Tuesday, 6 June 2023

Thoughts on Turkish Ironclads


The original configuration of the two Feth-i-Bulend class ironclads….


….and how they now look post the minor, ahem, adjustment!

This was a very quick and easy job to tackle - all I did was to move the funnels back a little and touch up the paint job. In all I reckon no more than an hour with the appropriate gaps for drying time.Whilst working on these I had a quick look at the rest of the Turkish navy of the period and the ships I will be looking to build. Originally I was looking at another four ships making eight in total but this has now increased to eight - simply because I had forgotten about the two you see and also a couple of other types below that are being extensively rebuilt. When I say extensively what I actually mean is starting them again from scratch as there were too many things that needed adjusting to make refurbishment worthwhile. This will give the Turks a strength of a dozen ships which will be more than sufficient for my needs. 


A pair of Luft-u Celil class ironclad sea-going monitors. Whilst nice looking models there are a number of inaccuracies that have been niggling away and much of the building technique was not of my later standard so they will be rebuilt from scratch.

Reviewing some of the ships the Turks had in service during the period there are a few that will require some bespoke hull pieces from Warbases - the same applies to some of those from the Royal Navy - so I am thinking that spending some time finalising the make up of the fleets would be a good idea. In doing so I get everything I need in one fell swoop which I have learned from past experience makes the final construction a whole lot easier having everything to hand!
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4 comments:

  1. Steve J.6 June 2023 at 10:43

    Well they do look rather nice David:). Setting out forces in advance is a noble idea and something I feel I try to do (well these days at least) but somehow there is always another unit that hoves into view that was not in said plan...

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  2. David Crook6 June 2023 at 10:53

    Hi Steve J,

    Cheers old chap! The whole funnel thing was really beginning to grate so I am glad I took the time to change them. The other two I had forgotten about - I had tried to adjust the model but it would have taken rather more work than starting them from new!

    Luckily this mini project will not be too model intensive - I am looking at around two dozen all in. This will require forests of masts and spars!

    All the best,

    DC

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  3. Glory to Ruritania7 June 2023 at 13:16

    Dear David, hope your going okay. They look fabulous. Just cannot get over how well you have perfected these models.
    We have tried to do some pre-dreadnoughts battleships it’s a lot of hard work😅 thanks for sharing. Quinn

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  4. David Crook7 June 2023 at 13:45

    Hello there Quinn,

    I am well thanks and I hope you are also! Thank you for your very kind comments and support for my models - it is much appreciated. They are by design meant to be simple looking and stylised, toy like even, but that is part of their charm. As I use a grid for my gaming scales are not really an issue for me and to be honest I am not too fussed about acres of detail on the models. They stand up well to the 3ft rule and as I always say, they fight just as well as anything commercially available!

    Besides, making them is a whole lot of fun.

    As far as pre dreadnoughts go I can tell you that they are definitely on my ‘to do’ list at some point. I just need to get the ironclads out of my system first of all!

    All the best,

    DC

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