Shipbucket

After the defeat in the war against the Peruvian-Bolivian Confederation in the 1880s, the fleets of the United Republic of Paraguay and Uruguay, was in stagnation. New ships were built irregularly, in single samples.

In 1897 the situation changed with the advent to power of President Eduardo Juanito Lopez.A major program of naval construction was approved by the Government of the United Republic.

Traditionally, the Republic fleet was divided into "battle fleet" and "Sea-defense fleet". "Battle Fleet" were consist of sea-capable ships. "Sea-defense fleet" consisted of not-well-seaworthy, but powerful units, intended to defend the mouth of the Rio de la Plata and Montevideo. Also, "Sea-defense fleet" provide communication on the Republic rivers.

For the "Sea-defense fleet" two dreadnoughts were built in England in 1910-1924 .
Two very small dreadnought class "President Francesco Solano Lopez" were ordered in 1908, but due to financial constraints, construction started only in 1910. Initially the program included three ships, but the funds for their construction was not enough. To pay for the second dreadnought, the government had to resort to borrowing from the population by issuing bonds.

Displacement "President Francesco Solano Lopez"-class battleship was about 15,000 tons. They were armed (the project) 6 guns 12 "/ 45 Mark X, and 16 guns 4" / 40 QF Marks XII. Armor belt reaches a thickness of 85-220 mm. The maximum speed of the ships was 20 knots.

The first ship - "President Francesco Solano Lopez" - was launched in 1912 and completed in April 1914. In May, he arrived in Montevideo (sailing in the Atlantic showed clearly the lack of seaworthiness) and was included in the fleet.

Construction of the second ship - "President Juan Francesco Lopez" was heavily delayed due to lack of funding. In August 1914, the battleship was ready only at 55%. After the war begun, the firm-builder has stopped construction of the battleship because of the priority order of the Royal Navy.

The Government of Paraguay has made a desperate attempt to finish the ship on their own. In May 1915 the unfinished battleship crossed the Atlantic in tow, and stood in the dock in Montevideo. But the task proved daunting for Industry of the Republic. Despite all efforts, completion of the battleship resumed only in 1918, with the end of the war in Europe.

In the end, because of all the delays and the need to replace details, "constructed" in Paraguay (totally unreliable), battleship was completed only in 1922, he joined the Navy in 1924 completely out of date.

The construction of both ships was an ordeal for the Republic. The huge costs, de facto forced the goverment to abandon construction of any smaller vessels in 1911-1920.

In 1919, the battleship "Solano Lopez Francesco Prezdente" first opened fire his main caliber during anti-government coup in Uruguay. Ironically, the revolt was largely caused by problems with the 8-year maturity government bonds issued to finance the dreadnoughts.

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Serve the Nation! Be striped!

Well?

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Serve the Nation! Be striped!

Two things.
1) She is under gunned.
2) Her stacks look a bit too modern.

You have the basic line, but if you want it 180% perfect, you must look at other ships of the same type from the real world (SB-drawings), that do I!

The hull seem to be too small for those big turrets. The casements guns color is darker than the ship. Funnels are too small, the stern gangway doesn't look quite right (more like an old non-Shipbucket style drawing). the fighting top on the aft mast is too low, and generaly there are not enough details, for this work to be a Shipbucket style drawing.

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Thank you Kim for the crest

"Never fear to try on something new. Remember that the Titanic was built by professionals, and the Ark by an amateur"

she's not under gunned for its period. (One can not fill up a ship with lots of guns and hope it moves. she has a reasonable amount of guns.) Nope! He has just given it some color

and see what Novice write, I am not an expert on this period.

Nice, Dreadnought without the wing turrets!

I've always wondered if removing the wing turrets you could increase protection and/or speed and, more importantly, install a decent Secondary Battery.

You think, "Espania" was better composed?

http://wunderwaffe.narod.ru/Magazine/MK ... ips/68.jpg

More turrets on the same-lenght hull. Only one funnel. Hmm. If I made the aft mast higher, will it not be too heavy? I'm afraid about the seaworthy...
Well, it's fixable.

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Serve the Nation! Be striped!

Go away

YAY...

I'm sorry to say it, but her stacks look like very strange.... women pleasers? If you know what I mean? (yes, I'm an English speaker, but i'm trying to be subtle).
I think it's mainly the colour scheme and the shape of the top but... yeah... toys...
She looks very cool though, very unique. I like the casemate mounting fore and aft, the two decker ones. I know they don't work (i'm one of the big proponents of that) but hey, the Omaha had them, and as long as you know they will have issues...

The stern looks a bit under-detailed. The platform thing is a bit odd.
I like your fore mast.
I like the bows.

Yeah, nice design. Some odd choices but nice.