Best products from r/WorldOfWarships

Boyo? Hahaha I'm being trolled by an 1890 Top Hat dude with a handlebar moustache. Sing us a Barbershop song, Sport!

Anyhooo....

AoN was invented in the US with the Standard class of BB's. AoN does not mean that the bow and stern of the ship had no armored bulkheads, as you said here:

>She had an All or Nothing scheme, which means the bow had little if any armor.

On American BBs, the forward and aft bulkhead were generally of the thickness of the armor belt, hence... wait for it... "All or Nothing"

All or Nothing means you do not add 'medium' armor thickness as on a Japanese Fuso or RN Queen Elizabeth or US New York Class. You either have the maximum thickness of plate practical, or no armor at all. All. or. Nothing.

Typical American Standard BBs included a 13.5" armor belt, and a forward and aft bulkhead of 13.5". In most cases, this armor was tapered from the belt/deck armor end to meet the barbette, which, again, had about 13.5" of armor.

This rule was violated in the US with the intallation of I believe a 15" forward plate in USS Wisconson. Other Iowa class BB's had a typical 12.2" forward bulkhead.

So the Richeleau had a thinner forward bulkhead, but by not means is it 'little' armor, and in being not the same thickness as the belt, actually deviates from the All or Nothing scheme.

U.S. Battleships: An Illustrated Design History Friedman Hardcover

[Battleships: Allied Battleships in World War II 1st Edition Robert O. Dulin Jr., William H. Garzke Jr. ] (https://www.amazon.com/Battleships-Allied-World-War-II/dp/0870211005)

I appreciate your enthusiasm, but you have some reading to do.

Do not take your cues on BB design from World of Warships. It's a game. In fact, true AoN armor schemes are nearly impenetrable from the bow, including the Iowa, Montana, and Yamato class ships. In fact, due to the great deal of STS armor plate included in the two final US classes designed, it would be nearly impossible for a Yamato to penetrate several layers of 1/2", 1-1/2", and 1" STS armor plate, at an angle, and not be disturbed to maintain enough APC integrity to pierce the forward bulkhead. This causes some frustration for those of us who have studied the relevant history of American BBs, and the relative weakness of most IJN APC rounds, but then, it's just a game.

Have a good day!

Edit: I'd like to add, the STS 'armor plate' used in the construction of the Iowa class ships does not include stringers or support beams. All other ships, including other US ships besides the Iowa and Montana classes, used marine-grade steel for decks and bulkheads. In those two classes, decks and bulkheads are often made of STS, or Special Treatment Steel, 118,500 psi tensile. It's essentially Class B armor. So while the Yamato was constructed of mild steel, and had armor plates, the Iowa and Montana classes are actually made out of armor plate. By comparison, modern American warships, as good a standard as any, are constructed of HY80, or steel with 80,000 psi tensile. Of course, modern steel is more consistent and more importantly, has a greater 'give to yield' envelope than STS made in the 1930s. Still, the lavish use of STS in Iowa and Montana class plans and construction means these ships are incredibly stout, much more so than Wikipedia armor statistics can convey. In short, WoW is an arcade game, and the final two classes of American BBs are the finest possible way to construct a Battleship, regardless of fire-control or damage control practice or any other oft-mentioned US superiority. The fabric of the ships themselves is vastly superior to any other BB ever constructed or conceived. They are literally Superweapons.

I've done business with Plaza Japan in the past, they have a good selection and low prices; you'll pay for shipping so best or order more than just one product to take advantage of that.

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Amazon isn't bad, just check the prices compared to other stores. I've gotten great deals, and I've seen items posted at silly prices too. If you got prime then shipping is covered, although keep in mind that lots of the low price ship kits are shipped from Japan so the free shipping takes a while. Also read the reviews, I've had a couple of sellers not ship but Amazon had my back every time.

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As for tips for a beginner, get the right tools right off the bat, this tool kit is a good start, I like these brushes (although you might want to get an additional bigger one as well), and I use this brush cleaner. Get a paint pallet for mixing, remember some paints like Tamiya need thinner while ones like AK don't. For more on brushes watch this quick video. You'll likely want some modeling masking tape. If you'll be doing something with lots of decals like a Carrier get some Microset & Microsol plus decal/hobby scissors. You'll need some kind of filler putty, I like miliput. Later on you'll want to mess with things like washes (vallejo makes a great out of the bottle wash) simple washes can make you stuff suddenly look pro because of what it does to small details, if you're going to be doing ships with specific paint schemes look in to the AK sets they'll be 5-6 colors all as part of a theme (like Royal Navy ships).

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Most importantly you should start with something cheap. Your first few models will be learning experiences, so play around with those cheap $10 IJN destroyer kits till you get comfortable, use it to test painting techniques, then build that $50 HMS Ark Royal kit.

Yeah, but it's also worth noting A LOT of the ships - a lot more than most people are willing to admit - were old ships. PT boats, trawlers, schooners, ocean liners...

