Welcome to the Pre-Dreadnought Challenge!

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Important information here:

The goal of the challenge:

In this challenge, your task is to build a pre-dreadnought (or semi-dreadnought) type battleship from the era of 1890-1910. The build can be fictional or replica as well.
Your build must reflect the characteristics of a pre-dreadnought and also reflect the era (so don't add missiles, helipads or other modern things)
Some pre-dreadnoughts were not scrapped after WW1, and some even made it till the end of WW2. These ships went through some modernizations.
You can make refitted pre-dreadnoughts but only up until 1940s level of modernization and your design still has to reflect it was made between 1890-1910 and was only later modernized (If you need an example, look up: SMS Schleswig-Holstein).
Semi-dreadnoughts are also allowed in the challenge (examples: SMS Radetzky, HMS Lord Nelson, IJN Satsuma, or the French Battleship Danton)

What is a pre-dreadnought?

Pre-dreadnoughts are a type of warship generally built between 1890 and 1910 (tho some were built before and after this time period). They got their name from HMS Dreadnought, which was launched in 1906 and was so revolutionary, that it immediately rendered all preceeding battleships obsolete, hence those designs were now referred to as pre-dreadnoughts.

How to enter?

Download this cockpit and start making a dreadnought. When you are finished, upload it as a public post and make sure to tag me so that I won't miss it

Deadline

The deadline is 2024, June 1st (Saturday) 23:59 CET

Rules

• Must be a successor of this post (if you accidentally upload it as not a successor, contact a mod to reset it as a successor)
• Must be a new build (meaning that already posted builds are not allowed)
• Must reflect the era (missiles and other modern equipment disqualifies an entry. However, you can use hidden jet engines if you don't know how to make a realistic propeller, you can also use gyros if you don't know how to make realistic steering etc.)
• Must be a public build
• Must be uploaded and published within the deadline
• The part count ceiling is 2500. If your build reaches above 2500 parts, you are not disqualified. However, each time you pass 2500, 5 points are deducted from your final score (e.g. passing 2500 = -5 points, passing 5000 = -10 points, passing 7500 = -15 points and so on)

Prizes

• 1st place: 5 spotlights and 20 upvotes

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• 2nd place: 3 spotlights and 10 upvotes

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• 3rd place: 1 spotlight and 5 upvotes

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• Honorable mention: 1 spotlight and 1 upvote

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• Every other entry: 1 upvote guaranteed

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Note: if the winners don't have enough posts for the prizes to be properly handed out (e.g. if the 1st place winner only has 13 posts in total) then as many will be given as possible

Judgement criteria

Your designs will be judged based on the following points:

• Authenticity: Whether or not your pre-dreadnought (if you made a fictional design) authentically reflect the era. This is a bit vague description but imagine it like this: If your design would be put among a bunch of real life pre-dreadnought ships and doesn't stand out too much, then you did a good job.
  Again: you can make designs that are refitted in ww2, but make sure that your ship looks like a refitted pre-dreadnought and not a ww2 built battleship

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• Detail-to-part count ratio: It's recommended to find a good balance between your level of detail and your part count. Having a design that is only 50 parts but looks like a floating brick is no good, but having a design where every rivet is modeled but has 30000 parts is also not good.
  I recommend trying to use creative solutions, creative part usage to make your ship more detailed while not wasting too many parts

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• Functionality: What's the point of a ship if it can't be used. The minimum functionality I require is for the ship to be able to move and steer, and at least its main guns be usable. However, if you can pack more functions in it, it can make your design better.
  To list a few examples: usable secondary guns, bridge interior, waving flags, lights and so on. This list is just a few things that came to my mind but you can add anything else if you have any other ideas.

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• +1 Story: If you build a fictional ship, a nice story or service history in the description would boost your post.

Helpful guidelines

The anatomy of a pre-dreadnought battleship:

An example for a tumblehome, see how the hull gets thicker towards the waterline

The general characteristics of a pre-dreadnought

• Hull: Pre-dreadnoughts were pretty chonky, they weren't as long and elegant as the dreadnoughts succeeding them. Another common feature for pre-dreadnoughts (especially for French and Russian designs) was the tumblehome hull which was a hull type that had a slope on the side, it was wider at the waterline than it was at a few decks higher. Other designs like British, German, Japanese or American pre-dreads often utilized normal, straight sided hulls, these were much wider ships than their French or Russian counterparts but also much lower silhouette.
  Pre-dreadnoughts also often featured a pointy bulge at the tip of their bow, below the waterline. This was because sinking an enemy ship by ramming it was considered a viable strategy at the time so ships were built with these bulges to cause as much underwater damage as possible.

Russian pre-dread Tsesarevich with a very clear tumblehome hull (you can see how the hull gets wider towards the waterline

• Weaponry: Pre-dreadnoughts were known for their very mixed caliber battery, they'd often have primary (ranging from 254 mm to 343 mm or slightly larger), secondary (ranging fro 152 mm to 234 mm or slightly larger) and often even tertiary (ranging from 47 mm to 88 mm or slightly larger) weaponry. The primary guns were most often housed in two, twin turrets (4 guns in total), one facing forwards, one aft. Secondaries were housed in casemates on early pre-dreads but were put in individual turrets (single or twin) on later designs. Teritaries were all over the place, pretty much every free deck space they could put one on. usually they were in casemates on the side of the hull (with a few near the bow and the stern) and sometimes along the side of the superstructure.
  Semi-dreanoughts would have all of their secondaries in turrets and those secondaries would be very close to the size of the primary cannons.

• Superstructure design: Pre-dreadnoughts almost always had an armoured conning tower, below the bridge. They would feature from 2, up to (in extreme cases) 5 smokestacks (funnels). The often featured to identically high masts, with a thick base, ended by an observation platform and then a thinner upper part with usually two cross poles. Their superstructure would also feature at least 2 or more cranes for the lowering of the lifeboats, which were located alongside the smokestacks on the superstructure.

• Camo: these ships existed at a time when the best camouflage was considered dark grey/black, so no need to make complex camo patterns,

• Be experimental: This was a time of experimentation. No one really knew what the ideal layout of a battleship should be like. There were some copying from each other going on but countries often experimented with their designs. So, if you are building a fictional ship, don't be afraid to somewhat alter from the provided examples (within reasonable limits of course)

Some examples:

The layout of the Royal Sovereign class battleships, often considered as the first pre-dreadnought battleships. They also featured a unique smokestack arrangement, where their two smokestacks were next to each other instead of being lined up

SMS Schleswig-Holstein late in her career, the best example of a pre-dreadnought with a very long career, she survived well into WW2

French pre-dreadnpught Charles Martel, a good example of a tumblehome hull and the French "floating hotel" battleship design

IJN Mikasa, probably the most typical pre-dreadnought design, featuring a short silhouette, straight side, and the most common battery arrangement

Russian pre-dreadnought Borodino, the ships of this class were very tall allowed by their tumblehome design, having their main and secondary turrets much higher than for example their British or Japanese counterparts, allowing for higher range and somewhat more precise gunnery

French pre-dreadnought Massena, one of the weirdest looking pre-dreads, again, featuring a tumblehome hull

French pre-dreadnought Voltaire, featuring 5 smokestacks