Polish mine layers Jaskolka Class 1/3000 Navwar

More fun today experimenting with sea effect bases as I completed six boats from the Jaskolka class as part of my WW2 Polish fleet -

Using the GRASP rules, these are created as 'engineer' units which allows them to modify areas of terrain, making them difficult and often dangerous to traverse. 

Source Polish Navy Site

The profile above by Bartelski shows a medium grey finish which I think matches the picture below.

Source Ivan Gogin

There is another source showing  a much darker finish:

Original Source Not Known

There is also the following picture which shows a model with a two-tone grey finish and armour cladding: 

Source 1/100 paper model

Since these ships served over a longish period, with the last one was decommissioned in 1970, I guess there was plenty of opportunity for variation over theatre of service and time. As for their fate - to quote Gogin (2009-16) 

 'Jaskółka and Czapla were sunk by German aircraft 14/9/1939 at Jastran. Mewa and Rybitwa were sunk 3/9/1939 by German aircraft at Hel naval base. They were salvaged by Germans in November, 1939 and renamed Putzig and Rixhoft. In 1940 they were converted to torpedo retrievers and renamed TFA9 and TFA8 respectively. Czajka was captured by German troops at Westerplatte and commissioned by Kriegsmarine as TFA11. In May, 1945 TFA8, 9 and 11 surrendered at Kiel and in 1946 returned to Poland. Żuraw was captured by German troops in October, 1939 and commissioned by Kriegsmarine as Oxhoft. After war she was also returned to Poland.' Ivan Gogin

Polish Submarine Class Orzel and Wilke - navwar 1/3000

The Orzel (eagle)  Class subs saw some service during WW2 with the British and having found a great online history of the Polish naval forces during  the war, I'm quite keen to get some British ships so I can play some of the battles. By far the smallest 1/3000 boats I've painted so far (not including the 1/10,000 scale Jutland fleet I abandoned years ago) I have some trouble telling  front from back!

 I also squeezed in three Wilke Class subs which I think were used for mine-laying amongst other duties. 

Between them the Polish subs seem to have had mixed fortunes, one at least sadly lost to a British minefield laid on its route after it had left port. Sounds like one hand didn't know what the other was doing! Even this sad event can be replicated in the rules I use as patches of 'difficult' and often dangerous terrain can be discovered and stumbled into.  Some Jasolka class minelayers are next up, so thanks for looking. ;)

New GRASP Rules - Play anything :)

I've uploaded a new set of rules I've written  that should enable anything to be played against anything.
If you have time and inclination to try them I would love to hear any feedback.

The Scene - sci fi mines

The Scene does these nifty little mines, could be big mines in 15 mm or little mines in larger scales.. I'm thinking about putting some of them on a base to make a minefield  counter, perhaps thinking of mines as a type of very difficult terrain. A few I might keep as stowage. In my games, units are represented by blinds until spotted, so I'd like to try using static blinds to represent minefields, finally revealed when someone makes contact.