I´ve been busy working on the Italian Navy and have finished major parts of it - three old cruisers and two old battleships as well as a Dreadnought + some Destroyers are still pending completion, but the majority of capital ships and cruisers are finished.
I´ve been basing most of the ships during the last few days, but there´s still some way to go. I´m leaving the bases blank for now, with handpainted names as an interim solution. As soon as I get my hands on a Label printer with white font on transparent labels for a decent price, I´ll scratch off the handpainted names, put the printed ones on and add silicone waves.
Here´s a wild mix of ships, some british and Italian cruisers where still in action while the pic was taken. Maybe I´ll upload another battlereport of this engagement soonish, but I don´t make promises any longer as I´ve the tendency not to keep them :D
Confronted by the Italian Fleet, the French have also decided to start their navy buildup:
This impressive armada is the entirety of the French Battleships and Cruisers - no destroyers on the sheet yet. Not all of those ships, but the majority where stationed in the Mediterranean.
I´ve also glanced over the designs of the French Pre-Dreadnoughts after someone on TMP pointed out that the numbers alone are not conclusive regarding the fighting strengths of the navies. Indeed, most of the French Pre-Dreadnoughts are armed with 4x 12" Main Guns, whereas even the latest Italian Pre-Dreadnoughts where armed with just 2x 12" Main Guns, which is half the firepower on each ship, with better overall protection of about 10-12" armor on belt and turrets compared to Italian armor of 10" belt and 8" turrets on Regina Elena Class Pre-Dreadnoughts (worse for the older models).
Counting all the excess 12"-guns on the French Pre-Dreads the French Navy can easily make up for the initial slight inferiority in numbers of Dreadnoughts when compared to the combined Austro-Italian Fleets. Provided they can be brought to bear effectively...
