Need some ideas for turrets

I want to build a rocket honoring my father and the ship he was on in World War II. He was on the USS Pensacola (CA-24), a heavy cruiser. The Pensacola earned thirteen battle stars for major battles she fought in, including Midway and Iwo Jima. The Pensacola had ten 8" main guns, in four turrets. Two turrets had three guns, and two had two guns. I would like to somehow make some turrets for the rocket, and need some ideas. How would you do them? Also, I would like to somehow make a "bridge" on the nose cone.

My first thought would be to use small blocks of balsa to shape the turrets with small diameter dowels for the guns. I'm not sure that would be the lightest way to go, but I think it would work quite well.

get a styrofoam block, cut to shape and sand to suit your body tube - in the aircraft section of your local hobbyshop and get some microballoons - mix epoxy and add about the same amount of microballoons - stir until you have a white paste - spread over your sanded dome (just the 'dome' side) and let cure - sand to suit - using an xacto knife, bore holes for the dowels MrGneissGuy mentioned - glue the whole unit in place

I thought about making a battleship rocket model with removeable turrets of a sort.

Start with the barrels . . . a Vulcan like bundle of six. Six pieces of plastic tube stock, around a slightly longer piece. The bit protruding from the center goes into the hole of a 1/2" wood bead.

The bead is (mostly) enclosed in a balsa or plastic enclosure that lets it swivel a bit.

The enclosure mounts, using a dowel and launch lug, on a flat "hardpoint" contour-fitted to the body tube on the reverse.

Buy a model of a battleship like the New Jersey. It's loaded with 3 triple 16" guns and a bunch of 5" mounts. Smaller destroyers in a different scale provide the same 5" mount in larger scale.

Is this going to be a flyer or a mantle piece?

If a flyer, the details are probably secondary (paint and decals can do the most to achieve the desired effect) while on a mantle piece display model can go all out on the details (3D gun turrets, stacks, bridge, etc.)

Great idea to memorialize your dad like this as he was a fan of your rocketry efforts.

o1d_dude said:

Is this going to be a flyer or a mantle piece?

If a flyer, the details are probably secondary (paint and decals can do the most to achieve the desired effect) while on a mantle piece display model can go all out on the details (3D gun turrets, stacks, bridge, etc.)

Great idea to memorialize your dad like this as he was a fan of your rocketry efforts.

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It'll be a flyer. I know the gun turrets will be very draggy, but you know me. Captain Low & Slow! I'm thinking a 3" body tube with a 29mm motor mount, so no matter how draggy, I'll be able to get her into the air. I'd like to somehow mimic the angular camoflage paint job on some of the photos of the ship.

Yes, my dad was a big supporter of my rocketry endeavors. He was always proud of me and loved to watch me launch my rockets. He was also proud of the Pensacola, and rightfully so. She was a hard fighting ship, with a brave crew. My father earned two Purple Hearts in the four years he served aboard her. Needless to say, I'm very proud of my father and the USS Pensacola.

Very cool idea to honor him.

My guess is that whatever you do, it would please him, because you are his son.

Greg

There are two routes you could go here.

#1 - you could use styrene tubes (they come in several sizes and being hollow ,you could nest them inside each other giving you a barrel look.

#2 -you could do the same but with brass hollow tubing.The brass comes in more sizes and would be more durable.You can cut them to size with a single edge razor (or exacto knife for that matter) ,just roll the blade on the tube until it cuts through.I do this on a nice flat surface with a piece of matteboard or cardboard ,works well and the pieces can be glued together inside each other with thin CA.
This will give you a real nice looking barrel effect if you use 2 or 3 different sizes.

HTH

Paul T

I don't have Rocksim, and I am horrible with drawing programs, so bear with me...

3 finned rocket. The 2 "lower fins" are tubes, with 3 smaller tubes sticking out pointed forward, attached to the outer ID. The top fin is a normal flat fin, with a forward rake, with a small dowel along the outer cord, pointer forward. You could do the same with 4 fins, using the left and right as the 'turrets', which would be more stable, but more draggy

The bridge would need to be...um... teardrop shaped, the broad end forward, tapering toward the back.

A futuristic space cruiser, capable of being flown in our atmosphere...

I'd make them out of cardstock and harden them with CA...

https://www.papermodelers.com/

Later! OL JR

Maybe use some screw-off plastic bottle caps from some small water bottles?
Or from some small medicine bottles? (a lot of the med bttl caps are more 'square-ish' in profile)

Lightweight, fairly easily available, cheap, drill pretty easily so you can stick in the barrels, you can use Gorilla Glue on 'em.....

Why not do a PMC?

Ooops.....for the turrets ,matteboard (it`s about 3/32" thick) would be great ,it`s easy to cut ,light and yellow/white glue is all that`s needed .Then I would soak them in superthin CA to add strength.

