Shipping and Modeling

Part of the Spring 2020 semester project was to make portfolio - ready pieces. Due to limited hardware capabilities at home and the labs being shutdown for the virus, this is the best textured version of the Battleship thus far.
The Hull
Taking inspiration from the USS Montana project, the ship has a large, long hull. Good for sailing in straight lines, but due to lateral water resistance, she's not good at turning. The width of the hull is just slightly under 110ft, making sure it can fit through the locks of the Panama Canal. Another inspiration comes Russia in the form of the bow's shape.

While the "Bull Nose" of the Iowa's and Montana are nice, for now I've gone with more streamlined style similar to the Kirov-class battlecruiser. This may change in the future with some SOLIDWORKS testing.

The ship is similar to the 1982 retrofit of the Iowa-class fast battleships. I'm currently working on the model and the placement of the Close-In Weapon System (CWIS) and the box launchers for anti-ship and land attack missiles (most likely to be based on the quad cell Harpoon and Tomahawk launchers found on the Iowa-class).
Harpoon launcher (left & center),Phalnax CIWS (center & right), Tomahawk Launcher (Right)
I've gone against the retrofit's removal of the aft set of twin 5in guns and kept the number to 8 turrets. The reason being that, with lessons learned in the most recent forms of naval combat (ref Iranian attack boats and Pirate attacks in the south Atlantic and Western Indian oceans) where small gunboats were used, with great effect, against large surface warships. It is in a ship, especially of this size, to have as many small caliber guns as possible. Spaces for the WWII era 20mm and 40mm anti-air guns might be used for other things such as: CWIS, SAM batteries, or some other form of autocannon. (This is still a WiP).
The Guns
Back to the US Navy for inspiration, but first a bit of history:
In 1937, the upper echelons of the United States Navy began receiving unsettling reports of Japan’s plans to construct the Yamato-class super-battleship. American, British, and French intelligence gathered that the new Japanese capital ships were set to displace more than the limit of 35,000 tons, and wield a caliber larger than the 356 mm imposed by the 1936 Second London Naval Treaty, of which Japan was not a signatory. In response, the three future Allied nations invoked the so-called Escalator Clause of the treaty: a contingency measure for just such an occasion which pushed the self-imposed limits up to 45,000 tons and 406 mm, respectively. (which is what became the mainstay for the USN's Battleships. The South Dakota's, North Carolina's and Iowa's all had 16in guns, and the Montana was planned to have the same guns and turrets of the Iowa, but with 4 instead of the Iowa's 3). If the war had broken out earlier, without the prevalence of aircraft and aircraft carriers, there was a plan set forth to arm the Iowa's, and a new class of battleship, with 457 mm (18in) guns.

I've based the main battery off the 457 mm/47 Mk 1 prototype. The Montana's were also planned to have this type of turret and gun installed, but with the domination of aircraft carriers growing ever stronger, the Montana was never built and the 18in gun design saw only two built, and they never saw combat.
The reason for the large main gun has nothing to do with the awesome power of the 406 mm/50 Mk 7 found on the Iowa's that did see combat (and to astounding effect). The reason being is an idea that I have brewing.
Nowadays the US army uses an artillery round called the M982 Excalibur.

It is a GPS guided 155mm shell that can make course adjustments mid-flight (thanks to a built-in guidance system and fins/stabilizers that deploy once the shell has left the barrel. This allows the shell to not only be accurate, but to be accurate/effective at extreme range (25 miles or 40km). The legendary accuracy of the Iowa-class's fire control computer and guns combined with this technology, scaled up to a massive 18in shell would be incredible at not only ship-to-ship but to shore bombardment as well. On top of that, some tanks today have guns that can fire anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) from their barrels as well as normal munitions. If this can be achieved on the scale of a battleship caliber gun with a modified cruise missile, the range would be enormous.
