More links

Just added a few links to the lists on the right, specifically from Alnavco and Tumbling Dice.

Ship mini painting, part 1

Been awhile, hasn't it? I am making some slow progress with the minis:


Here is a pic of the WTJ minis, with masts of brass rod added and a coat of primer(Reaper Master Series Brush-On Primer). I have glued them to a nail for easier handling.

I am also experimenting with paint choices:


1. Reaper Master Series Pure White
2. 1 part Pure White + 1 part Reaper Master Series Misty Grey
3. Misty Grey
4. 1 part Misty Grey + 1 part Reaper Master Series Cloudy Grey
5. Cloudy Grey
6. 1 part Cloudy Grey + 1 part Reaper Master Series Stormy Grey
7. Stormy Grey
8. Delta Ceramcoat Charcoal Grey
9. Delta Ceramcoat Black

To my eye, #3 will be a good choice for German hulls (except DD's), with #2 as the color for the upperworks. #4 will be the overall color for the Russians (except DD's). I still need to decide on a deck color, however.

#5 could be the color for the Russian DD's, with #6 for the Germans. I might use #7 as the color for the decks of all the DD's.

Navwar, continued...

Unfortunately, I've been distracted and have yet to work with my new Navwar ships - no painting, no pics, and they are still in the bags. I have discovered that I forgot to place Augsberg on the order sheet and instead received one of my alternates - a Wittelbach-class predreadnought. I guess that means that I'll need to place another order, soon!

Navwar order

The ships from Navwar have arrived - faxed the order in last Monday and delivered on Saturday - very fast service! Pics later on...

First set of minis...

I finally have some pics ready to post. Some of these are a bit dodgy - I need to refine my method just a bit of these small ships.

First up, the Germans:


These are the WTJ versions of Prinz Heinrich and Lübeck.



A very close-up overview of Prinz Heinrich.

The WTJ castings are very nice - not much flash, just a small amount there on Prinz Heinrich's fore funnel.


And some Russian ships:


The cruisers Oleg and Bogatyr.

And a close-up:


Nice. I really like the detail on the ship's boats.


And a broadside view. Note the detail on the casemate guns. There is a bit of a mold line along the waterline; some careful filing will take care of that.


Last but not least, Bayan:

Action off Götland, part 5

The paints have arrived, and the Navwar order faxed off! I also have some pics of the WTJ ships stored in the camera, which I'll try to post later.

High Seas Fleet links

Here are a pair of links to web sites that have some good information on the German navy circa WW1:

Imperial German Navy deployment 1914

Hochseeflotte Ships


The Hochseeflotte page has several links to ship specs, histories, and some pics.

Action off Götland, part 4

Slowly but surely, progress is being made. My first order from WTJ has arrived, and they are beautiful ships indeed. No pics yet; it is just too hot here to mess around in our hobby area but I will take some soon.

I have also sent off for an order of new paints. I am going to try something a bit different this time. Normally, I will purchase specific colors, as I do not like to blend my own shades. But, this time I am going to try it, so the paints I ordered are more basic colors, neutral greys and pure white. I will need to keep track of the recipes of the paints for specific navies as I will never remember them outright.

I am hoping that I can finalize my Navwar order this week; when it arrives I will have everything together for my first scenarios...

Imperial Russian Navy links

Here are a couple of interesting Wiki links for pics of the Imperial Russian Navy:

World War 1 Ships of the Russian Empire

World War 1 cruisers of Russia

World War 1 destroyers of Russian Empire

Imperial Russian Navy destroyers


Very useful in my opinion - they are mostly based on Russian sources.

Action off Gotland, part 3

While sorting through the painting table, I made an unwelcome discovery - I do not have any paints suitable for naval vessels! None of the typical greys that one would need. Now, I could just mix my own, and I do not mind doing that in a very limited manner, but large-scale paint formulation is not what I want, especially as I do not need large quantities. So, along with the ships I will need to purchase some paint. Sigh...

On a good note, I have found some interesting web sites pertaining to the naval situation in the Baltic during WW1. I'll post them very soon.

Progress

Progress is being made at the El Grego shipyards - being back on-line (after work on the building and a 'slight' hiccup in our internet connection) is the major one! I have placed the first order for 1/3000 minis with WTJ; German and Russian cruisers mostly, with a few torpedo boats thrown into the mix. Hopefully I will place an order with NavWar this week for the remainder of the ships I desire for the 'Action off Götland' scenario. I'll post pics as soon as the minis arrive...

Action off Gotland, part 2

After much deliberation, and the confirmation of a slow-down at my place of employment, I am reconsidering my decision of using 1/2400 scale ships, especially the beautiful but expensive GHQ models.

