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.

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

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 

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.

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.

From The Painting Table 7

A few more bits and pieces that I've finished recently today, first off another model from salute that I bought at the same time as the Zulu War piece.

 

This is the Salute '06 collectors model, I didn't go to the show but picked this up on ebay, it represents the death of King Arthur and Mordred at the battle of Camlann.

A couple more 1:3000 scale ships from Navwar, both for my Royal Navy fleet, although not strichly for WW2, as the carrier HMS Albion was launched after the war, and the battleship is an imgainary HMS Sternguard allowing me to feild a second Vanguard class battleship, these are both for a small campiagn we're planning assuming that the war with Japan went on past 1945. 

These are the dead elves you get in Dwarf Kings Hold: Green Menace, they have no use in the game (unlike the dead dwarf in Dead Rising), but I've half written a scenario that will use them which will hopefully appear on the blog at some point.

A few more bits of the sprues from DKH: Green Menace, this time some little 'orclings'  these are really cool little extras full of character, I'm trying to come up with a use for them in a scenario too.

And finally 2 human crossbowmen for Warhammer, these are to be added to my unit of crossbowmen for my Dogs of War army taking them upto 12.

The crossbowmen taking their place in the regiment

The Eighth Wave

The latest additions to my WW2 British fleet for Victory at Sea today.  As always all models are in 1:3000 scale from Navwar.  My fleet has grown at quite an astounding rate since I started buying these ships back in the late spring, my British fleet alone now has all 20 capital ships in service with the Royal Navy during the war, plus numerous cruisers and destroyers, in fact the total number of vessels in my fleet is now 94 (thats for the Royal Navy only, since the Spring I've also painted 12 convoy ships, 33 Free French and 18 American), which is far more than I could ever use in a single battle, but I don't regret it at all, in fact its been a really refreshing change in both painting and gaming.  The only question is where to go next, I could go for more cruisers or go for the battleships/carriers that where designed but cancelled, a sort of fantasy fleet for a war continuing into 1946 against my friends Japanese, or I could expand my US fleet, or even start another new fleet, I haven't decided yet, but I'm leaning towards expanding the Americans, but only time will tell.

The large fleet carrier HMS Indefatigatable (Implacable class) and the light carrier HMS Colossus (Colossus class), I've always found it really odd that HMS Colossuss isn't that colossal at all and is very much a mid-sized carrier.

Here we have the last 4 WW2 battleships for my fleet, on the left you have the King George V class ships HMS Anson and HMS Howe, and on the right the old Revenge class battleships HMS Revenge and HMS Resolution, the revenge class were outdated by WW2 and don't match upto other British battleships in the Victory at Sea game, but I still try and use them occasionally.  I recently saw one of the 15" guns off of HMS Resolution on my trip to the Imperial War Museum.

On the left is the county class heavy cruiser HMS London, the moving across we havd the anti-aircraft cruisers HMS Delhi and HMS Curacoa.

These are all light cruisers, on the left and in the middle are the swiftsure class cruisers HMS Swiftsure and HMS Minotaur, and on the right is the crown colony class (ceylon group) cruiser HMS Uganda.

And finally a flotilla of destroyers, the front four are S-Z class, the back four Battle class with two hunt class escort destroyers on the right.

Free French Naval Forces - Part 4

The last few additions to my Free French fleet today, all leased from the British.  They're not in the French fleet list but come from the Royal Navy list, so I will need my opponenets permission to use them, but they're all minor ships so I can't see it being an issuse.

First up the Avenger class escort carrier Dixmude (ex-HMS Biter) and the Hunt class escort destroyer La Combattante.

Next up 3 flower class corvettes, the Free French fielded 9 of these ships, origanally I planned to get seperate ones for the Free French and RN, but in the end I've decided that they can be multi-use, as at this scale they're so tiny so as not to be really distingusihable.

And finally 3 ships that aren't part of my Free French fleet, but are French vessels that came in packs with ships that I needed for the Free French.  We have the two Duguay Trouin class cruisers La Motte-Picquet and Primauguet along with a Bourrasque class destroyer.  I've painted them up in case we do a battle set before the fall of france where they could be used with my other french ships.

A New Fleet - The United States Navy

I've bought yet more 1:3000 scale WW2 ships from Navwar, this time the USN late war starter set.  Like all the Navwar sets its really good value for money, for a tenner (plus a pound postage) you get 4 battleships, 2 aircraft carriers, 4 cruisers and 8 destroyers.  Theres not many games out there that you can get a playable force for a new faction for that kind of money.

These are the two Iowa class battleships USS Iowa and USS Missouri, the second largest battleships ever built, behind the Japanese Yamato class.

The two South Dakota class battleships USS Alabama and USS Massachusetts

The two carriers included in the set, on the left the very large USS Essex and on the right the much smaller USS Independence.

Now for the cruisers on the left we have two Baltimore class heavy cruisers and on the right two Cleveland class light cruisers.

The destroyers thsi time, at the front we have 4 Gearing class destroyers and at the back 4 Fletcher class.

And finally heres the whole set.

One thing that really struck me with this pack compared to the British was that I can see the same design philosophy on the various battleships/cruisers, you can tell they're from the same faction (reminds me of the design links in the spartan games starter packs), whereas the British ships seem a bit of a hodge poge with several design evolutions going on.  It may also be that this is a late war pack so the ships were designed later.