1/600 A-H Battle Cruiser Design Ie Main Armament

In 1915 the KuK Marine (Kaiserliche und Konigliche Kriesgmarine), the Austro-Hungarian Navy, decided to start working on a new series of designs to produce a battle cruiser (which the nation lacked so far), taking on board the lessons and impressions of the battle of the Falklands of the previous year, and the escape of SMS Goeben from the pursuing British into the Mediterranean. The new ship designs were to be part of the post-war fleet, as every side was convinced the Great War would not last very long.
By late 1915 - early 1916, variants of Design I were on the drawing board. Common elements were to be: a standard displacement of 30.000 tons (34.000 full load), maximum speed of 30 kn, 225 mm main belt, and an armament of 35 cm guns in different configurations (the same mounted on the Ersatz Monarch class).
Design Ie was the reverse concept of Design Id, with the superfiring turrets being grouped aft instead of forward while retaining the midships gun position, in a very similar fashion to early German battle cruiser designs, although in the latter case the midships turrets were a pair positioned en echelon.