With Chile receiving the reparations package that included 3 battleships, the Brazilians, if they wanted to retain their premiere position in South America, also needed to find more ships of modern lineage to bolster their Navy. The ships that Brazil wanted to get hold of were some of the Iron Duke class. But those vessels went to populate the navies of the Commonwealth. Second choice was the four ships of the Orion class that were being sold off by the Royal Navy as they could not keep them with the restrictions of the Washington Treaty. As Brazil was a 'favoured nation', they got the Orion class at virtually scrap value
These four ships with the two Minas Gerais class were the backbone of the fleet until the mid 1930's when new construction joined the fleet. Once those ships started to join the fleet, these four ships were able to go through the rebuilding phase that all the WW1 battleships went through to be retained into the 1940's. More speed, more deck armour, better AA armament, better gun directors, better superstructure, aircraft handling facilities. The whole nine yards.
I'm happy with that. Between this drawing and the Pernambuco, I have established a Commonwealth / Brazilian 'look'.
