Italo-Turkish & First Balkan Naval Wars

[paulr]

In my 'spare' wargaming time I'm creating the GQ Ship Data Sheets for all my planned ships and in the process checking my order

I've only made a couple of minor changes to the order so far, increasing the number of ships of course

I'm also wondering what some of the designers were thinking when it came to armament layout

[KTravlos]

Well a lot of these were ironclads or re-furbished ironcalds (for example Psara, Mesudiye). And the iron clad period was one of experimentation. One think to keep in mind is blast cones. They sometimes explain why some ships had weird gun deployments.

[paulr]

A good point on blast cones

The strange combinations of armaments and layout are one of the fascinations of this period

[pierre the shy]

In my 'spare' wargaming time I'm creating the GQ Ship Data Sheets for all my planned ships and in the process checking my order

I've only made a couple of minor changes to the order so far, increasing the number of ships of course

I'm also wondering what some of the designers were thinking when it came to armament layout :-

Don't forget that I will be adding some quite a few as well    

In putting together my wish list  1. its amazing to see just how much some nations were prepared to spend on buying ships prior to WW1
                                              2. just how many protected/armoured cruisers were built at the Elswick yard on the Tyne for a range of nations from 1880 - 1914.

Luckily for me working out substitutes has been reasonably straightforward as many of the Elswick cruisers have pretty similar looks and dimensions. I have used several Japanese ships to depict the "Southern Cone" navies I am modelling from 1880 - 1914, though a couple of more exotic ships will be need to be scratchbuilt or "remodelled" from existing ones.....not quite as hairy as it sounds and can turn out well - as shown by the very nifty "americanised" steampunk walker conversion thread recently.

   

[paulr]

I haven't forgotten your additions to 'our' order

I've been making good progress on the Ship Data Sheets and learning a lot about the various ships in the process

All the Italians and Astro-Hungarians ships I'm ordering are done and all the Ottoman capital ships and destroyers I'm ordering as well

Ottoman torpedo boats, Greeks and Bulgarians to do

[paulr]

Ottoman torpedo boats, Greeks and Bulgarians SDS done, so all done
I will need to go back and proof them

I also noted that they're actually called Ship Damage Summaries not Ship Data Sheets

[paulr]

Good progress on the proofing; Italians and Austrians done

It looks like my part of the order has stabilised at 154 ships

[paulr]

I've just been through Pierre the Shy's part of our joint order
Some interesting stuff there, and all his substitutions make sense although some will involve some conversion work

By some bizarre coincidence we have come up with almost equal value orders
I suspect it has something to do with round numbers

[paulr]

I've just triple checked our combined order 

139 packs

I will be getting 163 ships 
With only 7 small ships spare

[KTravlos]

haha, now that is a lot of ships. I hope they bring you joy!

[mollinary]

This may be a strange place to post it, but there is a fascinating programme on Quest at present 10.15pm UK time) on the sinking of the Maine in Havana Harbour. Thought the naval Guys reading this thread might be interested.

Mollinary

[streetgang]

I just stumbled across this post, some interesting stuff. I have the Greek and Ottoman fleets to refight the major engagements of the First Balkan War. All of my ships are Navwar, I believe I used German TBs for Turks and French TBs for Greeks. Painted my fleets very similar to what you have planned: My Ottoman fleet was painted a dingy khaki with TBs in black. The Greeks are a light grey, can't recall how I painted the TBs, here are some of my ships:

http://lecoqfou.blogspot.com/2015/01/balkans-war-at-sea.html

I later purchased Russian Black Sea ships for hypothetical clashes between the Ottomans and Russians. I may have to venture into the Italian-Ottoman War too. Two good books for the Balkans and Italian Ottoman Wars are The Balkan Wars 1912-1913: Prelude to the First World War and A Box of Sand. Both deal with the naval aspects and have some good photos of vessels. I use a ruleset from a local gamer called "When Dreadnoughts Ruled the Seas" which have expansion sets for the pre-dreadnought era. The rules are more game than simulation and ships really take a pounding but they are a blast to play.

I also have pre-dreads form War Times Journal; their models, especially the 3D prints, are extremely detailed. That being said, there is something very charming (and speed paint friendly) about the Navwar models.

[paulr]

Nice looking ships Streetgang 
Particularly impressive tripod masts on Georgios Averof

I will be adding masts as I have done on my WWII ships, it makes a huge difference

WTJ do look to have a higher level of detail but I decided to go with a consistent look across all the ships

We will be using General Quarters I/II with the Pre-dreadnought mods from the Yahoo group

I've scaled up the AF & DF factors by a factor of 4 and included 12, 6 & 3pdr guns. This allows more differentiation between particularly the smaller ships

I've also changed the ground scale from the 1cm : 200 yards we use for WWI & WWII to 1cm : 100 yards to allow for some of the slower ships and also make the few fast ships feel 'really' fast

[paulr]

Order sent off to NavWar

Once I found a Post Office that had a fax machine

Fortunately it was my local Post Office that was still open when I got back from work

[streetgang]

Thanks Paul, I appreciate the kind words. I can't take credit for the tripod mast, that is all NavWar. The extent of my masts are single rods of brass wire where the masts should be. It gives enough of an impression for me to be content with. Good luck with your venture and please be sure to post some pictures, we can all use inspiration and motivation, I am trying to finish off my Russian Black Sea fleet now!

[pierre the shy]

Morning Streetgang

Very nice looking ships. I always add masts to my 1/3000 ships as they do make the models look much better and are generally easy to do, though I have gone through several 1mm and 1.5mm drillbits over time as I use a small modelling handdrill for the holes for the brass rod masts.

I've included some (well quite a few actually  ) pre-WW1 Navwar ships from various other nations with Paul's order but there are a few that I couldn't match.

However WTJ make the Chilean and Spanish ships I need in 3D printed "plastic"?

Interested if you had any issues/advice about painting the 3D printed ones if you did get them (as opposed to WTJ's metal cast models) as I might get the WTJ ones at some stage.

Cheers
Peter

[fred.]

Order sent off to NavWar

Once I found a Post Office that had a fax machine

Fortunately it was my local Post Office that was still open when I got back from work

You can send faxes by email these days, which might make it a bit easier!

[KTravlos]

I have never had any issues with painting WTJ rapid prototype ships. I consider them the best bang for you buck when it comes to the balance between detail and price.

[paulr]

My credit card has just had a rather large transaction from Navwar

So that confirms that someone has cleared their fax machine and the fax went to the right place

I wonder if it also means they have processed and dispatched the order
Three days is pretty quick to get that many ships together

It certainly contrasts with the level of communication we almost take for granted from Pendraken

[paulr]

A 1.35kg box from Navwar arrived for me at work today

I resisted opening it for almost half an hour

According to the note inside we got everything we wanted including the 'special order' of just some of the ships out of a couple of battle backs

I have some sorting to do tonight