Playing Drafts

Although I still have to build a few more models for Lake Tanganyika - these will be on the small side, motorboats and similar - my thoughts have already stepped forward into the rest of the ‘Afrabian’ collection. As an aside Afrabia - a mixture of Africa and Arabia - is a fitting name for the theatre of my planned WW1 naval project which of course will include Madasahatta.

Thus far I have been wary of tackling ‘modern’ style warships - in this case WW1 - as there tends to be a lot more detail from the main deck upwards. Flying bridges, conning towers, searchlight platforms etc, not to mention shielded and un shielded guns of all calibres and of course turrets. For the ACW the ships tended to be a lot simpler looking!

In many ways the model of the Graf Von Goetzen convinced me that actual warships for the period would be doable - mainly due to the provision of the bridge and boat deck - but that they would need a little more in the way of planning than the earlier ironclads. 

My standard template for warship hulls - this one is 4” long by 1” wide. In my world the 1” beam is usable for ships with an actual beam of 30 to 45 feet.

Rightly or wrongly my standard hull template will form the basis for these models - mainly because I have quite a supply of some of the key sizes I will need. It is probably worth mentioning why this template is the shape it is. Basically I needed a shape with straight sides, primarily for the casemate ironclad types. It is simpler to make straight sided box like structures than curved, at least using my technique and the  materials that go with it. Practicality over style is definitely my modelling mantra!

Anyways, for the Afrabia project I have drawn up a list of the principle ships to be built although I have not included things like merchantmen, colliers, tugs etc. It is a fairly lengthy list but nowhere near the size of the ACW collection. I have yet to finalise the Lake Tanganyika collection but reckon around half a dozen or so models will do it.

So without further ado here are the named models that will need building.

Rufiji Delta

SMS Konigsberg

HMS Severn

HMS Mersey

HMS Weymouth

HMS Chatham

HMS Dartmouth

There will be some smaller craft involved in this as well but they can be built quickly and from stock.

Another force that will feature as part of this consists of the following:

HMS Astraea

HMS Challenger

HMS Hyacinth

All the above are historically ‘in theatre’ but where things get rather more interesting is when you factor in the ‘what could have been there’ types and the ‘never was-ers’. A good example of the former is the light cruiser SMS Bremen. She put into one of the German West African ports early in 1914 and her captain prepared a detailed report for its defence. Luckily for the allies this was never followed up on.

SMS Blucher from the film Shout at the Devil. 

The latter will be the planned twin sisters of the German navy taken straight from the pages of fiction - SMS Blucher and SMS Ziethen. I need to read both Shout at the Devil and Brown on Resolution for any further details - assuming there are any! I have yet to consider any similar heavier metal for the Royal Navy but it will feature - as well as some pre dreadnoughts.

A (very) rough initial draft of what will eventually become a German light cruiser - and I shall be building three of them.

The rather crude drawing you see above is the first draft of the design for what will be a German light cruiser. I tend to do this to get my ‘eye in’ so to speak so that I can then translate this into a more accurate drawing with measurements etc. Once this is done then it is off to Warbases to have the requisite pieces produced. Having some good references is invaluable at this stage! 

SMS Konigsberg having a bad day.

For the model above I shall have a single bespoke main deck piece - the actual ship (this could be any of the earlier German light cruisers as they all had a similar layout) has a raised fore and quarter deck joined centrally (the circles are the funnels) and with four sponsons, each mounting a 4.1” gun. There are two shielded deck guns mounted amidships and two pairs each of two guns fore and aft. 

This will mean six shielded guns to build and four fitted into the sponsons. The masts are no problem but the searchlight platforms (and the searchlights) will need to be made, as will the forward bridge structure and the aft deckhouse. 

Whilst the end result will not be a super detailed scale replica it will look like that which it is supposed to!

As ever, ‘based upon’, ‘purely representational’ or even ‘Hollywood style’ will be the building technique of choice. All I now need to do then is to get drafting and crafting!