Irregular miniatures spaceship haul - old citadel and QT starships

Thought Id upload some pics of a recent haul from Irregular Miniatures. Looks like they were  getting rid of the space ship display board. These look around squadron scale(?) about 1/3000. They seem to fit in well with the other stuff I have from Brigade and Kallistra.

The grey ships - top left -  are Kallistra ship that I posted earlier in their original owner's colours. They are now nicely undercoated and ready to join the  painting queue.

also, for those old enough to remember the 80's, I have this collection of old QT  and Citadel  ships.

Kallistra Space dreadnought 3000 ships

Its been a while since Ive made any real progress on my own projects.  Although Ive been recollecting 15mm sci fi for a couple of years,  it was at the last Warfare show that I picked up a couple of 1/3000 scale space fleets from the Kallistra stand. I think I paid less £15  per fleet and that was for  eight ships and metal stands , which I thought was a very reasonable price.  I picked up the Quellaris fleet and the Altaran fleet and got a free set of the  rules thrown in! Thank you :)

So, having  not painted any tiny spaceship since the mid -eighties ( I have half a dozen spaceships bought from Esdevium games whilst I was still at school) I took a fairly conservative approach to painting this new batch.

Behold! The fleet of  the Quellarians!

As you can see, I didn't stop with painting a few ships... oh no..
Some months before , without knowing why, I bought a pack of various sized polystyrene balls from a craft retailer. Once I'd purchased my ships I then realised what the balls were for ! Planets! Set to with the poly cement to make an asteroid or two, followed by a lovely  6 x 4 ft  space matt from A & B games across the road and I'm all set for interstellar chaos.

Shortly, thereafter, followed the Altaran fleet. who will save us from the Altaran onslaught? Aaaaaah!

A couple of hotwheels 'Star wars'  and  some plastic fighters and bases from E4M I think, plus another session making 22 planets of various sizes and colours ( thanks to my  daughter for the nail varnish for the  swirly enamelling ) and I am ready to rock and roll. Mission accomplished :)

Polish mine layers Jaskolka Class 1/3000 Navwar

More fun today experimenting with sea effect bases as I completed six boats from the Jaskolka class as part of my WW2 Polish fleet -

Using the GRASP rules, these are created as 'engineer' units which allows them to modify areas of terrain, making them difficult and often dangerous to traverse. 

Source Polish Navy Site

The profile above by Bartelski shows a medium grey finish which I think matches the picture below.

Source Ivan Gogin

There is another source showing  a much darker finish:

Original Source Not Known

There is also the following picture which shows a model with a two-tone grey finish and armour cladding: 

Source 1/100 paper model

Since these ships served over a longish period, with the last one was decommissioned in 1970, I guess there was plenty of opportunity for variation over theatre of service and time. As for their fate - to quote Gogin (2009-16) 

 'Jaskółka and Czapla were sunk by German aircraft 14/9/1939 at Jastran. Mewa and Rybitwa were sunk 3/9/1939 by German aircraft at Hel naval base. They were salvaged by Germans in November, 1939 and renamed Putzig and Rixhoft. In 1940 they were converted to torpedo retrievers and renamed TFA9 and TFA8 respectively. Czajka was captured by German troops at Westerplatte and commissioned by Kriegsmarine as TFA11. In May, 1945 TFA8, 9 and 11 surrendered at Kiel and in 1946 returned to Poland. Żuraw was captured by German troops in October, 1939 and commissioned by Kriegsmarine as Oxhoft. After war she was also returned to Poland.' Ivan Gogin

Polish Submarine Class Orzel and Wilke - navwar 1/3000

The Orzel (eagle)  Class subs saw some service during WW2 with the British and having found a great online history of the Polish naval forces during  the war, I'm quite keen to get some British ships so I can play some of the battles. By far the smallest 1/3000 boats I've painted so far (not including the 1/10,000 scale Jutland fleet I abandoned years ago) I have some trouble telling  front from back!

 I also squeezed in three Wilke Class subs which I think were used for mine-laying amongst other duties. 

Between them the Polish subs seem to have had mixed fortunes, one at least sadly lost to a British minefield laid on its route after it had left port. Sounds like one hand didn't know what the other was doing! Even this sad event can be replicated in the rules I use as patches of 'difficult' and often dangerous terrain can be discovered and stumbled into.  Some Jasolka class minelayers are next up, so thanks for looking. ;)

USSR modern naval ships Navwar 1/3000

I really enjoyed painting these as I like the look of the brick red decks. There are 4 x Udaloy class ships, 3 x Sovremenny, 2 x Krivak 3, one Slava and one Kirov. I realise some of these are retired now or in service with smaller navies or  home built copies but I will be searching out some more modern Soviet ships in the future.

Kirov

Not a great picture but it looks like one hell of a warship. I will find a Helix or similar to decorate the helo deck and  perhaps some hull numbers too.

krivak 3

I wonder if any of the Krivaks are still serving? These are the III model used by the KGB.

