Shipbucket

Eridani class of 1938

At the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 the United Astarian Commonwealth Republics were offered, like the British Empire, the option to build two 35 thousand tons battleships armed with 16 inch guns; however, the Astarian delegation agreed instead to a similar clause as offered to the Italian and French delegations that allowed them to start building 35 thousand tons battleships armed with 15 inch guns before the end of the "battleship holiday".
In the mid 1930s, the UACR decided to start construction on its new battleships while France and Italy were still holding on; this however meant that the eventual French and Italian response could be specifically designed to counter these ships.
To prevent such an occurrence the designers were given a 40 thousand tons limit, disregarding the treaty limit.
The new ships were expected to lead the UACR fleet in a classic battle-line confrontation; and with gun caliber limited by the treaty, the focus was placed on armor and survivability.
The final design included a 15 inch main belt, an upgraded version of the 380mm 50 caliber guns used on Cassiopeia and a 28 knots top speed; all the secondary battery of twelve 150mm guns and the same number of 100mm guns was also supposed to be dual purpose.
While the first two ships started construction in 1935, further testing seemed to suggest that the planned 28 knots top speed was unobtainable as the design had grown to 42 thousand tons; the planned 150mm dual purpose turrets where also presenting a number of issues and would not be ready in time.
In September 1935 the decision was taken to proceed with Eridani's construction under a modified design with the 150mm battery arranged in six twin single purpose turrets derived from the Minerva class light cruisers; at the same time construction on Corona, laid down in August, was paused.
After almost a year of delays Corona resumed construction along with the third ship Hydra receiving slightly more powerful machinery and the original triple 150mm dual purpose turrets.
Eridani entered in service in 1938, while due to the delays Corona and Hydra followed more than a year later and didn't enjoy a peacetime career.
During WWII the three ships saw deployment in all the theaters of operations, and while Eridani indeed always struggled to reach the design speed in operation, her sisters' modifications proved effective with Corona reaching 29.2 knots under forced draft while trying to keep up with Deliverance in 1941.
The dual purpose 150mm guns however were never completely satisfactory suffering in particular of a poor rate of traverse for anti-aircraft duty and possible cartridge jamming when at high elevation angles.
In 1943 the Eridani was sunk in harbour due to saboteurs action and deemed a total loss, but her sister ships survived the war and were placed in reserve in the late 1940s.
With newer and more capable battleships also in reserve Corona and Hydra were never reactivated, instead being sold for scrap in 1962; public interest managed to acquire Hydra that was relocated to Millhaven and permanently grounded in shallow water as a memorial.
Due to minimal upkeep Hydra deteriorated significantly until 1995 when she was designated a national landmark and a restoration project was commenced; while her restoration is still incomplete, the ship is now open for visitors.

Ships in class

-ARS Eridani (A62), 1938
-ARS Corona (A63), 1939
-ARS Hydra (A64), 1939


ARS Eridani (A62) in 1938


Armament

-9x 380mm Mk IIImod L/50 in 3x triple Mk III turrets
-12x 150mm Mk XVI L/55 in 6x twin Mk II turrets
-12x 100mm Mk IX L/50 in 6x twin Mk II turrets
-30x 30mm/72 Mk III in 10x triple mounts
-16x 20mm/70 Mk II in 8x twin mounts

ARS Hydra (A64) in 1942


Hydra is depicted here in early-to-mid 1942 wearing a "Conventional II (mod)" camouflage, she received a 's. Lux' (Mk II) air search radar and other small improvements to her electronics, by this time the 30mm battery had been completely removed in favour of 40mm guns, the 20mm battery was also significantly strengthened with most guns placed in quadruple mounts or twin powered ones. During the latter part of the year the ship received a more significant refit during which the anti-aircraft directors were replaced with newer units coupled with 's. Clare' targeting radars, the remaining unpowered 20mm mounts were removed while more 40mm guns and quadruple 20mm where added.

Armament

-9x 380mm Mk IIImod L/50 in 3x triple Mk III turrets
-12x 150mm Mk XVI/II L/55 in 4x triple Mk IV turrets
-12x 100mm Mk IX L/50 in 6x twin Mk II turrets
-36x 40mm/56 in 6x quadruple mounts and 6x twin mounts
-44x 20mm/70 Mk II in 6x quadruple mounts, 2x twin mounts, and 8x twin powered mounts

as I said already earlier, your individual style is inspiring and interesting, like it. But this time I have a little nitpick regarding the underwater hull: the lines between the steel plates might perhaps be a little bit too much emphasized....might be....

I 100% agree, this was a bit of an experiment trying to make a realistic hull plating using an extremely detailed US cruiser image as a reference, and while I like the general idea I agree that the result is too emphasized (plus it took an unrealistic amount of time and sanity to do).
I think however that part of the problem is given by the fact that the plating lines are actually two shadows darker than the background color they are on, this is because otherwise the shadowed parts of the hull would be a complete mess.
Thus, I have a couple of options now for the next ships: revert to a simpler semi-realistic plating that is less on the nose or literally double my hull-red color palette in order to give each shadow its own slightly darker plating lines color.

