Thursday 21 July 2011

Double Turkish Delight


A Lion class with the resultant Reshadieh

The picture above is of the second of the conversions undertaken for the 1914 Turkish fleet using Minifigs ships. She is the Reshadieh or HMS Erin as she became after having been seized by the Royal Navy. I opted for her rather than HMS Agincourt simply because she was a very easy conversion to do whereas the Agincourt would have been rather more ambitious!


Reshadieh - the white deck house will be a lot less obvious once painted!

She was a good ship although quite short ranged by Royal Navy standards although as she was only used in the North Sea this was not so much of a handicap. It does mean though that both her and the Yavuz will need to consider frequent coaling stops whilst out raiding allied supply lines.

As mentioned the model was very straightforward to make and merely involved removing the third funnel and clearing the top of the rear deck house from one of the Lion class models I have and simply adding a turret. Some plastic rod was added to the rear of the new turret for some detailing.


HMS Lion although actually closer to the Queen Mary

Strictly speaking 'Q' turret should be a deck higher than on the Lion but this would have involved some fairly drastic surgery and so I left it as is.

I have changed my mind about converting another of the Lions so Reshadieh will be the only one. The two ships will form a powerful force that the Royal Navy will have to treat with respect and that will need to be urgently dealt with as soon as they are able to.


Reshadieh and Yavuz Sultan Selim awaiting the paint tray

To be continued....





6 comments:

Peter Douglas said...

DC

Looking good. I think that you'd need at least two dreadnoughts to make one "Againcourt/Rio de Janero/Sultan Osman".

PD

David Crook said...

Hi Peter,

I half considered it but chickened out in the end!

I have seen a conversion of a 1/1200th Airfix HMS Hood that was used for one and actually used the same during a Flatcher Pratt naval game many years ago.

All the best,

DC

Peter Douglas said...

DC
HMS Lion was a good 150 longer than the Erin. Did you shorten her, or are you just living with her as being representative of her type (that would be my option!)?

PD

David Crook said...

Hi Peter,

I left her the same length as the Lion - chopping up the hull was a little on the drastic side and besides - she looks far more intimidating!

All the best,

DC

Beccas said...

They look fantastic. Well done.

David Crook said...

Hi Beccas,

Many thanks old chap! I am changing the rear deck house slightly to something a little more realistic looking - and the Yavuz needs to lose a little height so lots of filing to come!

All the best,

DC