Carriers and other bits and pieces.

A few more ships to add to the 1/3000 collection. Akagi, Kaga and Shokaku are the main attractions, but with USS Houston, HMAS Canberra, Suffolk, Java and Admiral de Ruyter and a few support vessels in there as well.

I reckon those decals for the Japanese carriers are just the ticket, even if I did fail to apply them quite as beautifully as they deserved.

1/3000 naval progress

I've been making a bit of progress with my 1/3000 naval project over the last week or so.

The British.

 Bismarck and Prinz Eugen.

The IJN.

Still a few more to do, but we're starting to get somewhere.

As a small observation, this project has really brought home to me how just useful the internet is. I don't know how many books you'd have had to have bought to get the info for each ship / ship class that one google search will bring you. This project would still be a mere pipe dream without the 'net.

WIP: Ships and terrain

The weekend has seen a couple of terrain items finished, some new 1/3000 ship packs bought, and a few Navwar models varnished.

The new camps, enclosures and pond should do the trick, I hope.

I'd been meaning to pick up the last three Fujimi 1/3000 model expansion kits and finally did so. Unfortunately, most of the shops double up with those in the packs I already have, so that's a slight disappointment.

It's my own fault: I suspected this already, but rather than fiddle about trying to read the kanji in the shop, I just bought them anyway.

I can use the destroyers of course, but there are only so many Yamatos, Musashis, Akagis, Kagas and Nagatos a man needs. The good thing is that I can use the extras to experiment with painting. I find plastic models harder to paint than metal ones, so I might well end up being grateful for getting a second go!

Hopefully there will be a few more finished 1/3000 models to game with in the near future.

Denmark Strait

Today saw a spot of naval action as Pat H. made the trip down to house Prufrock for a day of gaming. First up was the boardgame Flying Colors, in which Pat gave me an absolute thrashing at the Dogger Bank, 1781. He broke my line, killed my admiral, sank two of my ships and utterly demolished my poor Dutch. I think I need to work on my tactics!

For the second game we tried out Naval Thunder, employing some newly launched vessels from out of the Navwar yards.

Prinz Eugen and Bismarck observe the enemy.

Long range shot from Bismarck immediately disabled Hood's main turret forward, which gave rise to hopes of a quick ending, but Hood was made of stern stuff today. Events soon settled into a routine: Hood and Prince of Wales would bracket Bismarck with shell; the German monster would pound Hood; her assistant Prinz Eugen would worry Prince of Wales.

Hood and Prince of Wales under fire.

As flood and engine damage slowed Hood down, she switched her fire to Prinz Eugen.

Prinz Eugen herself caused an ammunition explosion on Prince of Wales with a lucky shot.

Prince of Wales fighting fires.

Hood then returned the favour, setting Prinz Eugen temporarily ablaze.

Prinz Eugen gets a taste of her own medicine.

A the ranges close, Prince of Wales' fire on Bismarck begins to find its mark more regularly. There is a bridge hit; flooding; explosions in secondary armament. Hood abruptly turns away from the fight, but even so Bismarck is forced to switch fire from the Hood to give Prince of Wales something to think about.

Both German ships continue to fire on Hood. Finally, she sinks beneath the waves. But Prince of Wales has used this time to absolutely pound Bismarck.

Last sighting of the valiant Hood.

Prince of Wales is now on her own, but it may not matter: Bismarck is in difficulty. She is flooded, on fire, and a main gun turret is out of action.

Prince of Wales has Bismarck's range.

Bismark attempts to run, but, increasingly waterlogged, it becomes apparent that she must sink Prince of Wales or be sunk herself. Accordingly, she turns back to the fight. Meantime, Prinz Eugen, who has been attempting with some success to distract Prince of Wales, closes to torpedo range.

Bismarck survives another barrage of hits, but Prince of Wales must be close to her limit as well.

Eugen fires and awaits the results of her handiwork.

Torpedoes away...

The crew of Bismarck holds its collective breath...

And the torpedo strikes. Prince of Wales breaks in two!

The Germans have won the day, but it has been a painful fight, and there is a lot of work needed to stabilise Bismarck for the necessary run back to safety and repair. She is just ten hull points off sinking; another broadside would likely have been the end of her. Prinz Eugen is hurt but in comparatively good shape. It will be a long journey home, and they will be the hunted....

****

Flying Colors I already know and like, but I thought Naval Thunder gave a cracking game. It is fairly fast moving, and although it took a while to get through the turns, it was a first game, and the ships involved were tough old nuts to crack. I'm very keen to get more ships painted for this, and will need to figure out the rules a little better (I've already found a couple of critical things we (more likely I) did wrong, and once I've done this I'll probably do a fuller review.

It was a rush to get the ships finished in time (and the basing is still of the temporary variety), but necessity is the mother of invention, and the urgency helped me to get past my 1/3000 painters block and just get on with it.