Sovremenny

Damn! Just realised I need to do the base edges! So disorganised... Any way , these are the Sovremenny Class, I'm sure some of these are still in service somewhere.

Udaloy Class

The last of my Soviet fleet for the time being, these Udaloys already have helos cast onto the decks. I will try and find my  punch and die set and make some rotor discs for them. hopefully it won't be too long before I get to play them and then I'll add some battle reports.

Thanks for looking.

US Modern Naval 1/3000 Warships Navwar

In an uncharacteristic display of focused activity, I've managed to finish something that I've started.
Now I've got a method sorted for painting these little ships I did the Soviets en masse. In addition to completing the US fleet with the Tarawa, Nimitz and Cimarron (all now retired I think) there's a brace of Bunker Hills.

Tarawa -  awaiting deck markings

So the Tarawa is more or less finished. I need to  complete the deck markings once I've found my masking tape, although the helicopter landing circles might be better as decals. I've no idea whether I can find some in my spares as it seems no-one does markings for them. After that I'd like to pop some helos on deck.

Nimitz CV

I gave the deck markings on the Nimitz a fiar bash but I wasn't happy with the results so this to is waiting for masking tape, decals and some aircraft to clutter the decks up. I picked a parcel including some S3A Vikings (one of my favourite jets), so in the future I'll get  6 of these separated from their bases and plopped onto the deck.

Cimarron

 the Cimarron will work with my fleet as a supply unit. I suspect this is  retired too, although there is a 'stretched' Cimarron that might be fun to have. You can see the wonky hand painted helo deck. I'm struggling as to how noone has picked up on the potential sales opportunity!

Bunker Hill Class

 The Bunker Hills are the last of my US fleet until I can find a supplier of the more recent classes, I will need to buy a few packs of helos and aircraft to finish the fleet off. I will start a new blog section on the right hand side of the page as I've also picked up some 1/2000 Ancient ships by Navwar, some Napoleonic ships by Navwar and Langton,some 1/2000 ACW ships by Navwar and a mixture of WW2 stuff.



Thanks for looking.

USS Knox Class Modern US Naval 1/3000th NAvwar

Having completed the Spruance, Arleigh Burke, Ohio , Los Angeles, Ticonderoga ships and now the Knox Class ships from the NAvwar Modern USA fleet pack, I am left with 2 Oliver Hazard ships, the Cimarron Oiler, USS Tarawa and the CV Nimitz. I hoping to pick up some aircraft from ebay in the next week or so so I can decorate the helo flight decks and install a few aircraft on the Nimitz too. In the meantime, here are the Knox class ships..

Knox class frigates

The Nimitz is underway but waiting for my masking tape to resurface so I can complete the deck markings. Given she is the oldest serving US carrier I can't imagine she'll be around for much longer.

Nimitz in preparation

USS Bunker Hill Ticonderoga Class 1/3000 Navwar Modern Naval USA

So maybe there's only two years before these start getting decommissioned, but that's two years of good gaming time before I need to get their replacements painted.





 So here are Navwar's USS Bunker Hill models along with six Boeing AWACS I've painted this morning. The AWACS are split between the USA, NATO and Japan. I'm about to start two Knox family ships but since they are  no longer active ( another redundant set from  Navwar fleet pack) my enthusiasm is a little short. One useful thing I discovered from painting the Bunkers however is that I prefer a soft tone wash as on the Arleighs and Spruances to the dark tone wash I used on the bunkers.

Thanks for looking :)

1/3000th Modern US naval Arleigh Burke Class

Slowly working out a system to paint these as I find out what works for me and what doesn't. The  two I've sqeezed in today  seem to me  a little improved on  my earlier Spruance Class ships. Slightly more aggressive with the highlights and the shading  wash is helping the models to pop a little more.

These are today's  Arleigh Burke Class ships. I've looked at numerous photos and the shades seems to change in every picture.

Then the Arleigh burkes on the left compared to  the earlier Spruances on the right...

Probably  more tomorrow as a have a rare day off and (good light prevailing) a long and fruitful painting day :)

Thanks for looking.

Navwar 1/3000 Soviet and US Modern naval Spruance, Los Angeles, Ohio

A nice package of figures arrived from Navwar last week - A battle-pack  for  modern US naval forces and a selection I made of Soviet ships to augment those I already have. I get the feeling that with the demise of Devian figures there's no-one currently making up to date naval stuff in 1/3000th. After I had cleaned up and based the castings I decided to start with the US subs - Ohio and Los Angeles classes. Next in line were the Spruance class ships, so after a good search  for pics on the web I had a go at them.

Work desk overflowing with  ships

After achieving something which I was happy with (although I can see much room for improvement) I set off to find out what had happened to them since the Gulf War only to discover that before 2000 they had all been retired! I was slightly deflated to realise that not only are the current  figure manufacturers seriously lagging and that their fleets are in serious need of modernisation but that if I want up-to date fleets, unless I'm prepared to pay the comparatively high cost that 3D printers are asking for their models, I might need to do some scratch building. I guess I can still simulate conflicts up until and including the nineties, but I need to rethink if I want to explore the hypotheticals.

