Scratchbuilt Ironclad Cruiser 28mm (return to Rivet City)

yeah, that's what I was talking about!

     Having decided what I am going to present at Spartacon2019 I realized that I needed to add to my Predreadnought Fleets. The French have been on the losing end of more games than the Prussians so I decided that they would get the first of the reinforcements. There was a spare model from my most recent boat giveaway so I figured I would start with that one.

 

a reader had asked for an ironclad cruiser so I made some

the ugly one in the back was hanging around the shop when everything else had been shipped out 

I'm a soft-touch for an underdog so I started with it

 

a little sandpaper work (thanks Mr. 60 Grit!) tidied up the look

 

building the sponsons was a bit of trouble, 

I tapered the smaller part wrong and nearly wrecked it

 

from past experience I have learned to build the components as separate pieces

it greatly eases painting and riveting 

 

the cannon barrels are just paper rolled tightly around BBQ skewers

 

even with the huge space that Spartacon provides size is a consideration

so I try to keep thing manageable (I have to store these things too!)

 

late Victorian ships had odd turret arrangements so I tried to mirror that here

 

four guns in almost any direction

 

three can fire straight forward and dead-aft

 

five on the rear quarters 

the blueboard and paper turrets were so light that they kept falling off 

so I added steel washers under them

 

satisfied with the model I added rivets

 

and a mast

 

I'm going to paint it in the two-tone gray with red funnel caps pattern to match the other ships

 but maybe I should add a few more rivets

I love rivets

 

I decided to pass on adding any more rivets and got on with the painting

 

looks rather like a Dalek in this picture

 

four guns can bear on the forward quarter

 

she still needs ventilators and a life boat

 

five guns bear on the aft quarter

 

a formal side-shot

 

a high-speed hunter she carries no secondary guns

torpedo boats can't catch her, or survive near her

     This model follows the same techniques that I used building the other ships listed in Adventures in Blueboard and Foamcore shown above in the tabs so I won't bore everybody with the build details. Any questions feel free to ask in the comments section.