Navwar order

There was a nice visit from the postman today to drop off an order I put in with Navwar last week. The parcel was sent last Thursday and arrived this, so that's pretty good timing.

I was a little apprehensive about ordering through Navwar due to their old school system, but I needn't have been. The service was excellent and I shouldn't have waited so long to get on the horse..

Anyway, first up is a US early war starter pack.

Next is the US late war starter pack.

There is also a selection of goodies for some 'Four Against Japan' early Pacific War scenarios from the very useful Fire on the Waters site, and - I couldn't resist - Bismarck, Prinz Eugen, Hood and Prince of Wales for one of the first naval battles I read about as a kid. I still remember feeling devastated reading of the loss of the Hood.

So, plenty to keep me going here!

Contents of 1/3000 ship sets by Fujimi

Fujimi Set 1: Yokosuka Naval Port.
Type	Class	# in class	Names
BB	Yamato　x１	2	Yamato, Musashi; this one Musashi
BB	Nagato　x１	2	Nagato, Mutsu
CV	Shokaku　x１	2	Shokaku, Zuikaku
CA	Takao　x１	4	Takao, Atago, Chokai, Maya
CL	Oyodo　x１	1
DD	Fubuki x 4	24

Fujimi Set 2: Sasebo Naval Port.
Type	Class	# in class	Names
CV	Akagi　x１	1
CV	Kaga　x１	1
CA	Mogami　x１	4	Mogami, Mikuma, Suzuya, Kumano
CA	Myoko　x１	4	Myoko, Nachi, Haguro, Ashigara
CA	Takao　x１	4	See set 1
DD	Shiratsuya x 4	10

Fujimi Set 3: Kure Naval Port.
Type	Class	# in class	Names
BB	Yamato　x１	2	See set 1. This one Yamato
BB	Nagato　x１	2	See set 1.
CA	Mogami　x１	4	See set 2
CA	Takao　x１	4	See set 1
CA	Furutaka / Aoba　ｘ　１	4	Furutaka, Kako, Aoba, Kinugasa
DD	Kagero x 2	19

Fujimi Set 4: Truk Lagoon.
Type	Class	# in class	Names
BB	Kongo　x 1	4	Kongo, Hiei, Kirishima, Haruna. This one Hiei.
CA	Mogami x 1	4 (1)	Float plane refit. This one Mogami
CL	Naka/Sendai x 1	3	Naka, Sendai, Jintsu
DD	Fubuki x 4	24	See set 1
	Akashi  x 1		Repair ship
	Akitsushima  x 1		Seaplane tender
	Mamiya x 1		Supply ship

Fujimi Expansion Set 1: BB Expansion
Type	Class	# in class	Names
BB	Kongo x 1	4	Kongo
BB	Kongo x 1	4	Hiei
BB	Kongo x 1	4	Kirishima
BB	Kongo x 1	4	Haruna
DD	Shiratsuyu x4	10	See set 2

Prepping the IJN

I've been doing a little more work on some of the Fujimi 1/3000 naval models I picked up recently. Goodness me, they are beautiful to work with, and the detail is astonishing.

Here is the light cruiser Oyodo. There are nine parts that go into making her up, but you'd never know it. I had a little glue run onto her side, but you can see how much detail there is.

This is the (as yet unmade, obviously!) sprue for the Nagato. The thought that has been put into the best way to capture the essential characteristics of the ship is quintessentially Japanese. The craftsmanship is wonderful.

And here is my little fleet so far, including a test painting of the Shokaku. There are another twenty or so ships to do from the sets I already have, but I think I'll grab one or two sets more.

Their opponents will probably be 1/3000 metals, which I imagine will look pretty crude by comparison. Perhaps a plea to the company might be in order?

1/3000 naval sets

And now for something completely different...

It's birthday season in house Prufrock, and while the kids were ransacking the local toy shop for MineCraft accessories to spend some of their gift money on I trotted over to have a quick look at the plastic models section. Would you believe it, but they had four 1/3000 WWII dock sets in. 1/3000 naval is something I've wanted to get into for some time now so this fool and his money were quickly parted.

At home tonight I opened up the Yokosuka naval base set to have a gander and liked what I saw. There are ten ships and a diorama base, so you get quite a lot for your money.

The models are very finely made, and everything seems to have been engineered with typical Japanese exactitude. The battleships are absolutely lovely, but I decided to start with something a little simpler.

Here is the sprue for the carrier Shokaku.

And another for the Fubuki class destroyers.

The three pieces for the carrier went together very nicely, and only slight trimming was needed.

Definitely similar to the real thing!

By Unknown - 広島県呉市海事歴史科学館所蔵品。(Hiroshima Prefecture Yamato Museum collection), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3579869

An excellent find, and I'm very pleased. I'm not confident in my painting on hard plastic and in this scale, however, so hopefully I won't stuff things up too much in the next step!