Of Ships and Scales and Naval Decisions....Part 2

HMS Tiger - without the benefit of the much maligned 'hideous rig' as commented on in the 1919 edition of Jane's Fighting Ships.

It has been strange old couple of days and no mistake! Still no joy on the job front with the added irritation of travelling to London for an interview that was cancelled just as my train pulled into London. Ho hum.

Enough already, of my domestic trials and tribulations and on to the good stuff!

You will recall that I was making noises about using 1/2400th scale models for the Fezian and Rusland navies - simply because they have more 'presence' on the tabletop than their 1/3000th cousins. The only problem at this stage was the apparent lack of availability of this scale in the UK. For sure you can get a hold of C in C and GHQ but for me, especially with the latter, these are scale models rather than gaming pieces and should be treated as such. I want something a little less detailed, a lot more durable and above all, a darn sight cheaper! Panzerschiffe from the US would be ideal but I was reminded of a range available from Stonewall Figures - Stonewall Figures - Micro Matrix 1/2400th Ships

As you can see, these were the models formerly available from Micro Matrix and although they are basic in respect of details as gaming pieces they are ideal. They are also very reasonably priced. Mr Fox has a selection of these for WW1 and whilst there are some holes in the ranges (and, one suspects, little chance of anything being added to what is available) gap filling from other manufacturers should not be too onerous.

The other alternative, and one that I have been having a very encouraging and productive exchnage of emails with Bob Cordery, would be to build the models using the 'cartoon' approach. This would mean models of a certain length (a typical battleship would be around 3 1/2" long) but both 'beamier' and taller. Again, I shallI have a play around with this and see what comes out.

In closing, it seems like 1/2400th would be the ideal scale for me for use with Hexon - the models are larger, with more 'presence' and with a ship of around 700ft (I am thinking of HMS Tiger here at 704ft long) being some 3 1/2" long, they fit very tidily.