From the Painting Table 8

I'm resurrecting this old format of mine to show off a couple of completely unrelated projects that I've just finished.

To start with we have this squad of 6 Eldar dire avengers.  Painted in a similar manner to the last unit of these I painted, but with the red and white crest pattern reversed so I can tell the members of the two squads apart.

We also have this 1:288 scale model of the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, made by somebody called Ace Corporation who I've never heard of.  This purchase was of course inspired by my recent trip to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford.  It's not a big kit, but it does what it's supposed to do just fine.  It has the option of wheels, but I've mounted it on a GW flying base.  One think that struck me about this kit was that it came with 29 separate, often very small and fiddly, transfers to apply!

1:3000 Scale Nearly Modern Royal Navy Taskforce

I've painted the other half of my modern British starter set from navwar now.  These are the ships that have been decommissioned, although some of them only recently.

 Firstly the Invincible class carrier HMS Ark Royal, former fleet flagship, decomissioned early last year as part of the defense cuts.

Four type 22 frigates, on the left are the later and larger batch 3 frigates HMS Cumberland and HMS Cornwall, and on the right are the batch 2 frigates HMS Boxer and HMS Beaver.

Three type 42 destroyers HMS Glasgow, HMS Newcastle and HMS Cardiff 

1:3000 Modern Royal Navy Taskforce

I've finished painting the first batch of models from my recent purchase of Navwar's modern British starter pack, I've painted the models currently in service first as my real aim here it to collect the current fleet.  What I've painted would actually represent a pretty major deployment of force for Britain nowadays, and whilst my collection is far from complete I could certainly game with what I have.  Just need to decide on a suitable opponent and find some rules next.

The Helicopter carriers HMS Ocean and HMS Illustrious, Illustrious was of course formerly an aircraft carrier whose role was changed with the early retirement of the harrier fleet.

The Type 42 Destroyer HMS Liverpool and the fleet replenishment ship RFA Fort Rosalie

The backbone of the fleet the type 23 frigates, HMS St. Albans, HMS Kent, HMS Sutherland and HMS Portland 

3 Trafalgar class attack submarines and the 4 Vanguard class ballistic missile submarines

The taskforce sets sail.

Navwar 1:3000 Scale Modern British Starter Pack

My first new models of the year arrived this morning (I'm quietly pleased with myself that I lasted this long), and they are the modern British navy starter pack from Navwar.  I'm not sure yet what the gaming purpose for these models is, although I am considering a couple of what if conflicts.  I need to do some reserch into possible rules sets as well.  This aside I am aiming to collect all the major surface assets of the current Royal Navy (and with the defense cuts that shouldn't be too hard).

You get a total of 16 ships and 7 submarines (which I think is pretty good value for £10 + £1 postage).  4 of them are large ships, 2 Invincible class carriers, HMS Ocean and a RFA replenisment ship.  The bulk of the pack is the 12 escorts of various types, 8 frigates and 4 destroyers.  And finally you get 4 ballistic missile submarines and 3 attack submarines.  Around half the escorts and one of the carriers have now been retired from active service, but are obviously useful if you wanted to wargame some of the conflicts of the last few decades.  The detail is pretty well the same as the WW2 stuff I have from Navwar, it won't be good enough for everyone, but I'm happy enough with it.

As usual the service from Navwar was excellent, with delivery in 4 days from me posting my order to them, I'm pretty chuffed with these.