If you look at this post on A Wargaming Odyssey, and again at this post on SteelonSandBlog, you will see some very nice examples of 1/3000 naval ships. With the prices for these minis running at least 50% less than GHQ, they are great bargains.

Also, Navwar makes a specific SMS Albatross mini, and WTJ has an awesome SMS Prinz Heinrich! Neither of these ships are available in 1/2400.

Action off Gotland, part 1

Way back on this blog - here actually - I started some notes on my WW1 naval project. After a bit of digging, I have found a few of the missing pieces of info.

First, the scenario now has a title - Action off Götland. The battle was fought in the Baltic near the island of Götland.

Second, I did find the 'missing' cruiser that was cruising with Prinz Adalbert - Prinz Heinrich, an older armored cruiser in the German Navy. To the best of my knowledge, there are no minis for this ship in 1/2400, so some conversion work will be needed.

Third, the budget does not seem to be an obstacle at this time. A proposal was made to the household CFO (my lovely wife) and she approved it! I will be waiting for one of GHQ's sales before ordering, but hopefully I will send off for the Panzerschiffe ships very soon.

More links added

I have added a few more links on the margin, including the new site for Molniya Miniatures and David Manley's Naval Rules On-Line

New VSF game coming soon - Leviathans

Catalyst Game Labs has announced a new entry in the VSF aerial fleet genre - Leviathans.

So far, the Leviathans blog has some information on the background for the game, and some interesting artwork. I am not sure how this new game would affect the already established Aeronef; it might be complimentary as the two games are based in slightly different time references. Aeronef seems (I am not quite certain as I have yet to purchase it) to have its ship architecture based in approximately 1890, while Leviathans is in 1910. That might not seem like much, but naval architecture was rapidly changing in the turn of the previous century.

My biggest hope for Leviathans is the commisioning of new minis!

Some more links...

Mark at Scale Creep Miniatures has posted pics of the Navwar 1/1200 ACW line

Mark at Deepfriedhappymice has several entries for naval rules at his Rules Directory



And, I am trying to add more links to the lists on the right...

More blogs

Here are a couple of naval or mostly naval blogs:

SteelonSand - Pre-dreadnought naval and some interesting 6mm sci-fi

My Victorian Navy - Ironclads among others

Another naval mini You Tube video...

You Tube user SEEKRIEG4 has a video of a WW2 naval miniatures duel for your viewing pleasure - SeeKrieg Naval Miniature Battle

Another naval gaming blog

I just wanted to point my gentle readers to another great blog - A Wargaming Odyssey

There are several great ideas for naval gaming, and a lot of nice pics. Highly Recommended!

Well where's he at?

My apologies for not posting for so long... the blazing start I had burned right out!

Some of this is due to getting a severe case of 'sticker shock' with the GHQ minis. They are beautiful minis, but I just do not foresee myself having the financial resources to invest in them, especially with the other projects demanding funding as well. Also, the problem with the GQ3 rules, as mentioned previously, took some of the wind from my sails, even though the charts were quite satisfactorily replaced.

So, a change of course is required. I am looking into 1/3000 scale ships instead. And, I might even revise the scope of the collection to pre-dreadnoughts. Much to decide...

A list of Initial purchases...

The first part of the plan - rules - is now complete with the arrival of proper charts for my copy of GQ3 - FAI, so now I can progress to the next step - minis!



For this encounter of July 1915 in the Baltic (I have yet to find a 'title' for this battle, you know - 'Battle of Jutland' or similar), here are the German ships I will need and the vendor:



Prinz Adalbert (Panzerschiffe)
Roon (Panzerschiffe)
Augsburg (Panzerschiffe)
Lubeck (GHQ)
Albatross (?)
7 DD (?)

Mostly Panzerschiffe for now. Panzerschiffe makes nice but simple minis; I will dress them up a bit with masts and such. Lubeck, according to my sources, is a Bremen-class light cruiser, of which Leipzig (and Lubeck) are members, and GHQ makes a Leipzig mini. I have yet to determine the classes of the destroyers involved. Also, I believe there is another armored cruiser paired with Prinz Adalbert; I will check my books for that. The mini will most likely come from Panzerschiffe. The mine-layer Albatross is a puzzle, as no manufacturer makes one in 1/2400. I will wade through the pics on the Panzerschiffe site until I find one that is close.

And, the Russian list:



Rurik (GHQ)
Admiral Makarov (GHQ)
Bayan (GHQ)
Bogatyr (GHQ)
Oleg (GHQ)
Novik (?)


It was my intention from the start to use GHQ products if I could, and GHQ makes most of the ships involved. Adm. Makarov will need a bit of converting - she is in the same class as Bayan but has a single pole mast. Novik is not available in 1/2400, so a proxy will be needed.

