1/350 HMS Australia/NZ 1915 12" MKX Guns Blast Bag

1/350 Scale HMS New Zealand or HMAS Australia 1915 12" BL MKX Guns x4 with Blast Bags as seen after Jutland. These are highly detailed parts modelled from original plans found in John Roberts Battlecruisers Book and using many reference photographs. These have been created to replace the inaccurate/poor quality Turrets found in the Comrig 1/350 HMS New Zealand or HMAS Australia Kit. This set represent both ships as seen after the Battle of Jutland (1915) having had extra roof and Turret face armour plating added as well as extra baffles for the sighting ports. These have a different gun house shape from the other 12" MKX Guns carried on Dreadnought and the Invincible Class battlecruisers. See My Shop for other sets covering different scales and time periods.

Details include:

• Accurate armour thickness and dimensions from original plans
• correct Rangefinder layout for this time period
• Hex Nuts, Rivets, Sighting Ports and Hatches
• Digitally sculpted Blast Bags with Barrels in place set at elevation of 3º
  (other elevations can be requested)

Historial Information
A Vickers design used on the famous British battleship HMS Dreadnought, which was the first battleship completed with an "all big gun" main armament.

These guns were originally developed for the two ships of the Lord Nelson class, the last of the British pre-dreadnoughts. The mountings and guns intended for those ships were instead used to speed the construction of HMS Dreadnought. As a result, construction on the Lord Nelson class was held up while new guns and mountings were built for them, delaying their completion until 1908. Thus, these last British "pre-dreadnoughts" were actually finished two years after their design had been obsoleted by HMS Dreadnought.

In addition to their use on capital ships, a further three guns with four spares were mounted as coastal artillery in Belgium during World War I.

Constructed of nickel-steel inner A and A tubes, full length wire, B tube and overlapping jacket. The breech bush screwed into the A tube and then were both shrunk and screwed on to collars on the latter. These guns used a mechanically improved breech mechanism of "pure couple" design that was either manually or hydraulically worked. This proved so successful that it was essentially copied in all later designs. 133 Mark X guns were manufactured plus two Mark X* guns, which was to an earlier design with a thinner chase and weighed 448 lbs. (203 kg) less.

Cleaning Information
Some part cleanup will be necessary. The 3D printing process uses a waxy substance to support certain part features during the printing process. Although the parts are cleaned by Shapeways, some waxy residue may remain.  It can be safely removed with water and a mild aqueous detergent like "Simple Green" using an old, soft toothbrush, Q-tips or pipe cleaners. During the printing process, liquid resin is cured by ultraviolet light.  Microscopic bits of resin may remain uncured.

Let your parts sit in direct sunlight for a few hours to fully cure the resin.  

Water-based acrylic paints meant for plastics is strongly recommended.
Other paints, especially enamels, may not cure on Frosted Detail 3D-printed plastics.

Use dedicated model sprue cutters to remove parts to minimise the risk of damage to parts.
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