HMS Superb. There are a few little tweaks I need to make to her - mainly paintwork related - to bring up to the current standard. I want to start adding ship’s boats to my models to break up the vast expanses of deck.
I have been spending some rather pleasant time poring over naval reference books to flesh out the details for the Anglo-Turkish War of 1880. I am looking at around eight models for each fleet and these will have two divisions of four apiece. The first division will be the main battleships whilst the second will consist of smaller types.
One of reasons I spent some time on this is so that I am able to work out what hulls I need and how many. Luckily most of these are known to Warbases so it will simply be a case of reordering - particularly in the case of the four Turkish ironclads that will be rebuilt - and the number of new designs will be quite modest.
As it stand as at present the makeup of the two fleets will be something like this.
Royal Navy
Superb - 332ft by 54ft - 5” by 1 1/4”
Audacious/Invincible - 280ft by 54ft - 4” by 1 1/4”
Belleisle/Orion - 245ft by 52ft - 3 1/2” by 1 1/4”
Alexandra - 325ft by 1 1/4” - 5” by 1 1/4”
Temeraire - 285ft by 62ft - 4” by 1 1/4”
Penelope - 260ft by 50ft - 4” by 1 1/4”
Monarch - 330ft by 60ft - 5 by 1 1/4”
I am torn between Penelope and Temeraire as there are 9 ships listed above. This will probably mean I will end up building both….
Turkey
Messudieh - 331ft by 59ft - 5” by 1 1/4”
Feth-i Bulend (x2) - 236ft by 39ft - 3 1/2” by 1”
Avnillah (x2) - 226ft by 35ft - 3 1/2” by 1”
Assar-i Tewfik - 272ft by 52ft - 4” by 1 1/4”
Assar-i Sevket (x2) - 217ft by 42ft - 3 1/2” by 1”
Iclaliye - 216ft by 42ft - 3 1/2” by 1”
Osmaniye (x2) - 299ft by 55ft - 4 1/2” by 1 1/4”
Luft-u Celil (x2) - 211ft by 54ft - 31/2” by 1 1/4”
Straightaway you can see that there are more than the target eight ships listed above - so I will need to drop five of them or, more likely, just build the whole lot….
The above also shows to highlight the difference in size between HMS Superb and the four ironclads I have already built for the Turks. The latter are roughly one hundred feet shorter than the British ship - a difference I cannot really ignore and so the Turkish ships will be built anew.
There is a plus side to this rebuilding. A number of the Turkish ships had long service lives and were often rebuilt and ‘modernised’. Messudieh is a prime example and indeed, she saw service in both the Balkan Wars and WW1 when she was sunk. Feth-i Bulend and Muin-i Zafir both underwent rebuilds as well and so having the basic hull template means that I can build both earlier and later versions - which has implications for Afrabia/Madasahatta.
This is going to be fun - especially when I start work on the back story!
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