Kriegsmarine Ships Completed

I haven't posted for a while, mainly because I have been totally immersed in the WWII naval project and have managed to finish nearly two hundred vessels in the past two months, with just over a hundred left to go. Rather than bore everyone with endless photos every time I complete half a dozen or so, especially as WWII naval is not everyone's cup of tea, I'll limit it to completed fleets from now on so at least I can record my progress and can return to the summaries from time to time to see what I have actually done.

First up is the now completed Kriegsmarine fleet:

The final additions include three more destroyers; Z26, Z27 and Z29:

The light cruisers Leipzig and Nurnberg:

And a second aircraft carrier, which was laid down as the cruiser Seydlitz but earmarked for conversion into the Weser, but never actually completed:

I also completed the supply ship Altmark, an oil tanker which spent the first part of the war shadowing the Graf Spee and ended up transporting 299 British sailors from ships the Graf Spee had sunk back to Germany. Langsdorff, the Captain of the Graf Spee, sought assurances from the captain of the Altmark that the prisoners would be treated well, but the Altmark's captain was apparently something of a Nazi fanatic and the prisoners were fed little and kept in appalling conditions. Although Norway was still neutral at that time, the ship was detained three times by Norwegian authorities at the request of the British who on each occasion failed to find any of the close to 300 prisoners detained below decks. It was subsequently boarded by sailors from the destroyer HMS Cossack, apparently some with cutlasses, who freed the prisoners and transported them back to Britain.

I also completed the Pinguin, a German raider which masqueraded as a Greek merchantman  to pounce on unsuspecting allied shipping, even having concealed gun compartments fore and aft which could be flung open at the last minute. It sank or captured 28 Allied ships before it was finally sunk by HMS Cornwall in May 1941, the Pinguin exploding when a compartment containing mines it was carrying suffered a direct hit and killing not only the majority of its 400 crew but also most of 200 merchant seamen prisoners on board:

Finally, five U-boats in U-47, U-48, U-96, U-99 and U-100, all of them among the most successful U-boats of the war:

Plus a submerged U-87, which I did mainly to amuse myself:

There are rules for submarines, supply tankers and merchant ships in Nimitz, so I plan to do similar vessels for each of the other navies.

That is the German contingent now completed, with a total of 32 vessels (not counting the "submerged" U-87). Next up, the recently completed Japanese fleet, nearly twice the size with 62 vessels.

More WWII Kriegsmarine Ships

I'm feeling a little conflicted at the moment as I really want to get back to my 18mm ECW project, but at the same time I am on a roll and enjoying clearing some GHQ ships from my backlog. The other factor is that a gaming friend and I are now playing WWII every second Tuesday using the new Nimitz ruleset from Sam Mustafa and we are thoroughly enjoying it, and there is nothing quite like knowing that recent painting efforts will get some regular game time to further increase motivation.

Here therefore is the latest batch of WWII German ships to augment those first completed at the end of 2020, with the Tirpitz joining the already completed Bismarck:

 

And the Gneisenau joining its sister ship the Scharnhorst:

The Graf Zeppelin will come in useful when we introduce air cover into the games:

The Admiral Hipper, Prinz Eugen and Blucher sister ships:

And finally the Graf Spee and Admiral Scheer sister ships:

I have recently got stuck into some Japanese ships and will take pictures of those in slightly larger groups as I realise WWII naval, and naval gaming in general, is not everyone's cup of tea. Most rulesets can be very dry, but we seem to have found an enjoyable niche with Nimitz and it is always nice when a couple of boxes disappear from the lead pile.

WWII Kriegsmarine Ships

Following the completion of the Republican Romans I am using the Christmas New Year break to clear a few other bits and pieces from the painting queue, first in line being eleven GHQ WWII German ships. Here are the German destroyers Z1, Z2 and Z3 (which did actually adopt names of WWI German sailors, which were too long to fit on the labels):

And the later Z25, Z28 and Z30 destroyers which, to the best of my knowledge, had no alternative epithets:

The light cruiser Konigsberg with the rather garish yellow gun turret upper surfaces, in use during the early stages of the war for air recognition when Germany had a measure of air superiority:

And her sister ship Koln:

With another light cruiser, the Emden:

Finally, a couple of battleships in the Scharnhorst:

And the mighty Bismarck:

WWII Naval gaming is not every one's cup of tea, but I plan to give these a go with a set of WWII naval rules we used back in the 80's. I purchased a later set but cannot remember what I did with them, but have managed to locate a copy of the original plus an aircraft supplement which must be 45 years old and very dog eared through much use:

I remember them being a huge amount of fun and catered for enough tactical options such as weather, smoke, spotter planes etc. without bogging the player down. There's always a danger in trying to revisit something so many years later and a risk that the original happy memories may be spoiled, but a recent read-through suggests that these have stood the test of time and are still very accessible. Now I just have to convince the Monday-night group to give them a go as a filler game in between the usual Napoleonic outings.