Shipbucket

And some more artillery.

And yet more artillery.

I wondered what they might look like. So I looked at a combination of German and British period practice and combined the two with a few flourishes of my own. I call them "Browncoats". Darth Panda gets credit because I tried to follow his template format when I laid my own models out. Credit where it is due.

Pretty cool stuff!

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Best regards,

RegiaMarina1939

Darth Panda is credited for the template. The models are mine.

Black gang = Engineering Department (grey)
Gun bunnies = Weapons Department (red)
Croaker gang = Medical Department (light blue)
Deck Apes = Deck Department (purple)
Green gang = Service Department (green); cooks, cleaners, and anyone who does not fit into the other departments.

The derogatory terms (green gang for gangrene for example) are the terms the sailors use for each other's departments. The officers are lumped into a separate class called the "gold bugs" or "garden gnomes" because of the funny gold braid and silly hats they wear, while every chief in this man's navy is either a "red bull" or an "ox" depending on whether he's on the ball or just a "stuffed hat" as the sailors figure him.

I have a good reason for thinking that American gunners would be issued pith helmets instead of kepis, forage caps or cowboy hats.

Working guns is hot work and working around guns produces a lot of flying debris as a side product without anyone shooting at you. Some kind of tropical headgear that cools a hot head and protects against occasional debris kicked up by bucking guns is necessary. The answer in 1898 is the old pith helmet.

I've always been a fan of the pith helmet. Also keep in mind that this is during the age when heat injuries weren't fully understood (colonial Europeans insisted for example that red-colored cloth reflected heat) and things like "spine pads" and "cholera belts" existed.

A lightweight pith helmet (or "solar topee" as they seemed to be called) doesn't provide anymore splinter protection than a hat contrary to popular belief but there's definitely precedent for its use by American troops. US Army and Marine personnel wore them quite a bit up until World War II. But the classic "campaign hat" is far more American in style!

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USN components, camouflage colors, & reference links (World War II only)

I like the peaked saucer campaign hat myself. Hence most of the line troops will wear it in this AU.

http://www.snyderstreasures.com/eBay/Im ... CN0199.JPG

http://thumbs4.ebaystatic.com/d/l800/pi ... 6397_1.jpg

I still don't see where Worsley got the idea for his cork hat. Maybe from those German helmets of the 1840s?

I thought we would pick up where I left off with von Dederichs and Dewey. The USS Oneida, for example, when we last left her was hors de combat (out of action) after the duel with El Fraile, so Dewey is down a cruiser as of 15 September 1898.

This is a work in progress. I have three different illustrations and none of them agree. But this is what the USS Omaha is supposed to shoot at in the Irene Incident.