of Rurik II (Rjurik) and note that Aley has copied about 90% of your drawing without giving you any credit for it. (Credits altered)

Following on from the Krasny Kavkaz experimental cruiser. The Russians laid down six Kagul class cruisers which were classed as Heavy Cruisers by the Western Powers despite only being armed with the 7.1"/180mm gun. At 10,500 tons they were of a size with the ubiquitous Treaty Cruisers being built around the world. Of the six ships, two were to go to the Baltic Fleet, two to the Black Sea Fleet, and the last two to the Pacific Fleet. These were the biggest ships built by the Soviet Navy yards so far.



Displacement: 10,500 tons standard, 14,100 tons full load
Dimensions: 588 x 64 x 26 feet
Machinery: 2 shaft, Steam Turbines, 65,000shp
Speed: 30 knots
Endurance: 7,000 miles at 12 knots
Armour: 3.9" belt, 2" deck, 5.1"-3.9" turrets
Armament:
8 x 7.1" (4x2)
4 x 3.9" (4x1)
8 x 47mm (4x2)
10 x 23mm (10x1)
Torpedoes: 6 x 21" (2x3)
Aircraft: 1
Crew: 650

Nice work! I sense a sort of RM Zara-esque line to the Kagul...might I be correct?

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

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Some interesting ideas here.

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Thanks for the comments guys.

Emperor_Andreas - while the Russians got a lot of assistance from the Italians, I did not use any Italian ideas for the Kagul. I used the Krasny Kavkaz and Kirov classes, and thought, what could have been built between those two classes and came up with the Kagul.

I did not comment in the original blurb, but the 7.1" was a very long ranged gun but not very accurate at the longest ranges. 45 degrees 41,340 yards (37,800 m). The Russians actually built a twin mounting for coastal battery use - The third coastal mount was the MB-2-180 twin turret designed in 1931-32, so the ship is not outside what the Russians might have produced in this time period.

Your 180 mm cruiser is an absolutelly well done design! Well balanced and completelly believable. In fact, I want it for my AU Navy! (but with 7.5 main guns and 4 inch dp secondary battery! of course, if I grant your permission )! Cheers!

Thanks for your comment Reytuerto.

Anybody can use my AU creations, just as long as they keep the crediting correct. That is the whole point of SB. One scale everybody can play with.