My wife's car is getting old. She hinted that it was time to pony up and maybe buy her a new one. I put on my most soulful face and told her that now was not the time.
I did not tell her why.
My superstructure arrived, and then some...🤣🤣🤣
I did have a moment, just a tiny one, of trepidation about using all this 3D, but then, I adjusted to it.😊😊

I have been playing with the superstructure decks. They were printed without any shear or camber, so I am working on fitting them to the main deck. It seems to get tricky because while. the main deck has shear and camber, the 01 deck has no shear and a different camber, while all higher decks lack both. Lots of measuring, sanding, and a few un-social words thrown in for measure, good or otherwise.
Meanwhile, I am dreaming and beginning to ponder servo installations while considering top weight. The prototypes were tender and I am beginning to suspect that this build may work out that way as well.
Pictures show why and where my dreams are going.

I have not added to this blog in 7 months...
It does not appear that much has changed, but it has. The superstructure is more or less done, at least the big pieces, and first base coat of paint applied. All of the superstructure bulkhead light LEDS have been drilled and installed. The turret, gun directors and torpedo tube mechanisms are all completed and functional. I added some deck details to the stern. This is where she received her K guns and an additional 1.1" quad canon
as well as two further 20mm Oerlikon canons.
I upgraded to a new radio that operates on a new language. It took quite a while to learn it and then I swapped out the receivers in the hull. Once all was done, I now have the ability to operate at excessive range, I can see that( NOT!). The radio has even more proportional functions than the old radio and I am using only have the available channels.
I am considering my next move. Paint the camouflage pattern BEFORE detailing the superstructure or after. I think before will be easier.

AllessandroSPQR,
Of course you can!😀

OK Chum
You asked for it!😁 First a few disclaimers. Any and all of the components and radios I use are because I have found them to fulfill my needs and that they are reliable. No endorsements here, just what I have found to work.And remember that I am an analog sort of individual. I'd still use two cans and a string for phone calls...
I use a FrSky radio, the TandemXE. It is a full computer radio, one of numerous quality computer radios on the market. Futaba, Spectrum, Jeti, there are plenty. The quality of the computing capability makes a difference. As does the number and types of controls available "on the Box" so to speak. One can easily operate scale boats with numerous animated functions WITHOUT spending $ on a computer radio, but you will have to buy the after market components to create the functions. Remember the Robbe F-14, 16, 18 series? The basic radio was great, but it needed additional modules to expaand it and give it the functionality. Each module was $$$$ I still have two of those radios).
My radio choice in this case gives me 12 proportional controls and twelve switches. The switches can be easily swapped for different versions, ie, 2 position, 3 position, momentary ect. Like most medium to high end radios, the Tandem allows the user to assign the inputs(control) to any channel or function. Likewise mixing of channels, functions and controls is unlimited as well. Lastly, the radio allows assigned outputs, ie, the rudder does not have to be CH on the receiver, it can be any output on the receiver. As well, the actions of the output signal can be modified here. Remember buying ServoSlows, to slow down the speed of the servo response? It is now done in the transmitter, as well as adding delays to the servo response and controlling the degrees of rotation of the servo, individually right and left. These computer radios also allow writing one's own mini programs to operate while your model is running, ie LUA scripts. There are also virtual switch capabilities incorporated.
I have just scratched the surface here. I expect to be able to use less than 10% of my radio's capabilities.
The picture shows the transmitter with the usually dual sticks. There are two center sliders, two side case sliders, four rotary knobs and two self centering trim controls that are assignable as channel controls. Plus the switches.
There are some really amazing models, especially across the Pond from here, use Arduino/like processors to control animation. I am too old a dog for that. I us a servo system made by GoBilda, a USA company that makes various servos and components. What I like about their servo range, three speeds, Torque, Normal, and Speed, is that they give 180 rotation, out of the box with any radio system. By putting their Servo Travel Tuner in series between the receiver and servo, the rotation increases to 300 degrees, 150 degrees. Most center-line gun turrets rotate 120 degrees so this works great. An added benefit it that the servos convert to 360 degree rotation with built in directional and speed control. The converter is a $15 or so electronic unit. SO, the servo can be an all in one drive package! I had planned to use one servo for my radar drive, but it did not work out do to the mast I am using.
My turrets and gun directors are directly coupled to GB servos using their shaft adapters.
While the radio will send signals to control switches on my beast, I need actual switches on board for the circuit controls. I am very partial to Action Electronics switches available for the Component Shop in the UK. The have a variety of type and capabilities.
Radars are a special case with me. I feel that they need to rotate. I have tried several ways of doing it and much depends upon how and where the radar is mounted. For some reason, warship designers insisted on sticking them way up on a long pole.🤣 I=The hard part for me is the speed of rotation. WW@ radars rotated VERY slowly AND were reversible. Unless I run a shaft up my mast I have to settle for slightly fast rotation speed. I settled on the latter because far enough out and no one will see the radar anyhow! There are readily available 6mm planetary gear head motors. They come in various output ratios, hence speeds. They run on 3 volts and will turn on 1 volt. They draw about .04 amps. I mounted a couple on the ends of my "long poles".
All the lighting is LED. It can be done numerous ways. I am also using LEDS to indirectly light some lights by using a semi clear plastic to carry the light. That can be seen on my Fletcher build in the bulkhead lights.
There are as many threads on smoke units for boats as there are boats. I'm lazy! I am using Harbor Models smoke units, LARGE ones( cause I can). I have wired them some what differently. I want to be able to controlt eh smoke output( it is in the directions) so I am using an ESC to do that. But, I found that the units still smoked even with the control in neutral. To manage them I added an electronic switch unit,(see above), that will turn the power to the ESC on and off as I desire. There is also a switched fan function so that I can control the forced draft.
As we add more and more to our boats we find that we have multiple voltages to have to deal with. I use 12 v SLA batteries as a 12 v supply. I deal with different voltages with BUCK converters. Essentially, variable voltage regulators that you set the output voltage of. They are very inexpensive.
First photo is transmitter,
Second is GB servo, third are 6mm gearhead motors

