Shipbucket

Here is the South Dakota as she would have appeared if she was built to her original specs. I am posting it here as I will also make some refits according to what I think she would have been refitted.

Nice work!

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

The way you shaded the belt really made it pop, I've enjoyed watching your style evolve as you progress forward in time with these ships.

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"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did." Thomas Edward Lawrence, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom

I had one of the original USN blueprints that shows the internal arrangement of the ship, including the armor belt and its thickness, which I have replicated here. I was going to use a more appropriate USN light gray 5-N, it is darker than the standard Shipbucket gray, but the darker underwater hull removes the need for that, as the hull seems darker that it really is.

Here is the South Dakokta as I envision her to be when she is commisioned in 1926, that is the date that I have calculated to be the commisioning year. She is built with cats aft and on Y turret. The rigging going back is removed. She has recieved a small platform around the top of the bridge to increase the fov for the director. She also trades in two deck mounted 6 inch guns for an extra two pairs of 76mm AA guns. Apart from that, only some minor details have been altered.

isn't that director manned? as in, now nobody fits underneath?

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Drawings are credited with J.Scholtens
I ask of you to prove me wrong. Not say I am wrong, but prove it, because then I will have learned something new.
Shipbucket Wiki admin

The Colorado had it the same way, so it works.

the colorado had it a few pixels inboard, which might just allow an 'periscope' or something one deck lower. unless you find out how it works, I am not certain it will.

_________________
Drawings are credited with J.Scholtens
I ask of you to prove me wrong. Not say I am wrong, but prove it, because then I will have learned something new.
Shipbucket Wiki admin

It had it on a small platform sticking out, as shown here, it has the same measurements as the one on Colorado.

Now introducing the 1930 and 1936 South Dakota:

1930: