Ships in Grey Scale

Next up is for a theme chamber based on painting in Greyscale...

Ships ahead - are they Ours or Theirs?

Sailing on from the aquifer, we sense shadowy shapes in the Chamber of Darkness but it's difficult to tell if they are friend or foe.

After a 6 year hiatus I have set getting my WW2 Naval project back in business as a goal for 2021.  I do my games in the Med theatre and have narrowed my focus to late 1941- early 1942 looking at historical squadrons and the actions that they fought.  Many of these actions were fought at night with identification (or lack of) playing a key role.

These four tokens were painted to represent potential sightings which have not been firmly identified.  My own experiences (Warning - Old Fart Moment Ahead) of night time Channel crossings with my dad showed me that recognizing shapes, sizes, directions and speed is very difficult.   I figured this would be a good opportunity to meet the greyscale challenge.  

The ships are 4 CinC 1:2400 scale destroyers which were deemed surplus to my needs.  There are 3 supposed British "L" class destroyers which turned out not to have the right feature plus a Spica class TB.  I will relay the full L class saga another times, but for now will note that I am odd and get persnickety abut fielding the correct destroyers.

These were quick to paint up but I am pretty pleased with the end result.

These were painted using mostly Paynes' Grey with Carbon Black shading and Titanium White mixed in to get lighter shades.   Paynes' Grey is actually a very dark blue, but I'm hoping the name will let me slide it through.  Tables include a radar blip image and Capital Greek letters for identification.  I spelled out the letter names for benefit of gamers who speak neither Greek nor Mathematics.

Points wise that 4 1/2400 ships @ 2 points plus 20 for the chamber = 28 points.  A whopping 8 of these go towards my death by a thousand paper cuts total in the Naval Side Duel.

Initial post from the Challenge

I am going back through my post on the Challenge blog from this year.

 

Lupo and Cassiopia

First post from me this year and I think the first entry in the Naval Side Duel.  I have two Italian Spica Class torpedo boats (equivalent to a Destroyer Escort in USN speak) from WW2.  The models are in 1/2400 scale and are by CinC, now sold by Legions IV Hire slightly to our east in Winnipeg.  They are sailing up the Aquifer to get me not our dungeon's first level.

Lupo had the reputation of the luckiest ship in the Navy. 

A series of Naval Treaties limited nations' ship building in most categories, but placed no limits on torpedo boats under 1000 tons displacement.  The Germans built the Elbing class that gavee Allied Light Forces a headache in the Channel, the French built the almost useless Melpomene class and the Italians built these very successful and hard worked ships.  They carried three 4" guns, a light torpedo armament pus AA and ASW weapons.  They carried out the bulk of the escort work on the Convoys to North Africa.  Most importantly for the Regina Marina they were much more economical on fuel than larger ships, with oil reserves being the biggest factor restricting operations as the war dragged on.

There were 30 in the class, plus two sold to Sweden, and more in two similar classes.  Many of them put up impressive battle records. After the Italian Armistace many were taken over by the Kriegsmarine while others served with honour alongside the allies.  

These are the first pictures taken in my new light box picked up over the summer.

In the past 1/2400 scale ships have been worth 2 points a piece, meaning that I've got to put out a lot of hulls to keep pace with my opponents in the duel.  Add in the 20 points for the location and it's 24 points for the entry.

 

Painting Challenge Wrap Up

I've been off this blog for 4 months now, but not silent from either gaming or blogging.  I was in the Analogue Hobbies Challenge XI this year.  My wrap up photos are below.  I'll try and get some of my posts copied over in the next month.

 I am of course late out of the gate on this one.  But here are my wrap up photos of everything that I painted for the Challenge.

Naval Stuff

All the ships were from WW2.  I had planned to add some Anglo Dutch Wars ships which only got part painted and some from the War of the Pacific which only got primer.  I gave Adam a reasonable chase in the early going of there Naval Duel but got left in everyone's wake at the end.  For some reason I decided that I needed every destroyer that fought in the Med in 1941-2, but I had fun researching the various classes, modifications and camouflage patterns applied.

Land based stuff

A true variety pack -  a new 10mm NYW project, Dorky Orky tanks, Women of WW2 and Beowulf!

Dooffus in charge with my Meadhall background from our Beowulf DnD sessions

January through March is a busy time for me.  I basically end up working 60% of each of two jobs so the challenge is a sanity break for me.  It's great to see everyone work and looking forward to next year.