As Hood says, looks good, BUT
This proposal was 1938, and was then a serious one, so this is a "neverwere".
The 5.25in were ordered. But no chance of STAAG, which was a post-war gun, by which time the Hawkins machinery would be worn out.
The quad 2pdr are more the mark. Also a quad 2pdr weighed about 8.6 tons, (or 10 with remote power control later in the war). A STAAG was about 17 tons.
If I were you I would drop X turret to the forecastle level of Y turret, or even put it down on the quarterdeck with Z. Loss of direct aft low angle fire is no great deal. There is a general tendency on sites like this to think that you can replace gun A by Gun B if the weights roughly match, but stability depends on turning moment. Reconstructions are dodgy. It always surprises me how soon the point is reached at which adding A can only be done if other weights are removed, particularly if A is a radar aerial at the top of a mast. The problem is that a ship to be reconstructed was not designed in the first place with a great reserve of stability, so that you are restricted in what you can change (or especially, add) by the initial design. A ship which is 'too stable' recovers undesirably slowly from a roll. It may well be that a 10,000ton ship designed in 1938 could easily carry much more weaponry than a reconstructed Hawkins. Much can be done at the initial design stage with hull form and armour distribution. Not generally easy at reconstruction, unless that is very extensive eg Renown. London was a failure, not getting the (presumably lighter) new machinery intended.
The Hawkins AA was very much an emergency measure to use available time-expired hulls.
Consider the forecastle guns. The revised main armament doesn't leave a lot spare for light AA. A STAAG weighs as much as an Effingham central pivot 6in.
Original A,B 7.5in central pivot, each weighing 46 tons total 92
Effingham ABC 6in central pivot PXII* each weighing 16tons total 48
Hawkins AA ABC (or ABQ if you will) 5.25in twin each weighing 84 tons total 252tons
Before reconstruction, aft, Effingham carried one 7.5 raised above forecastle deck level and two widely separated at quarterdeck level. Total weight 138 tons, with 92 tons of it at quarterdeck level. There were also two wing 7.5in at forecastle deck level.
Your reconstruction has the same 252 tons aft as forward, with altogether two turrets a deck higher than forecastle, and one a deck higher still. Total 504tons. I think somehow you ave to lower some of this armament, bearing in mind that with quarterdeck mountings you will probably have to use the MkI short trunk type fitted on KGV, though they did weigh only 77.5tons each, total 465tons
Remember only half the Didos had Q turret before the bridge.
Effingham lost two after boilers (not much effect on top weight) but the single funnel helped as did lowering the spotting top.
|
![[ img ]](https://www.dropbox.com/s/x2aunt9vwk5yvpf/CLA_D98_Effingham_1942.png?dl=1)
![[ img ]](https://www.dropbox.com/s/hj3dx3e7sm266iz/CLA_D98_Effingham_1942-2.png?dl=1)
![[ img ]](https://www.dropbox.com/s/geb39e8wjkounv1/CLA_98_Effingham_1940-4inch.png?dl=1)
![[ img ]](https://www.dropbox.com/s/six7b4nqgciarxd/CLA_98_Effingham_1940-4-5inch.png?dl=1)
![[ img ]](https://www.dropbox.com/s/i4emykd4ub85jwc/CLA_D98_Effingham_1942-525.png?dl=1)