Scale 1/144

Set includes 2 mounts (turrets) with barrels.
 
The 5"/54 caliber Mark 41 twin-gun mount (turret) was a proposed, late World War II–era dual-purpose naval gun mount to be installed aboard the never-built Montana-class battleships. Using two 5"/54 caliber Mk.16 cannons, they were intended to replace the 5"/38 caliber secondary gun batteries then in widespread use with the US Navy.
 
No official plans, drawings or photos of mock-ups of the proposed 5"/54 cal. Mk.41 twin-gun mount's gunhouse are known to exist. This design is a theoretical enlargement of the very real Mk.16 single-gun 5"/54 cal. mount fit to very real Midway-class aircraft carriers and later installed in the very real Japanese Akizuki-class and Murasame-class destroyers from 1958 to 1959. Credible sources indicate that the Mk.41 twin-gun mount would have carried the same gun as the Mk.16 single-gun mount. Since the real 5"/53 cal. gun is known to fit and work in a real Mk.16 gunhouse, the real Mk.16 gunhouse can be used as a logical basis from which a theoretical Mk.41 gunhouse can be designed.
 
This theoretical design takes into account the size of the actual gun at all serviceable elevations, working space around and between the guns, loading space, crew passing space behind the guns at zero elevation, space required for recoil, space required for spent shell casing ejection, space for the breech when the gun is positioned at maximum elevation, and other factors. Theoretical Mk.41 gunhouse shape, access hatches, and hatch hinges are consistent with the real Mk.16 gunhouse.

Some have argued that the 5"/54 cal. Mk.16 gun would have been installed within the same gunhouses enclosing the shorter 5"/38 cal. guns fit to the Iowa class, South Dakota class and North Carolina class battleships. But a 3D design study shows that the 5"/54 cal. Mk.16 gun does not fit in that gunhouse. The gun is simply too big. The 5"/54 cal. Mk.16 gun's breech extends so far to the rear of the trunnion that there is insufficient space behind the breech in the small 5"/38 cal. gunhouse to load the gun or provide sufficient space for recoil. Additionally, when fully elevated, the breech of the 5"/54 cal. gun pierces the 5"/38 cal. gunhouse floor. Since the 5"/54 gun can't operate in the 5"/38 cal. gunhouse, a new, larger gunhouse that can accommodate the 5"/54 cal. Mk. 16 gun is required, hence the need for the Mk.41 mount.

Features:
detailed mount captain blast hood
separate trunnions with integrated barrels to allow the modeler to choose any realistic elevation from +85 degrees to -15 degrees
crew access hatches and maintenance hatches with hinge and bolt-head details
accurately sized and located bolt-heads, consistent with the Mk.16 mount
detailed traverse limiter on the lower glacis, consistent with the Mk.16 mount
integrated barbette

To assemble the mounts, insert the barrels through the open bottom.

Montana Class:
BB-67 USS Montana
BB-68 USS Ohio
BB-69 USS Louisiana
BB-70 USS New Hampshire
BB-71 USS Maine

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