First past the post - Ironclads completed

I mentioned in my reply to Nundunket's comment on my 2021 targets that some objectives were nearer completion than others so were less challenging.  This was particularly true of the 19th Century Ironclads objective where there were eight ships still to finish. I bought these when I bought the ACW ironclads last summer for refighting the naval actions of the  The War of the Pacific between Chile on one side and Peru and Bolivia on the other.  Also known as the Saltpetre War it was fought over control of the coastal area in what is now northern Chile which at the time was Bolivian and Peruvian territory an the nitrate deposits in the area.

The castings are all 1/2400th from Tumbling Dice.  I can't say that the painting is great but it is good enough and these are tiny castings so detail is hard to pick out.  I have to apologise for the quality of the photos as they were taken on my phone and have colour shifted so that there is more brown and less blue in the image compared to reality.

The first off the desk or should that be slipway is the Huascar an ironclad turret monitor.  Built at Birkenhead in 1865 for Peru, she fought on both sides during the War of the Pacific (1879-1883) first for Peru and then after capture in 1879 at the Battle of Angemos for Chile.  There is a good article about her on Wikipedia.  This is the old version of TD's representation of the ship.  Since I bought this last year TD have re-sculpted the model, the new version is in fighting trim without sails set.  I don't have one (yet?) but from  the photos I have seen it looks very nice and is an improvement on this version.

Huascar.  The circular thing amidships is the turret battery

Next come two sister ships the Blanco Encalada and the Almirante Cochrane a pair of central battery armoured frigates in Chilean service.  They were built in Hull and launched in 1874 and 75.  The Blanco Encalado holds the dubious distinction of being the first warship sunk by a self-propelled torpedo.  Both ships fought at the Battle of Angemos against the Huascar.  These are reasonable castings although again I think newer sculpts may be available now.  Last to be completed were the Independencia for Peru and Esmeralda for Chile.

Blanca Encalada and Almirante Cochrane.  They are the same casting

The Esmeralda, actually a generic steam sloop casting

The Independencia, I think this is actually HMS Shah a steam frigate

I don't know much about naval warfare in this period but since buying these models I realised that sails were struck before going into combat.  The colour schemes are based on period paintings of the battle as found on Wikipedia so may not be fully accurate.  Still this is only a side project for me so close enough is good enough to pass muster.

The entire Ironclad fleet.  Colours are better in this shot

That's the first objective ticked off the list.