Italy's Primadonnas - Part Deux - De la Penne & Mimbelli

You may recall that a while ago - now seemingly a very long while ago - I met with some success in presenting a thoroughly redrawn Audace-class DDG:s. At the same time as I did those, I also took the opportunity to edit MConrad and Enrr's otherwise very good and precise drawing of the follow-up class to the Audaces, namely the sleek and handsome two-unit strong de la Penne-class.
Built during a prolonged period the two ships originally were intended to be named Ardimentoso and Animoso, but, for political reasons these names were substituted by those of two heros of the Regia Marina during WW2, Luigi Durand de la Penne, a most daring and accomplished Decima MAS officer, who, in 1941, was personally responsible for sinking in shallow waters in Alexandria's harbor, the British battleship Valiant. The other was Francesco Mimbelli, who, as a Commander of a torpedo boat flotilla managed the rare accomplishment for an Italian naval officer of defeating in detail a superior British force, while defending a large convoy, during the Battle of Crete, 1941. He later was appointed commander of the Italian Black Seas contingent and, again, managed to achievet hose very seldom victories for the Italian navy, which elevated him into a national hero.
Both men joined the Allied cause after the fall of Fascism and, later served in the post-war Marina Militare.

The ships were basically enlarged Audaces with CODAG unit machinery, one less OTO-Melara 76.3 mm gun, a much enlarged helipad and some stealth features in their structure. Displacement rose with about a 1,000 tons.

So here are the two units named after these very accomplished naval heroes:

Luigi Durand de la Penne (DDG-560) as of present day:
[ img ]

Francesco Mimbelli (DDG-561):
[ img ]

_________________
My Avatar:Петр Алексеевич Безобразов (Petr Alekseevich Bezobrazov), Вице-адмирал , царская ВМФ России(1845-1906) - I sign my drawings as Ari Saarinen

Nice work - I'd need to check your colors, but it looks good with just one exception - Golly has commented on this before, but I'm going to bring it up again - draw the lines on the radars with black, not the grey you keep using. It is very annoying and it detracts from the quality of the rest of the drawing.

_________________
𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐍𝐄𝐓- 𝑻𝒐 𝑪𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝑺𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆

Haha...that one was actually for my personal copy, so I forgot about it. Any corrections etc, will have to wait till after Presidents Day weekend, since I'll be out of town, but don't let that stop your comments!

I've always love Italian ships because of their amount of gun. Apart from the radar, an awesome ship!

... few weeks ago I meet De la Penne's nephew...

The Otomat cannisters could do with some work. They look exceptionally crude next to the rest of the ship. Which looks very nice

_________________
“Close” only counts with horseshoes, hand grenades, and tactical nuclear weapons.
That which does not kill me has made a grave tactical error

Worklist

Source Materiel is always welcome.

and the mk 29 looks odd, and... could you do something about those small directors and maybe the crane?

_________________
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

Have updated the two ladies.
Thiel: no, they are as detailed as reasonably can be done. I have both for your comment's sake, and earlier, researched the Otomat canisters for both this class and the previous Audaces, and have reached this conclusion. I have, however, compared to the canisters supplied in the parts sheet, quite substantially upgraded these!

ace, I know we've had our artistic and technical differences regarding the E-71s, but I'm glad you caught both the OTO FCS and the amidships boat and missile (ammo) crane. So, have upgraded the directors to look like the real thing and drawn a wholly new crane. Thank you for that comment! As for the Mk 29 it's really not at all a Mk 29 but Aspide, that may be why you're a little confused. Very similar but yet with differences...

Since when have we shown torpedoes on the missile line? Or for that matter shown torpedoes at all?

I'm not necessarily opposed to the practice but I think it's a bit strange to have them on the missile line.

Colosseum wrote:

Since 2010!

Shipbucket

Italy's Primadonnas - Part Deux - De la Penne & Mimbelli

Who is online