WesWorld

Personally, I would favor the first alternative. As drawn, you are showing directors fore and aft, which makes sense. In the second design there is only one director shown, and that is forward. With the gun arcs of the midships gun position constrained and the after battery so far removed from the sole director, it would make things somewhat difficult for gun control. With the first design the guns forward and aft can each operate with their own director and two targets can be engaged rather than just one.

Quoted

I don't there would be enough beam for a hangar and two Squid on the second version

Well from what I can see the weapon itself is fairly narrow so as it is drawn it would probably fit on those sides but there would most likely be no space to reload them. Looking at photos, my guess would be about 5 to 6 meters needed for the squid and the loading rails...

I would think that they would also hinder the twin 57mm mounts aft a bit.

Another thing is that on the picture the superstructure has a bits sticking out of the side so the Squid launchers can be placed closer to the edges of the ship's beam but it is not visible on the inset with the flying turd. I would also make them so those superstructure parts are integrated into the sides of the hull. Maybe something like below if you really want them on the sides of the hangar instead of on the stern. Might be possible to move them a few pixels further back to give the 57mm guns a bit more space...

Quoted from "Hood"

The first design is more or less what my planned production examples will look like, thought slightly shorter. I will probably move both Squid and the torpedoes to the midships space.
I don't there would be enough beam for a hangar and two Squid on the second version, I would be tempted to move the Squid to the stern.

Should be roughly similar in dimensions to the Revolution. Moving the ASW gear amidships is something I contemplated, and will probably relocate for the non-helo version.

Thought about relocating the Squids to the fantail, but wasn't sure if they'd end up replacing or interfering with traditional DC racks.

Quoted from "BruceDuncan"

Personally, I would favor the first alternative. As drawn, you are showing directors fore and aft, which makes sense. In the second design there is only one director shown, and that is forward. With the gun arcs of the midships gun position constrained and the after battery so far removed from the sole director, it would make things somewhat difficult for gun control. With the first design the guns forward and aft can each operate with their own director and two targets can be engaged rather than just one.

Couldn't figure out a decent place for an aft director with the Helo facilities, yes. The logical place would have it right above the hangar, but right aft of the mack vents, which is probably unwise.

I'm contemplating a dedicated leader variant which would be more in line with the first iteration, but with the X mount totally removed to compensate for the hangar and flag facilities.