Sunday, November 24, 2013

WTJ Armored Cruisers - WK Project # 8


Here's a couple of armored cruisers which I recently finished.  First up is the Infanta Maria Teresa which was sunk by the US navy in 1898, will be rechristened for the navy of Vavarde in the game.  I have to say that WTJ has done a great job with these 1/1500, but I think this particular model is not quite a home run, the low freeboard gives her kind of a squashed look, at least to my eyes.

 

Then again, perhaps it's accurate, but it seems to me that a small model looks better off exaggerating the freeboard on the high side over appearing to ride low in the water. In any case, I shimmed the hull with a base of 0.5mm styrene.



Next we have a Gloire class armored cruiser.  As squat and ungainly as a lot of the French pre-dreads look to modern viewers, the same features on a hull stretched to armored cruiser proportions make for a considerably more elegant ship.  I use mostly Vallejo acrylic paints for these ships.



I am now working on soldiers at the moment and hope to have something to show for it before too long.

8 comments:

  1. Cpl Trim
    Fine looking vessels. I ilk the look of your modified Teresa. The low freeboard is likely correct to scale, but that doesn't always translate to looking correct.
    What did you use for masts?
    Cheers
    PD

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Peter.

      I use the brass wire from Detail Associates, they come in packs of 1' length. Most of these ships have pre-formed holes for the masts, but not all. That's when the pin vise and micro drill bits come into play. To secure the upper mast to the lower, I often fit them in a sleeve created by drilled through a short section of styrene tubing.

      Regards,
      Steve

      Delete
  2. Perhaps the low free board is do to being heavily laden with coal, ammunition and red wine?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Excellent conversion of a Prince August figure, that is
    a classic marching pose. I wish that pose was commercially
    available. It sums up the "War-game" and "Charge" in one figure.
    Well done.
    Willz

    ReplyDelete
  4. The cruisers look lovely, and I approve of the higher freeboard too! I tend to build my own 1/1500 scratchbuilds a little high in the water myself. I've been thinking about buying from WTJ to save time for a while and your article has decided it for me!
    I'd also like to mention that I'm a fan of your older scratchbuilds too, and the Austrian battleships made me want to sweep my efforts into the bin! Keep up the great work.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The cruisers look lovely, and I approve of the higher freeboard too! I tend to build my own 1/1500 scratchbuilds a little high in the water myself. I've been thinking about buying from WTJ to save time for a while and your article has decided it for me!
    I'd also like to mention that I'm a fan of your older scratchbuilds too, and the Austrian battleships made me want to sweep my efforts into the bin! Keep up the great work.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks very much, Andrew. I'm glad the post was of value to you and yes, the WTJ ships are excellent.

    ReplyDelete