Airfix Small Scale HMS Victory

For a bit of a change I have something for you today that has nothing whatsoever to do with middle-earth.  We have infact an airfix model of HMS Victory, it doesn't say what scale on the box (more than a tad annoying), but it is the smaller cheap version (it costs little more than a fiver).

It's a VERY simple kit with under 20 pieces total, and it shows.  I think the end result is unsatisfying, but I'm not sure what else I could do to improve it that much.  In the end it is tempting me to buy a bigger kit and do the ship justice.

 

One of the most annoying parts of this model is the utter lack of rear detail, which is just covered up with a transfer.

Navwar WW2 Late War Japanese Starter Set

Another project that I've forced myself to finish off as dark vengeance arrives (which it has, and very good it is too) is my Japanese Late war starter set from Navwar, as usual in 1:3000 scale.  The ships have actually been finished for a couple of months, but I just hadn't got around to basing them.

The japanese are very good in victory at sea and benefit hugely from the poor points system as in each of the 5 brackets they can field efficient ships.  It also helps that the Yamato class battleships are the most powerful in the game.

As all the Navwar starter sets this one is good value, although I'd have prefered one less carrier and another battleship, but thats just me, I like battleships a lot.

 The big boys of the set the Battleships, from left to right the Nagato, The Ise and the Yamato.  Although as I already have a Yamato this model has been christened the musashi.  The Ise is a fascinating ship that is half battleship and half aircraft carrier!

The set also contains 3 full carriers of various sizes, the Kaiyo, the Shinyo and the Unryu.

On the left we have two Takao heavy cruisers and on the right we have two oyodo class light cruisers. 

 And finally we have 4 akitsuki class destroyers and 4 kagero class destroyers.

Royal Yugoslav Navy In Victory At Sea

As well as the main navies covered by the victory at sea rules Navwar (my ship maker of choice) also produce fleet packs for many of the smaller navies of the era.  Some of them have had rules published over at David Manleys website, but I've gone and bought the Yugoslavian pack which doesn't and had a stab and converting their stats into rules myself.

The Yugoslav Navy was pretty small in 1941 and the Navwar pack contains the only 5 vessels that were of any real size, an ageing ex-German light cruiser, a British built destroyer leader and 3 french built destroyers.  The cruiser was very old and not much use for anything but training, the four destroyers however were modern and effective.  Yugoslavia was quickly overun by the axis and most of her fleet ended up serving with the Italians.

First up the light cruiser Dalmacija, of German origin where she was known as the Niobe.

The Destroyer Leader Dubrovnik

And the three destroyers of the Beograd class: Beograd, Zagreb and Ljubljana

And finally here is the link to the PDF I've done with the stats for the above ships.

Historic Ships of The Thames in London

The day before the Diamond Jubliee boat parade I found myself taking a stroll along the Thames, and it turns out that there are several interesting historic ships moored along the bank.

First up is was is now called HQS Wellington (formally HMS Wellington) which is a WW2 grimsby class sloop.  In WW2 she served mainly with the north atlantic convoys and also took part in operation dynamo (the evacuation at dunkirk).  After the war she became the Livery hall of the master mariners as Headquarters Ship Wellington which she remains to this day.

This is HMS President (formerly HMS Saxifrage) a flower class sloop and a Q-Ship (a ship disguised as a merchant ship to tempt submarines into attacking it) launched in 1918.  She served as a Royal Naval Reserve drill ship and is now a function venue.

Next up is this replica of Francis Drake's ship the Golden Hind.  This replica was launched in 1973 and like the origanal has circumnavigated the globe.  It's not a big ship compared to something like the Victory and would have been extremly cramped for its 80 crew.

Of course there is also the mighty cruiser HMS Belfast by tower bridge which I visited last summer.

As it happens I also saw a couple of examples of our current navy as well

Just past Tower Bridge HMS Hurworth was moored at HMS President (the shore establishment not the ship mentioned above).  HMS Hurworth is a Hunt class mine countermeasure vessel.  As well as hunting mines the Hunt class also patrol the UK's fisheries.  Interestingly the Hunt class's hulls aren't steel, but are glass reinforced plastic.

And finally up by Vauxhill bridge three of these small Royal Marine boats zoomed by.  Just outside the MI6 building actually, I'm sure it wasn't really a james bond moment but it was rather  cool.

Navwar WW2 Early War German Starter Set

As a bit of a change of tack I've gone and bought some Axis ships for use in Victory at Sea, As usual I went for Navwar's 1:3000 range.  I bought the early war Germans (shown here) and the late war Japanese (coming soon) starter sets.  This set's pretty good and contains pretty much all the German surface ships I'd heard of inlcuding all 4 of the proper capital ships the germans possesed, 2 of the pocket battleships, the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugens, 3 light cruisers and 8 destroyers.  I might pick up the other 6 cruisers and a few U-boats at some point, but even if I never get around to that this is a pretty decent fleet and allows me to play the historical scenarios in the Victory at sea rulebook.