E class (Phi and Chi type) of 1941

When WWII started none of the Vindex class destroyers was yet commissioned and even this scaled-down design (compared to the Victrix that preceded them) was seen as way too expensive and slow to produce; as such a new destroyer design was hastily drafted using the smaller Algiz class ships as a basis. This new class would not be as capable as their larger predecessor, but they could be built in more slipways and at a cheaper price. The DP 130mm MkIII turrets were in very high demand, as such older 100mm MkII mounts from the Eridani class battleships were modernized to fit the new ship, giving them arguably better long range AA defences than the Vindexes.
The design was thus finalized as the E class, and as the ships of the class were classified as torpedo boats they would not carry a proper name, being given instead an alphabetical identifier.
Although all small destroyers (or torpedo boats) produced during WWII technically belong to the E class, they are divided into three distinct generations, the first of which is called the Phi and Chi type.
The Phi & Chi type ships used a modified Algiz-type hull, to save weight and deck space the machinery was regrouped and trunked into a single funnel while the armament consisted of three twin MkII 100mm mounts, eight 40mm cannons in two qudruple or a single quadruple plus two twin mounts and eight 20mm guns in twin mounts.
Torpedo armament was reduced to eight tubes in two quadruple launchers, all ships also carried two depth charge rails and either two extra rails, two pneumatic launchers and a sonar or a significant provision of mines.
A total of 36 ships, equivalent to four nine-ship flotillas, were built between 1941 and 1942; all of them saw intense combat in all theaters, six were lost before the end of the war and another three had been transferred to other navies.
Most Phi & Chi type destroyers where deactivated shortly after the end of the hostilities and none was still in active service with the AR Navy by 1949; during the following decade all the remaining ships were scrapped or expended as targets.

Ships in class

-ARS Phi (C96), 1941
-ARS Phi-Alpha (C97), 1941
-ARS Phi-Beta (C98), 1941
-ARS Phi-Gamma (C101), 1941
-ARS Phi-Delta (C102), 1941
-ARS Phi-Epsilon (C103), 1941
-ARS Phi-Zeta (C104), 1941
-ARS Phi-Eta (C105), 1941
-ARS Phi-Theta (C107), 1941
-ARS Phi-Iota (C108), 1941
-ARS Phi-Kappa (C109), 1941
-ARS Phi-Lambda (C112), 1941
-ARS Phi-Mu (C113), 1941
-ARS Phi-Nu (C114), 1941
-ARS Phi-Xi (C115), 1941
-ARS Phi-Omicron (C116), 1941
-ARS Phi-Pi (C117), 1941
-ARS Phi-Rho (C118), 1941
-ARS Phi-Sigma (C120), 1942
-ARS Phi-Tau (C121), 1942
-ARS Phi-Upsilon (C122), 1942
-ARS Phi-Phi (C123), 1942
-ARS Phi-Chi (C125), 1942
-ARS Phi-Psi (C126), 1942
-ARS Phi-Omega (C127), 1942
-ARS Chi (C128), 1942
-ARS Chi-Alpha (C129), 1942
-ARS Chi-Beta (C130), 1942
-ARS Chi-Gamma (C131), 1942
-ARS Chi-Delta (C132), 1942
-ARS Chi-Epsilon (C133), 1942
-ARS Chi-Zeta (C134), 1942
-ARS Chi-Eta (C135), 1942
-ARS Chi-Theta (C136), 1942
-ARS Chi-Iota (C137), 1942
-ARS Chi-Kappa (C138), 1942
-ARS Chi-Lambda (C139), 1942
-ARS Chi-Mu (C140), 1942
-ARS Chi-Nu (C141), 1942
-ARS Chi-Xi (C142), 1942
-ARS Chi-Omicron (C143), 1942
-ARS Chi-Pi (C144), 1942
-ARS Chi-Rho (C145), 1942
-ARS Chi-Sigma (C146), 1942
-ARS Chi-Tau (C147), 1942
-ARS Chi-Upsilon (C148), 1942
-ARS Chi-Phi (C149), 1942
-ARS Chi-Chi (C150), 1942
-ARS Chi-Psi (C151), 1942
-ARS Chi-Omega (C152), 1942

ARS Phi (C96) in 1941


Ships with an alphabetical identifier had a coat of arms representing their letter(s), but they did not carry it nor a nameplate; instead their identifier was painted on the side of the hull at the bow and stern.

Armament

-6x 100mm Mk IX L/50 in 3x twin Mk IIM mounts
-8x 40mm/56 in 2x quadruple mounts
-8x 20mm/70 Mk II in 4x twin mounts
-8x Mk XIII 530mm torpedoes in 2x quadruple launchers
-Depth charges