Building the 1898 fleet

Having bought Dave Manley's campaign game and rules for the Spanish American War of 1898 a fortnight ago I'm now pretty much on top of the mechanics, as well as the pre dreadnought broadside and salvo rules that come with the game.  Don't have any ships though.  Time to rectify that with some scratch builds.

The base material here is Balsa, and I will be basing the completed vessels on clear plastic.  Scale will be 1:2400

The forces involved in the 1898 conflict were limited to a handful of US Cruisers and "coastal" battleships, against the small number of cruisers and destroyers belonging to the Spanish.  I decided to start with the USS Brooklyn one of the US flagships.  Once I had that model sorted the rest would be straightforward using the same principles.

Brooklyn was 117 metres long, making her larger than the battleships, and as a cruiser had a much higher freeboard, designed for better sea keeping.  That bow alone shows that this is a ship that could charge her way through the Atlantic rollers.

I started with the ship plans freely available online.  I wasn't trying for an exact detailed model, just the look.  My USS Brooklyn at 1:2400 comes in at just around 5cm by 1cm.

First the hull, and with that high cruisers freeboard I used 5mm balsa and sanded the tumblehome into a curve.  Brooklyn required this to fire the low set batteries free from deck clutter.  

History records that she kept her way well in rough seas so I'm happy with that bow too.  

After much cutting, gluing and coffee I had the turrets and superstructure in place, and just about the right look on the model.  The guns were fiddly and had to be in thin bamboo strips to work.

The USN used a light grey paint with more leeway on funnels and some superstructure,  so a grey undercoat went on.  She was starting to look the part.

Whilst that was drying I started the first of the Spanish Cruisers

Soon had the Isabella up to scratch.  

And a couple of Coastal Monitor Battleships for the US.  

USS Texas.  Need to redo the portholes!

The finished look.  Quite pleased with the scratch builds.  I could have bought Old Glory's models at £18 each but these come in at 18p for the lot.  Much more satisfying to build my own.  Oddly enough the Brooklyn was the first one I completed and is still my favourite...

Now to battle...