Here are some pictures of the turret mechanisms. These are the #1 and #6 turrets. I have tried to keep weight as low as possible in this build. These ships, the model as well as the 1:1 versions, were quite tender and did not have a lot of stability. As such, whenever possible I lowered the servos to as low a spot as possible. These are the GoBilda servos I mentioned in my last post. They offer two types of servo clamp adapters. The brass ones shown here. These use a set screw and work well when using a solid rod. The other version, also shown, uses a clamp that works well on both rod and tubing. I would not suggest the set screw version for tubing. The adapter, both, accept .250" (1/4) rod or tube, as mentioned. I have used 3/32" tubing that I bushed up to fit the adapter in cases where long, high, runs were needed.The adapters are available with different spline counts to fit different brand servos. The aluminum stand-offs also came from GoBilda, but are available quite readily from supply houses.
Unlike using stepper motors with a processor drive, the system I use does require some fiddling to get things aligned, but it is easy enough. Once all set, everything stays pretty much aligned.
I will add that I have played with one of these servos as a potential radar drive. I mentioned this in my last post as well. I used a decent ESC and could easily dial in a speed of 2 rpm or less. Perfect for WW 2 radars. The maximum speed will depend upon the servo version one chooses. Speed version is obvious the fastest. The GB web site will give specs on each version of servo.
That's all for now.😌

I wanted to point out that the GoBilda servos that I have been referring to, as great potential radar drives, would work just as well as winch drives for almost any kind of winch.😁

Chumm,
There is a story about that. I had planned to be able to elevate, rotate and fire( LED flash) the guns. This was all based upon the barrel design that the 3D printer used on his previous 5"/38 single barrel turrets.
When his twin turrets arrived, I found that there was not the room to do what I wanted. I could have sealed a miniature servo into the turret, but I did not like that idea, things break. That killed the elevation idea. I would have to do a whole post on just the turret build.
I trashed the LED idea when I had brass barrels turned for the turrets. I had asked for thru bored, but did not get it. I may try to bore them yet.
So the short answer to your question is that they rotate only, but they do so selectively. The forward three operate as a unit, but can also be mixed to respond as the gun director does.
The aft center group is unit, similar to the forward group, and it too will link to the director. The aft wing turrets are independent, can be linked to the center aft group and also the center group and the gun director.
All of the linking/mixing is done in the transmitter.

Chumm,
Without getting too deep into the history of the world, remote gun directors were developed and adopted to remove to a remote location, one that is somewhat isolated from the vibration caused by the gun firing, the director. Guns still retained the ability to be trained and elevated by their crews, referred to as local control. Another added advantage is that the director could be located much higher up on the ship while the guns remained on the main deck, or there abouts. This, of course, greatly increase the visually sighting distance of the director. Remember that this was all done visually, until WW2 when radar stepped in. But early radars were susceptible to vibration so mounting them on or near guns was not an ideal solution. Heavy cruisers and battleships regularly knocked out their own radar systems while firing their main guns. Usually it was tube failure which could be quickly replaced. As well, radar has a horizon as does the MK1 eyeball. Again, higher is better. USN designs mounted the radar antenna on the gun director while remote mounting it's electronics and controls to a remote location.
So... my directors can "search" for a target and upon acquiring one, command it's linked gun turrets to follow it's movements.

Remote directors also increase the rate of fire of the gun mount. The sighter and trainer, who use to be on the mount, can now keep their sites on target while the gun fires. In the "old" method, the concussion of the gun's blast thru the sites off so that the target had to be re-acquired. This was now no longer the case. As such the gun crew only had to load the gun. This is why good experienced crews on the 5"/38 could fire up to 10 rounds per minute, 20 round per minute for a twin mount.
Juneau had 8 such mounts x 20rpm= 160 per minute.Not a CIWS, but I expect it was impressive.