AdamC Two Spanish Ships of the Line (30 points)

These two ships are from Warlord's Spanish Ships of Renown.  I have come to think of this as the Trafalgar collection as participation in that battle that seems to be key criteria.

The two ships are Argonauta and Monarca. Both were built in the 1790s after the American Revolution. The only major Battles they took part in seem to be those of the Trafalgar campaign.

Argonauta with her bull or perhaps Minotaur (it has sixpack abs) figure head sports the Spanish "team" colors suggested by Warlord. The paint scheme looks great but is historically somewhat questionable. 

Still rule of cool so this 80 gun ship has this striking paint job. 

Monarca a 74 has a figured head of a noble woman (perhaps a queen).  The long broad yellow line actually appears in a painting of her at the Battle of Trafalgar so it was an easy choice.

The color choice will also work whelk when I swap her flag to bulk up a French or English fleet. 

3rd rates fall between three deckers 25 points, and Frigates 15 points so I would suggest 20 each points for these so 40 points overall. I had bigger plans this week but with Covid hitting our house this is all I was able to get done. Back to conquering planets next week (I hope). 

Best wishes dealing with COVID Adam, I pretty much lost two weeks to it .  I am glad that you got these two fine Spanish Men'o'War completed/  Nice work on these two, really like the stern galleries.  I completely agree with your scoring and am very surprised that there wasn't an existing score on this one before.  Must talk to Miles...

Bad news Adam, I checked with the SSOD and 3rd Rates are 15 points each.

From MilesR: Russo-Japanese War Fleets for Graveyard Beach (216 Points)

 

Last year I embarked on another large project - the Russo-Japanese War in 6mm but never got around to finishing the naval portion of the conflict.  One really can't game the RJW without doing the naval side and Graveyard Beach seemed to be a great reason to finish up this project.  I present to you the Imperial Russian Fleet - every capital ship and destroyer or torpedo boat flotilla that participated in the war.  Sadly for the Russians, only a handful of these ships survived the war.

First up is the Port Arthur Fleet.  This fleet had more Battleships than the Japanese Navy and posed a very serious threat.  The fleet attempted to sortie against the Japanese several times but were unsuccessful.  Interestingly - hostilities commenced in the RJW by a torpedo boat sneak attack on the harbor that severely damaged 2 ships.   

In addition to the Port Arthur Squadron, the Russian had 4 Cruisers based in Vladivostok.  While much smaller than the Port Arthur force these 4 ships proved to be very successful commerce raiders.  They sortied 5 times and were responsible for sinking 15 transports including one that carried the only steam engines Japan had that would fit the Russian rail gauge, which severely impacted the ability for Japan to move supplies up to the front.

This small fleet was eventually brought to battle off Ulsan in August of 1904.  3 Russian Cruisers faced off against 6 Japanese.  The result was limited damage to the Japanese and 1 Russian Cruiser sunk (Rurik) while the other two were heavily damaged.

With Port Arthur under siege, The Russian Imperial command decided to send the Baltic fleet to reinforce there Pacific fleet counter parts.  These reinforcements were organized into 2 fleets - the 2nd and 3rd Pacific fleets.  First up is the second fleet which rivaled the entire Japanese fleet in terms of fire power 

The 3rd Pacific Fleet consisted of an older battleship and some armored cruisers.  These fleets joined up right before the battle of Tsushima.  Well, we all know had that turned out....

In addition to Capital ships (cruisers and battleships) the Russians had 8 Destroyer Flotillas and 2 Torpedo Boats flotillas involved in the conflict.

All of these models are 1/2400 resin 3D prints from War Times Journal.  Fantastic models but a bit on the delicate side.

Well, if one is going to do the Russian fleet from the RJW, one should also do the Japanese equivalent also, so please meet the Imperial Japanese Fleet.

The heart of the fleet are its 8 battleships - 6 first class ships and 2 smaller obsolete ones.  Both of the obsolete battleships would be lost to mines while on blockade duty at Port Arthur.

The Japanese Cruiser force did most of the work during the war

The Japanese employed 4 Destroyer and 7 Torpedo Boat Flotillas.

The Russians were terrified of the Japanese Torpedo Boats and often fired on neutral party fishing boats after mistaking them for the enemy.   This included one infamous incident of the Russians sinking one and damaging 5 other British fishing boats in the North Sea.  This little escapade became known as the "Dodger Bank Incident" and almost lead to War between Britain and Russia.  During the same incident, the Russians fired upon themselves and heavily damaged the cruiser Aurora.

Just for fun, 8 transports were added to serve as objective markers for escort types of engagements.

So there you have it - all of the capital ships that were involved in the RJW in glorious 1/2400 scale.  There are 98 total ship bases and I think the going rate for 1/2400 ships is 2 point per so that nets me a 196 points.  Add on top of that the 20 for the room and this little entry will yield me 216 points 

The Battle of Liaoyang.

These fleets along with my 6mm armies will allow me to game just about any aspect of the RJW there is. 

PeterD Yet more Allied Destroyers (12 points)

 

Following on from previous posts I think I'm reaching the end of the destroyers in house.  These are 5 allied N class destroyers plus another radar blip dummy counter to represent an unknown sighting.  The models are all CinC, 5 are J/K/N class and the sixth is a spare "L" AA type.  CinC sells these in packs of 5, but there were only 4 in this particular configuration so spare one became a dummy counter.

