1/3000th Naval Modern

Hi ( and Happy Easter) ,
Spent last week with a good ( and now old) friend testing the GRASP rules I've written. The play-testing with different  periods and scales has  been a real help in tweaking the rules. We tried playing a Modern naval game where one element equals 1 real ship / aircraft, with a scale of around 1 inch to 10 nautical miles. The game was played over 3 nights, with a couple of turns per hour. I think the  game was resolved at around 6 turns. It might seem 2 turns an hour is not much although much of the time was spent discussing what was working, alternatives and stopping to eat toast.

Now I must have bought these at least ten years ago and after one  long-winded attempt at Harpoon (3 hours to track and resolve one torpedo firing) I knew I needed something that was quicker, less fussy around insignificant differences and generally easier for my shrivelling brain. So, after playing with two Leander Class ships and 15 phantoms on the British team v a much larger Soviet team, a grand tactical subset of the rules is in progress ( just means some of the extant rules can be  ignored).

Having lost the entirety of the Soviet air cover to  F4Ks I decided to paint up the  rest of the figures I had and post them up here. If I get carried away and start playing naval games a lot, I'll create a new sub blog link on the right of this page.



First is my  UK fleet circa 1980 something,

So at the rear are my three Victor bombers intended to act as K tankers ( supply is a integral aspect of the GRASP rules), on the large bases furthest away - two Leanders, then two Leopard Class , and   three Trafalgar class subs. In front are ten Phantoms.

Looks like I need more practice at painting these tiny ships and trying to get realistic water effects.

Second is the Soviet fleet:

As you can see there are two distinct sea colours. As ever I  never manage to get the basing the same after a long break.

These are the Kashin and the Kashin Mod. with their attendent Kamov helicopters. I'm thinking about using a hole punch to make some clear discs for these...

This is the Moscva helicopter carrier at the front and behind is the Kiev aircraft carrier.

 Three Myasishchev bombers equipped with what looks like very  capable low altitude  navigation.

Three Akula class (rear) and three Tango class subs. looking at these I think theres a small improvement on my first effort (at the  very back).

I tried  painting the subs  a dark 'german' grey with an Army Painter dark wash over the top. I mixed my own sea green colour for the bases, which means - yet again, I will  have bases of a different colour next time :(

 and a gaggle of Beriev ASW aircraft.

 Ten (one is hiding) MiG 25s, although I used some of them in the test as SU33s. ( I got their stats wrong and the F4Ks made short work of them!)

Lastly, A line of Yak 38s already for action, although I've just checked my references and I need white tail tips and intake leading edges. Ho hum, back to the  paintshop...



Thanks for  looking :)