Imperial Japanese Navy Fleet Completed

I managed to complete the last ship in the IJN a few weeks ago so thought it was time to post a few photos for the sake of posterity. There are sixty-two vessels in this contingent so, rather than drag them out in a series of individual posts I thought I'd deal with them all in one hit, especially as I am still hopeful WWII naval will only be a relatively short segue before I plunge back into my ECW project. 

First off, the two giant battleships Yamato and Musashi, with their massive 18" guns that can inflict a lot of damage:

Followed by the Kongo, Nagato, Hiei and Kirishima. Like so many of the Japanese battleships apart from the Yamato class, the Kongo was a pre-WWI design. It was actually designed and built in the United Kingdom, and launched in 1912. The agreement was for the Japanese to take the design and use it as a blueprint for future constructions so it is quite ironical that the British designs were subsequently used against them:

I purchased a set of WWII Japanese naval colours which contains such exotic colours as Sasebo grey, Kure grey and so on, which are all different shades of grey used in the various shipyards after which the colours have been named. I took some time therefore to dig into which ships were constructed in which shipyards and applied the relevant shade of grey. The remaining battleships are the Ise, Hyuga, Fuso and Yamashiro, with the Hyuga post its conversion to a hybrid battleship carrier:

The Japanese heavy cruisers were very good, most being of a relatively modern design and launched in the 1930s. Below are the Tone, Chikuma, Takao, Atago and Chokai:

Followed by the Aobo, Kinugasa, Mogami, Mikuma and Myoko:

With the Ashigara and Kako completing the contingent of heavy cruisers:

By contrast the Japanese light cruisers were of an earlier vintage and generally outclassed by their US Navy counterparts. Below are the Kitakami, Oi (I have always loved that name), Jintsu, Tenryu and Tatsuta:

The Kitakami and Oi were converted into torpedo cruisers and carried forty tubes each, a lot more than the usual six that is found on most other light cruisers, and can therefore wreak havoc if they survive long enough to get close. 

Next up are the Katori and Kashima, two training ships which are seriously under-gunned and would struggle against a decent destroyer, alongside the Kuma and Kubari:

With the Agamo, Tama, Nagara and Natori completing the contingent of light cruisers:

Also completed are fifteen destroyers, with the Makinami, Yugumo, Onami, Asashio, Asagumo and Oshio:

The Nenohi, Hatsuharu, Wakaba, Teruzuki, Akuzuki, and Niizuki:

And the Suzutsuki, Wakatsuki and Hatsuzuki. The Japanese destroyers were mostly pretty good and, to be fair, many of the light cruisers were really only intended to act as flagships to flotillas of destroyers.

I also completed a supply ship in the form of the Tatekawa Maru, a fleet oiler:

and four submarines with the I-17, I-19, I-26, and I-29. 

These 'B-Class' submarines all carried a Yokosuka E14Y seaplane for spotting purposes, which I have modeled on two of the submarines. As I was painting them I wondered how many unlucky pilots either lost their bearings or returned to the correct spot to find the submarine had submerged and buggered off. The I-17 was actually the first Axis ship to shell mainland United States. It surfaced off California and tried to shell a fuel storage facility but only managed to damage a pier and a pump house. It did however trigger a mass hysteria event which caused the city of Los Angeles to believe it was under aerial attack the following night, resulting in the air defences showering ten tons of shrapnel and unexploded ordnance on the city. Quite understandable given the uncertainty of the times and not dissimilar to episodes elsewhere.

Finally, and well done if you have got this far, I completed seven aircraft carriers. Below are the Taiho, Zuiho and Shoho, the Taiho with its steel-reinforced flight deck and the latter in Midway colours, all courtesy of Flight Deck Decals:

Next the Hiryu and Soryu:

and finally the Kaga and Akagi:

Here are the latter two next to a pencil, just to give an idea of scale:

The planes are very fiddly, not just to paint but to glue in place without ruining the decal on which they are attached. On average I am finding that larger ships such as battleships, carriers and heavy cruisers are taking around three hours each to assemble, base and paint, light cruisers around two hours, and destroyers around fifty minutes to an hour each.

All up then the Japanese fleet is comprised of sixty-two vessels, all of which except the carriers fit nicely into one of my usual storage boxes:

The carriers will probably join the US and Royal Navy carriers in a separate storage box:

That's it for the Japanese fleet. One thing I did find interesting is that out of all the above ships only the battleship Nagato and heavy cruiser Takao survived the war. 

I'm currently completing the last dozen or so US Navy ships so will hopefully have that contingent completed within the next two to three weeks.

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.

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. 

Last three regiments of 15mm ECW Royalist Foot

With only three regiments of foot out of the total of eight Royalist foot left to go, I decided to tackle them in one hit so I can clear the decks and make a start on the Parliamentarian foot. The last three regiments are Stradling's, the Duke of York's and Hopton's regiments of foot, dressed in red, white and blue coats respectively:

Painting three different coat colours kept things interesting and provided the motivation to keep going:

Here is an individual picture of Stradling's regiment of foot:

The blue-coated Hopton regiment:

And finally, the Duke of York's regiment:

I also completed two more elements of red-coated pike which will live with the King's Lifeguard of Foot, in case I want to increase the ratio of pike in any of the red-coated regiments:

That's the Royalist foot completed, with 392 figures in total:

I have some dismounted dragoons still ahead and if I have a few spare pikemen left over after doing the Parliamentary foot I'll probably add a couple of elements for the Royalist regiments.

Next up however will be a few more WWII ships, which represents another slight diversion from the ECW project. This is mainly because another gaming friend of mine is interested in playing a few games of 'Nimitz', the new WWII ruleset from Sam Mustafa. The perfect excuse to delve into the lead pile and dust off a few more boxes from GHQ.