Given the mess ups over the L/ M class, the next batch of Royal Navy destroyers went back to the successful J/ K class design.  They did manage to fix he one odd future so that the rear "X" mount now was able to fire astern.   None of these ships served in the Royal Navy during WW2 although a couple did RN service after the war.  Five were manned by the RAN, two by the Dutch Navy and one by the exiled Polish Navy.

HMAS Napier, Nestor, Nizam and Norman split their service between the Med and the Indian Ocean before heading to the Far East in 1944.  I've tried my hand at period camo again, including a couple with a tan base which was effective against the North African coast. Nestor was sunk off Crete in 1942 and was the only RAN ship never to serve in Australian Waters.  HMAS Nizam was named for the Last Nizam of Hyderabad  who paid for her.  That's how you roll when you're the richest man in the world.  

ORP Piorun served both in the Atlantic and the Med.  She was one of the destroyers who engaged the Bismarck at night prior to the Bismarcks' final battle.  She is said to have sent the signal "I am a Pole" by signal lamp prior to engaging.

That is 6 hulls of 1/2400 scale ships for another 12 points, which also count in my Naval Side Duel.  There are more ships to come but I'll have to join Mr Peabody in the Wayback machine to go back a few centuries.

-------

The Cap'n likes these, oh yes he does! In fact, there is a local memorial service for NIZAM in a few weeks time which I am attending. In her spirit I grant a bonus points for each RAN vessel you have delivered here today - 16 points for you Peter!

Cap'n Wednesday

From NoelW: Dabbling in the Aquifer (186 points)

“Here, Clerihew, you take my elven shoes! Titchy, hang on to my elven socks, will you?”

“Not even if they contained the Greatest Treasure the World has Never Seen! I like to be able to breathe!”

“Gnawbone, you’ll look after my fine elven socks for me, won’t you?”

“Precious mithril socks?”

“Knitted from dragon-spit silk, actually. Very rare.”

“What are you playing at, elf?” demands Getrude.

“Can’t you see? Look! There’s a beach. There’s waves! There’s the vast mystery of the gloriuous waters stretching before us with its overwhelming lure – the scree of the seagull, the ululation of the undine, the eternal whisper of the wandering islands of the west. At the very least I need to have a paddle…”

“What do you call it when someone keeps stealing seaweed?” asks Gnawbone.

“I don’t know,” says Merlissa. “What do you call it when someone keeps stealing seaweed?”

“Kelptomania.”

Getrude holds Elfbow back, dragging him aware from the lure of the salty waters.

“Can you not feel it?” he cries. “The possibilities of sand castles. The glories of tiny little rockpools where stinging starfish hide just below the sand ready to turn your feet into pumpkins? I cannot deny the saltwater of my destiny. Look! The sea! The sea!”

“Also look,” adds Getrude. “A massive fleet of invading ships and dozens of uniformed men with wicked looking weapons wading to shore.”

“How come they get to paddle and I’ve got to keep my shoes on? Let me go!”

Elfbow makes a lunge seaward. So Gerald makes a lunge elfward, tripping Elfbow spectacularly. He falls flat on his face in something that apparently was left behind by an untidy donkey.

“Speaking of lunge,” says Titchy dreamily. “ I vote we head for the Larder.”

“And how will we do that?”

“First syllable,” says Merlissa. “Saw.”

“Second sybbable,” says Gnawbone, “Knighthood.”

“That’s ‘sir’,” says Titchy.

“Third syllable,” says Getrude. “Snake? Oh, ‘S’.”

“Woof!” says Scruff.

“That’s right, Scruff. Sorceress!”

***

This submission has two parts. Firstly, another batch of invading troops. These are 20 Wargames Foundry SYW Prussians, which I think I’ve had since they were first released. I really like these models, and they paint up well, but I game SYW in 15mm, so I’m using them as Hessians in AWI games. No-one will ever know.

The second part is the ships on which these villains are arriving to plunder the Chambers of Challenge, the cads! These are two 1/700th 3D printed ships which I bought ready assembled from a Facebook contact. They’re designed by Simon Mann, I think, and are in some ways better than Black Seas ships as the designs are more accurate for particular classes of ship, but the printing obviously simplifies some detail, which means they’re not as crisp as the Warlord castings, the sails are clearly far too thick and there are weaknesses in the printing.

Both ships are 2^nd raters: one is Barfleur class 

and the other Temeraire class. 

There were four ships built of each of these classes.

Although the paint scheme of these ships (and some others from the British fleet I’ll finish later) are broadly the same, I like to individuate them a little with variations in the detail, to make them a little easier to distinguish on the tabletop. I rationalise this as based on the variation in materials available, the different approaches different captains will have to painting their ships, and the likelihood that paint jobs would weather in different ways depending on the ships stations and histories.

Pointswise, I’m following Adam’s notes on scoring. As he’s suggesting 25 points for 3rd rates, and I think he noted 28 for 1^st rates, that presumably makes a 2^nd rate 26 or 27. He’s also suggesting 5 points for rigging and 1 or 2 for flags, so I propose:

2 x rigged 2^nd rates @ 33 = 66 points

The Aquifer: 20 points

20 x 28mm figures: 100 points

That's also 66 points for the Naval Challenge and 2 more Squirrel points. I guess I could count the ships as points for the Napoleonic Challenge, too?

TOTAL: 186 pts