A140-X Yamato Never-Were

interesting concept

decent work too

Very nice - I like the originality of your idea, and the execution is not too shabby, either!  It always bothered me that all those ships (mostly Japanese) that had 3 main turrets forward could never capitalize on that extra firepower to fire straight ahead.  If their tT was crossed they only had 2 turrets available to respond just like any other ship.  Their only usefulness was in a broadside, and for that the turrets could be located anywhere.  Especially the Rodneys, with their entire main battery placed forward.  They'd better be able to run pretty fast if they get outgunned, because they sure can't return fire then!

I looked at your layout and was thinking of the same thing - how would it be possible to step up 3 main turrets instead of just 2, so that all could fire head-on?  Especially for turrets of this size it would be a problem - perhaps not so much for ships with a smaller caliber main armament.  Maybe I should revisit my high school days, when I designed aircraft and ships in my notebook instead of paying attention in class. 

Don't get me wrong - I'm just rambling and speculating here, not cricitizing your design.  Heck - you could just keep right on designing what-if ships from existing kits with no end in sight - how awesome would that be?  What's next?  Maybe an IJN AA-type cruiser like the US Atlanta class?  You've got a great imagination and a real talent for bringing those ideas to life in plastic.  Keep it up!

The point putting all turrets forward is to accentuate the defensive qualities of the ship by putting the No 3 turret in the middle of the ship behind the deepest part of the ship's torpedo defense, and shortening the vulnerable propeller shaft ally by moving the engine room further to the rear.    It also shortens the length of armored belt needed to protect the magazine.

All else being the same, a turret forward ship can efford better protection on the same tonnage as a conventional ship.  Conversely, a turret forward ship can afford greater engine power if its designer was willing to settle for the same standard of protection as a conventional ship.   The second was what the Japanese were after when they designed the original A-140 concept.  They wanted a ship with the same armament, protection and firepower that was later given to the Yamato, but they also wanted 4 knots of extra speed over Yamato.    

Chuck Fan brings up what we were taught in hull & armament design class.

The other factor to consider is that in the big guns, you jsut about can't fire straight ahead anyway (there's "stuff" or personnell forward that will get either carried away or injured in the middle 10-15º of the centerline).  The typical "B" turret also needs to be trained off some amount, too, or firing its guns is deletiroous to the "A" turret johnnies.

Now, an "ambush" T crossing, where it's shoot or sink, well, that's different.  However, when your guns range out to 20-30nm, you rarely have that sort of situation.  Which means you can put the helm over enough to train enough guns at the bad guys to engage them thoroughly.

Mostly.  It's a complicated chess game of vector analysis and third-order curve geometries.

Now, the only tricky thing about this A140X is that the balance of secondary turrets may be off a tad.  Even with all of those monster 18" rifles forward, it's right handy to have something in the 5-6" bore that fires rather rapidly in case you are closing with a destroyer or light cruiser full up of torpedos . . .