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. ;)

USSR modern naval ships Navwar 1/3000

I really enjoyed painting these as I like the look of the brick red decks. There are 4 x Udaloy class ships, 3 x Sovremenny, 2 x Krivak 3, one Slava and one Kirov. I realise some of these are retired now or in service with smaller navies or  home built copies but I will be searching out some more modern Soviet ships in the future.

Kirov

Not a great picture but it looks like one hell of a warship. I will find a Helix or similar to decorate the helo deck and  perhaps some hull numbers too.

krivak 3

I wonder if any of the Krivaks are still serving? These are the III model used by the KGB.

Sovremenny

Damn! Just realised I need to do the base edges! So disorganised... Any way , these are the Sovremenny Class, I'm sure some of these are still in service somewhere.

Udaloy Class

The last of my Soviet fleet for the time being, these Udaloys already have helos cast onto the decks. I will try and find my  punch and die set and make some rotor discs for them. hopefully it won't be too long before I get to play them and then I'll add some battle reports.

Thanks for looking.

US Modern Naval 1/3000 Warships Navwar

In an uncharacteristic display of focused activity, I've managed to finish something that I've started.
Now I've got a method sorted for painting these little ships I did the Soviets en masse. In addition to completing the US fleet with the Tarawa, Nimitz and Cimarron (all now retired I think) there's a brace of Bunker Hills.

Tarawa -  awaiting deck markings

So the Tarawa is more or less finished. I need to  complete the deck markings once I've found my masking tape, although the helicopter landing circles might be better as decals. I've no idea whether I can find some in my spares as it seems no-one does markings for them. After that I'd like to pop some helos on deck.

Nimitz CV

I gave the deck markings on the Nimitz a fiar bash but I wasn't happy with the results so this to is waiting for masking tape, decals and some aircraft to clutter the decks up. I picked a parcel including some S3A Vikings (one of my favourite jets), so in the future I'll get  6 of these separated from their bases and plopped onto the deck.

Cimarron

 the Cimarron will work with my fleet as a supply unit. I suspect this is  retired too, although there is a 'stretched' Cimarron that might be fun to have. You can see the wonky hand painted helo deck. I'm struggling as to how noone has picked up on the potential sales opportunity!

Bunker Hill Class

 The Bunker Hills are the last of my US fleet until I can find a supplier of the more recent classes, I will need to buy a few packs of helos and aircraft to finish the fleet off. I will start a new blog section on the right hand side of the page as I've also picked up some 1/2000 Ancient ships by Navwar, some Napoleonic ships by Navwar and Langton,some 1/2000 ACW ships by Navwar and a mixture of WW2 stuff.



Thanks for looking.

USS Knox Class Modern US Naval 1/3000th NAvwar

Having completed the Spruance, Arleigh Burke, Ohio , Los Angeles, Ticonderoga ships and now the Knox Class ships from the NAvwar Modern USA fleet pack, I am left with 2 Oliver Hazard ships, the Cimarron Oiler, USS Tarawa and the CV Nimitz. I hoping to pick up some aircraft from ebay in the next week or so so I can decorate the helo flight decks and install a few aircraft on the Nimitz too. In the meantime, here are the Knox class ships..

Knox class frigates

The Nimitz is underway but waiting for my masking tape to resurface so I can complete the deck markings. Given she is the oldest serving US carrier I can't imagine she'll be around for much longer.

Nimitz in preparation

USS Bunker Hill Ticonderoga Class 1/3000 Navwar Modern Naval USA

So maybe there's only two years before these start getting decommissioned, but that's two years of good gaming time before I need to get their replacements painted.





 So here are Navwar's USS Bunker Hill models along with six Boeing AWACS I've painted this morning. The AWACS are split between the USA, NATO and Japan. I'm about to start two Knox family ships but since they are  no longer active ( another redundant set from  Navwar fleet pack) my enthusiasm is a little short. One useful thing I discovered from painting the Bunkers however is that I prefer a soft tone wash as on the Arleighs and Spruances to the dark tone wash I used on the bunkers.

Thanks for looking :)

1/3000th Modern US naval Arleigh Burke Class

Slowly working out a system to paint these as I find out what works for me and what doesn't. The  two I've sqeezed in today  seem to me  a little improved on  my earlier Spruance Class ships. Slightly more aggressive with the highlights and the shading  wash is helping the models to pop a little more.

These are today's  Arleigh Burke Class ships. I've looked at numerous photos and the shades seems to change in every picture.

Then the Arleigh burkes on the left compared to  the earlier Spruances on the right...

Probably  more tomorrow as a have a rare day off and (good light prevailing) a long and fruitful painting day :)

Thanks for looking.

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 :)