Many thanks for your flattery! My isnpiration was that of the Montana class (BB-67). The extra turret always facinated me and excited my testosterone fed need for more guns, LOL. As for the superstructure... the idea really didnt come from anywhere. It is a case of form following function. Although there are a couple of little bits that i took from warships of times past. Examples: the bridge is a combination of Iowa and Bismarck bridges. That can be seen in the navigation bridge surrounding the conning tower which comes from the Iowas. The Bismarcks contribution was that of the wing bridges, which I feel would help out in situations of navigation. They serve no combat function at all. (NOTE: Bismarck was not the only BB to have those wings. The first US dreadnoughts had this feature.)
As for the CIWS...I have no objection at all to using RAM, but I feel strongly that warships should have CIWS. Why? If the war in the Pacific taught me anything about ship protection it taught me that a wall of lead is an excellent protection against a determined pilot and plane streaking towards your ship. The only thing more determined than a kamakazi is a antiship missle moving at the speed of sound towards your ship. Granted a CIWS wont get them all in a massed missle strike against your ship (nor would RAM, no weapon system is perfect), but CIWS with RAM can provide two layers of protection which can go a long way to protect your platform and sailors. LOL so incase I rambled on too much, the short of it is that while i may reduce the number of CIWS, I wont get rid of them completely, it is a weapon system I believe in. Again, I appreciate your comments and look forward to more.
I will tell you what program i used to draw them, but before I tell you, you should be sitting down. I used MS Paint to draw them.... yes, MS Paint. The actual picture if it were printed out in actual size would be some 3 feet long. lol makes for a huge bitmap file. Anyway, not having a CAD or some high priced graphics program I used what i had available to me and in order to get the level of detail i wanted i had to draw the picture BIG and sometimes pixel by pixel.