More WWII Royal Navy Ships

I had read about Sam Mustafa's new set of WWII naval wargame rules and was thinking about purchasing them when I got a call from a gaming friend I hadn't caught up with for a couple of years asking if I had heard of them and whether I'd be interested in a few games. Just the motivation to get stuck into a few more of the GHQ WWII ships languishing in my lead pile. First off, a batch of a couple of dozen Royal Navy ships. The four battleships below are the King George V, Renown, Revenge and the Repulse:

All the models are GHQ's 1/2400th scale. Some of them take a bit of putting together with, in most cases, gun turrets, superstructure and secondary armament all having to be glued into place. Each capital ship therefore takes me around 30 minutes to assemble, and another two to three hours to paint and base. Thankfully the GHQ ships are nicely cast and the parts generally fit together beautifully, and each kit comes with spares so if I press on the tweezers too hard and a gun turret goes flying there is usually a spare part on hand to replace it. 

Here are three Royal Navy aircraft carriers in HMS Illustrious:

The Ark Royal:

and HMS Furious (perhaps to be followed by HMS Angry and HMS Slightly Annoyed):

The flight decks are from Flight Deck Decals and I think give the models a real lift. The aircraft are tiny with around a 4mm wingspan and were fiddly to glue in place on the finished model, after which I completed painting the upper surface having done the underside when they were still on the sprue.

I also completed three more County class cruisers in the London, Norfolk and Dorsetshire:

Plus the two York class heavy cruisers in the York and Exeter:

Where possible I went for camouflage schemes which, although sometimes painful to do, makes for a point of difference from the standard Admiralty Light Grey. The paints I used are from AK Interactive who have specific Royal Navy, Kriegsmarine and US Navy sets which takes the guesswork out of trying to mix the correct shade. The only issue is that I discovered they are really airbrush paints designed for larger models, which means I generally have to go over the same areas three times.

Next up two town class light cruisers in the Southampton and Birmingham:

And two Leander class light cruisers in the New Zealand ship HMNZS Achilles and HMS Ajax, both of which joined the Exeter in hunting the Graf Spee in the Battle of the River Plate:

My great uncle was on the Ajax throughout WWII and I have his medals sitting on a bookshelf in a leather horseshoe box he made while on ship. Interestingly the town of Ajax in Canada was named after the ship and each road there named after a crew member. I'm not sure whether he ever knew there was a (Robert) Mayor Crescent named in his honour. 

Finally, a Dido class light cruiser in the Black Prince:

Three E-class destroyers in the Echo, Eclipse and Escapade:

and three N-Class Destroyers which I have done as the Napier, Nestor and Nizam, primarily because these were transferred to Australia during WWII and I would like to add a few Australian cruisers so we can play a few Pacific encounters:

That's it for the Royal Navy now. All this means I have been distracted from my ECW project again, and I have a batch of Kriegsmarine ships I am currently completing, but in between I have at least made a start on some Parliamentarian foot.