If you have a chance and are into reading; read Glyn Prysor's "Citizen Sailors" http://www.amazon.com/Citizen-Sailors-Glyn-Prysor/dp/0141046325 (on mobile, so sorry for the format). There's probably even better books out there that cover ships and the RN in general; but this one comes with first hand tales from the men serving aboard these ships.
It's also the last one I read about it, so it's fresh in my mind.

If you libe the RN like I do, but haven't thought about things such as to why it was the largest navy in the world, then this may be an eye opener for a lot of people.

I by no means want to take any glamour nor fame away from the Royal Navy, but it was what it was, not only due to the transition from a worldwide empire to the commonwealth it is today, but also the time during which it took place; wartime. Desperate times call for desperate measures, they did what they had to, and let there be no doubt over the fact that these men did the best they could with what was at hand. Be they serving on the RN's battleships or cruisers, or shamble PT boats

The only basic supplies you will need are paint brushes and acrylic model paints. A starter set like this for you would be perfect, if you're in Taiwan you can probably find something local for much cheaper.


https://www.amazon.com/Miniatures-Highlighting-Miniature-Army-Painter/dp/B01MTXRU2L/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1525546731&sr=8-4&keywords=army+painter


If you want more videos on how to get started, the basics are covered very well in my opinion by Games Workshop videos. They sell models for a science fiction miniatures game but the ideas of painting models are universal and this will really help you!


Basic painting of a military vehicle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig_gKQAgBKY


Another basic military vehicle tutorial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74p9eGwRAog


Adding weathering and battle damage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyuPxJG5kFc


And the great thing about acrylic hobby paints is that they can be easily removed from the model, so if you don't like what you did you can remove it all and start again fresh!


http://www.instructables.com/id/Take-Paint-Off-of-Models/

I probably started collecting these around 2000, when I was still a kid. The ones from Osprey are pretty nice and widely available on amazon. The Squadron/Signal's are more difficult to find these days, but your local hobby shop might carry them.

A particular favorite on mine is the one on the top right, as my thesis professor in college wrote it when he was a grad student at Yale. He was pretty surprised when I brought it in during office hours to have it signed. Apparently it hasn't been in print since the 80's.

I can post links to any of them, should any of you be interested in picking up some for yourself, not all of them are in print still though.

There is software for cloning drives. Crucial has a special version of Acronis True Image that is free, and there is EaseUS ToDo BackUp which is free for personal use.

However you'll need an external enclosure to connect them both at the same time. Something like an $8 ORICO enclosure is good.


Here is a guide to the procedure, and make sure your backups are up to date. https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/ssd-upgrade-tutorial

Someone mentioned some alternatives such as the Kostromitnov which is pretty good as a Tier 10 given its basically the same size as a Midway. Also keep in mind the projects sometimes got redesigned, if I recall the 72 for example had two differing designs with one being much larger.

A good book on the never were Soviet ships is Stalin's Ocean-going Fleet: Soviet Naval Strategy and Shipbuilding Programs, 1935-53 which includes the various design specs for completed and incomplete ships, including the various iterations which is pretty helpful for ships like the Kronstadt which had a couple of wildly differing designs when it came to armament for example.

And if you wanted to have a no torpedo proposal I would think it would be better to have AP and HE DBs instead of HE DBs and HE level bombers. Giving it a mix of damage types rather than 3 sources of HE spam would make it more interesting/useful while less annoying to play against.

This is a pretty good (and inexpensive) history of the Bismarck's very brief career. A really interesting read in light of having played WoWS.

Years ago in community college, I took a history course from the guy that wrote this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Artillery-Illustrated-History-Weapons-Warfare/dp/185109556X

Great teacher and lots of fun to hang out with... Anyways, I wrote my final paper for his class on the trebuchet. He gave me an A and said the most impressive part was that I managed to do it without citing his book!

Definitely. Polish effort towards intelligence with regard to the Enigma cipher is also important through that time period. I read a lot of history and found myself fascinated with the Poles; a good place to start is Zamoyski's work although they are at least tangentially related in other histories like The Enemy at the Gate - who doesn't love Sobieski vodka? In any case, the Blyskawica ("lightning" - be sure to look up its proper pronounciation) was my very first premium purchase, of which I am proud, even though I have little to no Polish blood. Their history of Catholicism also made them a fun choice in everything from Medieval: Total War II to the Europa Universalis series...but of course that's a far cry from piloting a destroyer. (although true enough, they are a rather tough country to play in Hearts of Iron)

I did that for a while, until I realized that I could buy a USB powered cooling pad (that works 1,000x better) from Amazon for like $25 (similar to this one). It was well worth it, I strongly recommend it.

To me this is a significant find. The IJN Kaga's sinking was a real turning point in the Pacific war.

Jack "Dusty" Kleiss flew one of the Dauntless dive bombers from the Enterprise who hit the Kaga. His book is an amazing read.

https://www.amazon.com/Never-Call-Hero-Legendary-Dive-Bomber-ebook/dp/B01NCTJ53H

Thank you Paul Allen and the RV Petrel team!