I've played against the Germans quite a bit and they are let down quite a bit by the lack of a proper points system in victory at sea.  The Bismarck for exmple is a fine ship, but you get one for the same points as two Queen Elizabeth class battleships, and they're not that good.  The battlecruisers are tough, but lack firepower, and the light cruisers and destroyers don't match upto the British ships of the same points either.  The only area the german fleet is strong is in Heavy cruisers, with the Pocket Battleships and Admiral Hipper class ships being fine ships and point efficient.  Still I'm up for a challenge and am looking forward to trying to make them work.

The power of the fleet, the Bismarck class battleships Tirpitz and Bismarck

The Scharnhorst class battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, if only they had bigger guns!

The two 'Pocket Battleships' Admiral Graf Spee and Admiral Scheer and the Admarial Hipper class heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen.

3 K-class light cruisers Koln, Karlsruhe & Koingsberg

And finally 4 Narvik class destroyers and 4 Maas class destroyers

The National Maritime Museum

I paid a trip to the National Maritime Museum in london yesterday, it's not somewhere I've been before and I've been looking forward to it for a while.  The museum is about Britian's seafaring past and features galleries on exploration, trade (including slavery and empire) and warfare.  It's housed in grand buildings in Greenwich Park, London and there is no charge for entry.

There are lots of interesting artifacts, lots of weapons, old maps (I love old maps), navigation instruments and ship models amongst others.  There's a few larger items as well including an anchor from HMS Ark Royal, the Royal barge of Frederick, Prince of Wales and the back of the Napoleonic era ship of the line HMS Implacable.  There is also a small dsiplay focusing on Nelson and includes the uniform he was wearing at Trafalagar.

My favorite gallery was hidden away up on the second floor and was full of historic model ships of the kind presented to the admilralty when they were considering buying new ships.

It appears to have been refurbished recently and there is a lot of open plan areas, bright lights and oddly designed galleries, maybe it does help some poeple engage with the subject, but I prefer my museums old style, and although it's a large building a lot of it seemed quite empty.  Still even with my moaning it was an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours.

On the same site there is also the Queens House which shows some of the museums art collection, but the poeple I was with didn't fancy that, so it'll have to remain on the 'to do' list.

Behind the museaum up the hill is the Greenwich Royal Observatory, we didnt have the time to look round the observatory, but did climb the hill which has a great view from the top.

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 

Airfix 1:600 HMS Hood

My latest WW2 airfix ship was finished yesterday, this time of the battlecruiser HMS Hood as usual in 1:600 scale.  The Hood of course was famously sunk by the German battleship Bismarck at the battle of the Denmark Strait.  It's a good kit with only a bit of flash and went together well.  I even managed to get the little boats hanging off the side to work this time as well.  Another feature I liked was that the hull was marked where the black line should be, which made painting much easier and produced a better result.

Below is a size comparission pic showing the difference between the Hood and the Queen Elizabeth class Battleship HMS Warspite.  I knew the Hood was bigger than the Queen Elizabeth class ships, but wasn't expecting the kit to be quite as big as it was.

And finally a few shots of the ship in construction.

The Ninth Wave - A Bit of Fantasy

My first wave of reinforcements for my WW2 Royal Navy Fleet in a while today.  This is a wave with a difference though as none of the ships actually fought in the war, five of them were never finished and one carrier was finished post war.  They do have rules in victory at sea though so will be useable in 'what if' games or if I'm just trying to be competative (as they're all rather good).

First off two N3 or Saint class battleships that were cancelled due to the limitations of the washington naval treaty, they're very powerful game wsie and I'm looking forward to trying them out.  I've christened mine HMS St. George and HMS St. Andrew

These are two Lion class battleships, an improved version of the King Goerge V design, mine have been christened HMS Lion and HMS Thunder.

These are two large fleet carriers, on the left is HMS Malta, a very large carrier cancelled at the end of the war, if she were finished she would have been even bigger than the American Essex class carriers.  On the right is HMS eagle which formed a core part of the post war fleet.

I've also painted a couple of other almost random ships, first off HMS Victory, Nelsons famous ship.  I've painted this as she's technically still in comission so I need her in my aim to collect the current Royal Navy.  It was a pain to assemble and paint and doesn't even look that good, if I ever move to Napoleonic naval wargaming it will have to be in a bigger scale.

And finally the Italian cruiser Bolzano, after her projected conversion to an air defense ship.  My freind bought this for his Italian fleet and I thought it was so different and interesting that I had to have one too.

Dreadfleet - Finished at Last! - Auxillary Cogs

Well I've gone and done it! I've finished my Dreadfleet painting project, below are the 7 auxillary cogs, which means I've now painted every warship, auxillary, sea monster and island in the game.  I've enjoyed it overall and am pleased with the result, even if it did feel like I'd never get there at some points, it's nice to feel that I've actually managed to finish a project for once as well.

The 'Good' Pirate Cogs

The 'Bad' Pirate Cogs

It all looks rather good painted up I reckon.

In truth I could still paint the ruler, turning templates and wind guage, but I'm not going to, can't see the point!