Naval Gaming news - 16 March 2009

Old Glory Shipyard has released three fleet sets in 1/2400 for Warhammer Historical's new rules set Trafalgar (or any sailing ship game)

Litko has a set of templates for Trafalgar in Jim's Product Lab

Steel Dreadnought Games has released a new WW1 naval set - Naval Thunder: Clash of Dreadnoughts

Good news

I have a little bit of good news...

Earlier in January, I had purchased a copy of GQ3 - Fleet Action Imminent.  However, there was a problem - the charts were misprinted.  The charts had copies of the spotting (and other info) tables on both sides and no gunnery tables.  Kind of difficult to run a naval combat game with no gunnery info!  So, I placed an e-mail with the publisher - ODGW - who promised to have a new set of charts mailed to me.  After some patience, the new and properly printed charts have arrived.

I intend to do a side-by-side comparison of GQ2 and GQ3 in the near future.

I also need to write a list of ship minis that I need to purchase!

Naval Gaming news - 28 February 2009

James, at his blog - Olicanalad's Games - has posted a great series on a new ancients naval game - Fleet of Battle

There is a massive series of photos of WW1 German ships at the GameSquad forums - simply amazing!

Naval Gaming news - 17 February 2009

North Head Miniatures has announced the initial releases in their upcoming 1/3000 WW2 range (as reported on Tabletop Gaming News)

WW1 Baltic, part 1

While surfing around the 'Net recently, I came across this site:

World War 1 at Sea - Baltic

(link fixed 07.25.2009)

These pages have a great deal of information on the naval campaign in the Baltic in WW1. There is a brief description of the land campaigns in a chronological order, with notes on any significant naval actions that occurred during the same time frame. A lot of good scenario background can be found there.

That site will be the starter for a list of ships needed for my first scenarios. I need to read through the battles carefully to find an action that will have enough ships for a good GQ3 scenario for, say, 4 to 6 people (a typical convention participation game). The entry for 2 July 1915 is a good candidate...

Dazzle Camouflage patterns

The Rhode Island School of Design has a collection of 455 plans of dazzle camouflage as used on US ships in WW2; here are some dazzle plan samples

Naval Gaming news - 1 February 2009

Mongoose Publishing has posted a scenario for Victory at Sea: Age of Dreadnoughts (Heligoland Bight 1917) in Signs & Portents 65 - a free PDF download

A new, revised edition of Don Featherstone's Naval War Games has been published by John Curry

Panzerschiffe has released some new models in 1/2400

The plan

So, what am I actually going to do with this project?  Here's a brief run-down of my plan as it stands at present:

ERA - World War 1 will be the starting conflict for my restart of the collection.  There are a multitude of historical and hypothetical actions that can be played out on a tabletop.  I also like the ship designs.  The lack of radar and aircraft is a minor bonus, although I do admit that WW2 will be a part of the collection in the future.

THEATRE - Oddly enough, I'm starting with the Baltic.  The Russian Navy in WW1 was no slouch (at the beginning, anyways), and the relatively constricted waters of the Baltic will provide some much-needed boundaries for battles.  The fleets involved are not very large, therefore affordable although that might not last long as the collection grows!

SCALE - 1/2400.  Fairly obvious, this one.  Most of the games I have seen here in the Seattle area have used 1/2400 scale minis.  I already have some 1/2400 scale minis, left-overs from previous work, and the selection is fairly extensive.

MINIS - I am going to try and make the nucleus of the collection centered around GHQ miniatures.  Yep, the expensive ones.  I really like the detail of the minis, and they are not hard to get here in the States; in fact, one local game store has the entire line of GHQ models on their shelves for those impulse purchases.  I do freely admit, however, that I will be taking advantage of GHQ's periodic sales in the purchasing of these minis.

RULES - General Quarters 3 - Fleet Action Imminent is my rules set of choice for most actions (although I'm having a bit of a problem with the rules at the moment; more later).  These rules have enough detail for me, a long-time Seekrieg fan, and are reasonably fast-playing.  I might dust off my copy of Seekrieg 4 some time - if I run a game for my friends in Spokane they will demand it!

So, the easy part is done.  I need to do some research on the composition of the German and Russian fleets in the Baltic, find providers of the appropriate minis, paint, base, and play!

