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.

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 I'm about to start two Knox family ships but since they are  no longer active ( another redundant set from  Navwar fleet pack) my enthusiasm is a little short.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.

Navwar 1/3000 Soviet and US Modern naval Spruance, Los Angeles, Ohio

A nice package of figures arrived from Navwar last week - A battle-pack  for  modern US naval forces and a selection I made of Soviet ships to augment those I already have. I get the feeling that with the demise of Devian figures there's no-one currently making up to date naval stuff in 1/3000th. After I had cleaned up and based the castings I decided to start with the US subs - Ohio and Los Angeles classes. Next in line were the Spruance class ships, so after a good search  for pics on the web I had a go at them.

Work desk overflowing with  ships

After achieving something which I was happy with (although I can see much room for improvement) I set off to find out what had happened to them since the Gulf War only to discover that before 2000 they had all been retired! I was slightly deflated to realise that not only are the current  figure manufacturers seriously lagging and that their fleets are in serious need of modernisation but that if I want up-to date fleets, unless I'm prepared to pay the comparatively high cost that 3D printers are asking for their models, I might need to do some scratch building. I guess I can still simulate conflicts up until and including the nineties, but I need to rethink if I want to explore the hypotheticals.

My now redundant Spruance Class

 I do understand that costs of new models have to be offset by sales. Perhaps there's not enough interest in this scale and genre to justify the cost of new masters and moulds. I also  understand only too well how fast the years pass and  the nineties may be recent history to many. But these ships were retired 20 years ago. Time the battle packs were updated I think and if I can make a castable master I'd be happy to let someone cast them up for sale.'If you want something done - do it yourself' comes to mind.

I think at least the Los Angeles are still in service

I suspect the Ohio Class will be around for a while yet

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 :)