My now redundant Spruance Class

 I do understand that costs of new models have to be offset by sales. Perhaps there's not enough interest in this scale and genre to justify the cost of new masters and moulds. I also  understand only too well how fast the years pass and  the nineties may be recent history to many. But these ships were retired 20 years ago. Time the battle packs were updated I think and if I can make a castable master I'd be happy to let someone cast them up for sale.'If you want something done - do it yourself' comes to mind.

I think at least the Los Angeles are still in service

I suspect the Ohio Class will be around for a while yet

Sopwith Camels - Vickers FE 2b 1/300th 6mm

I don't know about you but I'm a massive procrastinator. And what better way to put off finishing a project than to start a new one. This might go some way to explain the obscene stash of kits and figures and the habit of starting new hobbies just as the old ones are getting somewhere.

After nearly five years of therapy I seem to be getting somewhere. Occasionally I feel able to finish something without a deadline being imposed from external sources, at least aside from the impending deadline of death which is probably the main motivator behind my current impetus to work; so I've been pootling around the loft looking for orphan projects to complete.

Some time ago I played a series of Blue Max games, started a pilot roster and decided I wanted to replace the card tokens with models. I must have picked up a small force of Irregular Miniatures aircraft for British and German forces and painted up a couple of them. I haven't played Blue Max in a long while and I might never do so again but in the intervening years I've painted up Italian and Austrian forces for WW1 in 6mm and still have a pile of French and German forces in 20mm and a small but much loved force of 20mm Turks and Allied Arabs for Palestine.

Anyway, here are a couple of pics of my Camels and Gunbuses. It will be a long time before I pursue this particular project any further s there are  20mm Napoleonic, 28mm fantasy and 1/3000th modern naval figures covering my work-desk, the spare bed and the  coffee table. Apologies to my long suffering wife - may she be rewarded in the next life - because it's unlikely I'll change during this one. :)

irregular miniatures Sopwith Camel 6mm

Irregular Miniatures Vickers FE 2B

Note the tricycle undercarriage on the model, it would seem the forward wheel was often removed in service. There are much more realistic and attractive schemes than the one I have used.

1/3000th Naval Modern

Hi ( and Happy Easter) ,
Spent last week with a good ( and now old) friend testing the GRASP rules I've written. The play-testing with different  periods and scales has  been a real help in tweaking the rules. We tried playing a Modern naval game where one element equals 1 real ship / aircraft, with a scale of around 1 inch to 10 nautical miles. The game was played over 3 nights, with a couple of turns per hour. I think the  game was resolved at around 6 turns. It might seem 2 turns an hour is not much although much of the time was spent discussing what was working, alternatives and stopping to eat toast.

Now I must have bought these at least ten years ago and after one  long-winded attempt at Harpoon (3 hours to track and resolve one torpedo firing) I knew I needed something that was quicker, less fussy around insignificant differences and generally easier for my shrivelling brain. So, after playing with two Leander Class ships and 15 phantoms on the British team v a much larger Soviet team, a grand tactical subset of the rules is in progress ( just means some of the extant rules can be  ignored).

Having lost the entirety of the Soviet air cover to  F4Ks I decided to paint up the  rest of the figures I had and post them up here. If I get carried away and start playing naval games a lot, I'll create a new sub blog link on the right of this page.



First is my  UK fleet circa 1980 something,

So at the rear are my three Victor bombers intended to act as K tankers ( supply is a integral aspect of the GRASP rules), on the large bases furthest away - two Leanders, then two Leopard Class , and   three Trafalgar class subs. In front are ten Phantoms.

Looks like I need more practice at painting these tiny ships and trying to get realistic water effects.

Second is the Soviet fleet:

As you can see there are two distinct sea colours. As ever I  never manage to get the basing the same after a long break.

These are the Kashin and the Kashin Mod. with their attendent Kamov helicopters. I'm thinking about using a hole punch to make some clear discs for these...

This is the Moscva helicopter carrier at the front and behind is the Kiev aircraft carrier.

 Three Myasishchev bombers equipped with what looks like very  capable low altitude  navigation.

Three Akula class (rear) and three Tango class subs. looking at these I think theres a small improvement on my first effort (at the  very back).

I tried  painting the subs  a dark 'german' grey with an Army Painter dark wash over the top. I mixed my own sea green colour for the bases, which means - yet again, I will  have bases of a different colour next time :(

 and a gaggle of Beriev ASW aircraft.

 Ten (one is hiding) MiG 25s, although I used some of them in the test as SU33s. ( I got their stats wrong and the F4Ks made short work of them!)

Lastly, A line of Yak 38s already for action, although I've just checked my references and I need white tail tips and intake leading edges. Ho hum, back to the  paintshop...



Thanks for  looking :)