Ship gaming YouTube video

Ted Henkle's latest wargaming creation is a movie about a Malta convoy in WW2 - Impending Fury 

Naval Gaming news - 25 January 2009

Spartan Games has posted some new greens for their upcoming Sky Pirates miniatures for Uncharted Seas

Warhammer Historical has opened a Yahoo group for their upcoming Trafalgar age of sail rules

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Naval Gaming news - 18 January 2009

Spartan Games has released their new Thaniras Elven ships - here

PT Dockyard has a new series of never-built ships in 1/1200 - here

Mongoose Publishing has posted a preview of their upcoming rules Victory at Sea - Age of Dreadnoughts - here


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Naval Gaming news - 10 January 2009

This is the first segment of Naval Gaming News, with hopefully many more to follow:


Minden Games has released Panzer Digest Naval Special 2008, containing a complete game based on the Dogger Bank encounter of 1915, variant rules for Avalon Hill's Jutland, game reviews, and other goodies


Toshach Miniatures has released several sets of appliques for 1/6000 WW2 aircraft carrier deck markings

Topgun Marketing has some special deals for modern 1/1250 missile boat packs

Litko Aero has some news islands and shoal markers in their Naval Tokens range

Spartan Games has some pics of their new Uncharted Seas tokens




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Drumbeat 2009

Yesterday, I played in my first game of General Quarters 3 at Drumbeat, a nice but small historical-only gaming event in Seattle. Mark Serafin braved adversities to show up and run this event.

The scenario was a training scenario, just to get people up on the rules. There were six players - 2 Japanese and 1 German vs. 1 US, 1 British, and 1 Dutch (me!). Each player had three ships: 1 light cruiser or large destroyer and 2 smaller destroyers. The Dutch force consisted of: Java, Kortenaer, and Witte de Withe.


Here are my three ships, GHQ Models I believe and expertly painted by David Sullivan.



The game starts - Java leads the way. HMS Penelope is close astern as we pass close to an island.



German destroyers off the port bow! We started the game at a really close range, and in the name of simplicity the visibility rules were not used. The action got hot immediately - the Germans received fire from my division and the Brits. The US destroyers were waaaaaaaay behind us, and the Japanese forces were not this close! Java was able to damage the lead German DD, and she had some luck in the return fire - Java was hit twice, but each hit was against a non-existent system (TT launcher in this instance), in effect no damage was done. Kortenaer (second in the Dutch line) was not so lucky - she suffered an Engineering hit, reducing her max speed and lost one of her two TT launchers.



The Royal Navy division - Penelope leads 2 H-class (?) DD. Minis by GHQ and well-painted by Mark Serafin.



A little later in the game - Java (and Kortenaer) in the bottom right corner, the two remaining Germans heading away, two Japanese groups (in the top center), and the Brits. The US force is somewhere off-pic to the left (!). Witte de Withe has sunk earlier, previously undamaged, by a German torp. The lead German DD was sunk by concentrated Dutch and Brit gunfire and a Brit torp. The British force is taking massive damage from very close range fire by the two Japanese flotillas. In the pic you see blue poker chips; Mark uses these to cover the torpedo launches.



A Japanese flotilla closing in on Java. The torpedo launch chips astern the Japanese have sunk Kortenaer and things look grim for the Dutch. I'm not going down without a fight though! Java has a lot of guns, and can dish out a lot of damage at close range. The Japanese CL gets peppered by a broadside, and is severely damaged. In the exchange, Java gets scraped paint and splinters (more hits on non-existent systems).



Java turns to starboard to keep the maximum amount of weapons on target. Off the pic, off Java's bow is the late-arriving US division. I decide to turn in and follow the US ships, although I should just open the range.



Here is what I get for following the US destroyers - a spread of 3 US torps heading directly towards me! The torps were intended for the Japanese flotilla, but I plotted my move just perfectly to intercede. Fortunately the torps missed; gave me quite a scare though!


Soon after this, we had to pick up the game. I had a blast! I really like the way that General Quarters has been improved in its third edition - I ordered a copy of the WW1 version later that night.

Many thanks to Mark Serafin, for coming to Drumbeat despite his troubles; and thanks to the other players - Chuck (Japanese), Jeroen (Japanese), Dantae (German, and perhaps 12 years old), Dale (US), and the Brit player whose name I did not note.


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A note about the links...

I am adding links to the sections on this blog almost daily. Believe it or not, there are a great many links out there that are pertinent to naval gaming! I am trying to be as specific as I can with the links in each section, but there will be some overlap between the individual sections. A good example is Navwar - the links in the Pre-dreadnought/WW1 sections and the WW2 section are the same, since the catalog listing on the Navwar site is a compilation of the entire range.

Hopefully the links are of use and not too confusing - please feel free to suggest links to be included that I have accidentally missed!


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Dutch BC mini

Ken Hall has made a nice conversion for a never-constructed Dutch BC, the pic is here - link



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Roman Seas

Here is a pic of a Roman Seas game in progress:




This was taken during one of Eric Hotz's games during Enfilade 2006.


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