Nice image from this great post at video game forum: [CLICK]
Whew! First post since November, 2018. Things have been super-busy but 2019 is hopefully going to be a lot calmer with only a couple of major projects with the family and a lighter work schedule, overall. TY2020 is scheduled to be VERY light so the 1:1 Army will not be too bad, and I just have to await what God does with pastoral work to see how busy I will be or not be. Hopefully, there'll be lots of time connecting with my immediate family and spending time with my almost 10yo who is getting very very active! In any event, this project was from late spring / early summer of 2018, and I hope to get these painted up and experiment with masts, fighting tops and a little rigging.
The Italian squadron, below. I've doubled down on Italia and Lepanto on the fictional assumption that Italy had the desire and resources to produce additional ships. Next to them are the plastic fighting tops. Overall, smaller is better for these, and if one has to err in a certain direction, get the smaller ones instead of the larger ones.
As noted before, these lovely little white metal ships are from Wartime Journal's now extinct metal line of 1/3000 ships. As they are totally gone, there's no point in a review. However, it should give you an idea of the kind of work done there and more confidence in the line of 3D plastics that are rapidly being produced [and which continue to be a sore tempation for me!].
My wargame tendancy for 1/3000 is to have squadron battles using variations of Portable Wargame rules, so groups of 3-4 ships are most suitable. I can also pair them into small "squadrons" of two ships each for games where extra players show up. The balance of captain business - allocating resources of crew, steam, and navigation - is what I find players to be most interested in, so 2-4 ships is just fine. Also, fighting squadrons per player instead of just a ship or two gives some space for lucky shots and accidental blowups.
Another view. Casting was excellent, but there's a bit of flash spiraling off the area where I supposed the metal is injected into the mold. Note that the plastics don't have any flash.
1/3000 ships are available from several sources, so altho I don't have any intent to add to this project at this time, the possibility is always there. Top view shows the interesting layout of the Italian ships. Altho the guns are supposed to be able to fire nearly 180 degrees, in practice the muzzle blast made this very difficult, so I'd probably restrict the ship to a much smaller angle, say 120 or something, just to differentiate in a rule set.
Flash removal was performed with a sharp X-acto blade, bracing the ship against a wooden ruler. Despite the cutting, there was still a bit left upon the stacks that had to be smoothed with a file. Still, this was just a few minutes of work per ship.
This "q-tip" appearing thingamabob is actually a bit of soft-sanding material on a plastic blue stick. I used it to gently rub off the mold lines and such. For some of the ships, they actually had a deck line halfway down the hull, so it may not be a flash line at all.
The four Big Ships, 2 x Italian class, 2 x Lepanto class [really, the same class, same designer, Benedetto Brin]. These are larger and easier to clean up.
The four smaller ships. Calabria PC [CLICK], cruiser Dogali [CLICK], 2 x Etna-class Protected Cruiser [CLICK]. The selection was based upon availability from WTJ. However, all four of these ships were similarly armed and could easily be a squadron with identical stats, or differentiated for more individualized play in a game.
The nice thing about the pre-dreadnought era is that so many ships were singular, even eccentric and quirky in their design and even maintenance, that any amount of individuality can be argued as historically accurate! Let's here it for creativity and imagination: "huzzah!"
Some interesting model comparisons from the Italians to the Spanish Squadron, BELOW.
The three Italian Giuseppe Garibaldi Armored Cruisers are only a minor stretch of history. The Italians built ten which went to four countries [CLICK]. The Cristobal Colon was delivered to Spain [CLICK] but Pedro de Aragon was cancelled, and certainly one or two could've been acquired or loaned from Argentina during the occasional Spanish naval panics of the 1890s. The Pelayo [tilted on the file] is an early pre-dread BB design [CLICK]. It's a French design with some tumblehome, and the most powerful ship in the Spanish navy; some argue that had she and Armored Cruiser Carlos V entered action during the Spanish-American war the history might be different [insert grain of salt here].
Some flash sticking out of the ends or various deck projections of the ships. Easy removal.
Below, torpedo-boats, destroyers, who can tell? Tiny ships that can be a pain to work with but useful on the tabl. They can also be fought as squadrons or individuals on the table, depending on player numbers, so these little guys add a lot of flexibility to a host's game. All you need is two sets of player aids on hand.
Here, they are being gently scrubbed down with a soft toothbrush and mild dish soap, removing any release agent from the ship. Note that these have no mold, flash or other bits to be removed.
Note that these really need to be mounted on something for ease of handling, not to mention speed of painting!
Drake - Class cruisers below [CLICK]. From about 1902, they are really at the tail end of the project, but provide a glimpse of the future. Their 23-knot speed and 9" and 6" guns offer some variety in tactical play that will presage WWI choices. For gaming, a bit of variety in speed, gunnery and armor provides players with different challenges on the table. I see these operating similarly to the WWI British and German battlecruisers in my earlier fictitious Mediterranean naval flare-up!
Flash was not too bad, similar to that of the Italian BBs, and the mold lines actually appear to be almost natural. Big pic from Wiki shows a bit of shadowing there. Can't remember if I sanded them down at this point or not, but you get the idea. Internet pics are definitely our friend when it comes to working on these little guys.
Well, there you have it - a long wait for this post to go up, I think the pics are from June 2018. Just putting up the post makes me want to get moving again on this project. The question is who should fight whom first? Italians v. French for ownership of Sardegna? Spanish v. Italians over the Baleric Islans? Hard to say, but stay tuned!
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