You could also use styrene flat stock and do the same thing ,just no need to CA and because it`s smooth ,just a bit of sanding and then paint.

Liquid cement on the styrene would also be a fast build ,and with styrene ,the detail possibilities are endless.

I myself would go the styrene route.

Just my 2 cents


Paul T

Probably not the exact look you're going for but here's something I did a while back with ping pong balls some plastic tube for big turrets and balsa and wood dolls for fixed forward guns. Might give you some ideas.

https://www.rocketryforumarchive.com/showthread.php?t=38863&highlight=deadman

qquake2k said:

I want to build a rocket honoring my father and the ship he was on in World War II. He was on the USS Pensacola (CA-24), a heavy cruiser. The Pensacola earned thirteen battle stars for major battles she fought in, including Midway and Iwo Jima. The Pensacola had ten 8" main guns, in four turrets. Two turrets had three guns, and two had two guns. I would like to somehow make some turrets for the rocket, and need some ideas. How would you do them? Also, I would like to somehow make a "bridge" on the nose cone.

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I'd build them out of Cardstock, Styrene sheet and tube. Shoot if we can fly a Tank why not a Heavy Cruiser should be fun. I thought about doing a PMC submarine...hadn't even considers a surface ship.

JPVegh said:

Why not do a PMC?

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Flying BOATS!!!

I like the idea of flying a kit -with a 29 you could lift a barn door--remember 'STAR BLAZERS' They raised the Yamato and turned it into a spaceship with a big honkin engine in the back and fins ,kinda cool actually.They made it all the way to Iscandar for cryin out loud:grin:

hornet driver said:

I like the idea of flying a kit -with a 29 you could lift a barn door--remember 'STAR BLAZERS' They raised the Yamato and turned it into a spaceship with a big honkin engine in the back and fins ,kinda cool actually.They made it all the way to Iscandar for cryin out loud:grin:

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"Through all the fire and smoke
We will never give up hope..."

Starblazers was big with my kids back in the day.

This is the design I've come up with so far. I'll probably put "fuel tanks" on the large wings, and "antennae" on the smaller fins. I thought about using a bell shaped retainer from Giant Leap, but they don't make them in 29mm. Bummer.



View attachment USS Pensacola.ork

That should look very nice ,great looking design !

The splinter /disruptive camo in the first picture would look cool on your rocket !



Paul T

sodmeister said:

That should look very nice ,great looking design !

The splinter /disruptive camo in the first picture would look cool on your rocket !



Paul T

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Thanks! That's what I want to try to replicate. Looks like it's black, white, and gray. The Pensacola's nickname was the "Gray Ghost".

qquake2k said:

Thanks! That's what I want to try to replicate. Looks like it's black, white, and gray. The Pensacola's nickname was the "Gray Ghost".

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Looks like blk/gray/white....but I`ve seen colored photos of ships done in white and shades of blue also.

Either way ,it would look really neat ! I look forward to your build.

Cheers

Paul T

Could you carve or sculpt the various fixtures from foam? Just enough detail to give the shape of the pensacola. Coat the foam structure with resin or epoxy?

o1d_dude said:

Could you carve or sculpt the various fixtures from foam? Just enough detail to give the shape of the pensacola. Coat the foam structure with resin or epoxy?

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That's not a bad idea, but I'm afraid I'm just not that artistic. I got a piece of 3/16" brass tube, I'm going to play around this weekend with some wood blocks.

sodmeister said:

Looks like blk/gray/white....but I`ve seen colored photos of ships done in white and shades of blue also.

Either way ,it would look really neat ! I look forward to your build.

Cheers

Paul T

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You know, a white and blue camo pattern sounds cool. I'll have to think about that one. I still haven't figured out how I would mask the angular pattern.

What about the turrets from small or medium plastic model ships? Cheap ones from your local hobby store's clearance section.

El Phantasmo said:

What about the turrets from small or medium plastic model ships? Cheap ones from your local hobby store's clearance section.

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Yeah, than glue them to a body tube and add fins?

GregGleason said:

Very cool idea to honor him.

My guess is that whatever you do, it would please him, because you are his son.

Greg

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You get a big second on that one....
Can't wait to see what comes of this.
And, so you don't feel alone, I have a plastic 49 Mercury kit that I am going to convert to a flying model in honor of my father. That was his first and favorite car of all time.

qquake2k said:

You know, a white and blue camo pattern sounds cool. I'll have to think about that one. I still haven't figured out how I would mask the angular pattern.

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The idea behind the dazzle camouflage was to make it problematic for submarine commanders to judge the size, shape, speed and angle on the bow of a ship when viewed through a periscope, especially at a distance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazzle_camouflage

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_camouflage#Second_World_War

https://www.shipcamouflage.com/measures.htm