Monday, 29 May 2023

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.

17 comments:

  1. Very nice work here Lawrence and your motivation to carry on with the naval project is totally understandable! I think most of us can relate to those drivers. You can chalk me down as one with little or no interest in naval games but I can still appreciate how cool the models look....and yours are very cool indeed!

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    1. What Keith said! Your latest ships are superb and when making such terrific progress on this project shifting gears away would be a shame.

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    2. Thanks both for the kind words. The ECW has reached the point where all the Royalist foot have been completed, so it seems a natural place to hold things while I carry on with the WWII ships, at least for a short while.

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  2. Excellent looking ships, a game will push different things up the painting queue!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain. Most of them have seen action now which is a good thing.

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  3. The ships are first rate, and an active slate of games would no doubt be a good way to get them in action quickly. I would agree with Kieth, Iain and Jonathan.

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    1. Thanks Joe. Even if we eventually move on for a while at least I'll have a decent force which I can always return to.

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  4. Echo all previous comments. These look amazing. I look have to look into these rules.

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    1. Cheers Richard. A decent-sized game with four or five capital ships per side plays in around four hours once you get to know the rules. The thing that appeals to us is there isn't a lot of looking up charts or onerous record keeping, which keeps things flowing nicely.

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  5. WWII naval is one of those genres that I think I could get into. If you got a regular game going on with rules you like then it’s certainly time to crank out the ships.
    Besides, the ECW is one of those lesser CWs and can wait. 😀

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    1. I was thinking that WWII naval is probably not a thousand miles away from science fiction gaming, with different classes of ships, armour and firepower etc. I can certainly see the attraction in both.

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  6. Great stuff Lawrence. I always like the detail of GHQ...they were one of the first manufacturers to make use if CAD to make wargames modele.

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    1. I didn't know that. It explains the detailed pictures in the instructions that accompany each of the models. I was looking at them a few weeks ago wondering which poor person had to do those and assumed they had been done the old fashioned way.

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  7. That is amazing detail Lawrence, very very impressive! I love the lighter tone of sea of the wake of the ship, it makes the ship stand out well and really adds extra interest to it. Great work!
    Best wishes,
    Jason

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    1. Thanks Jason. The GHQ models are so detailed in themselves that it makes painting them fun.

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  8. Impressive details on these most beautiful ships Lawrence!

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    1. Thanks Phil, they are great designs and I am speeding my way through them now.

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