Going to Town - in England, Scotland, Ireland and Australia

HMAS Sydney of the Chatham sub group of the Town class - she was responsible for sinking the famous German cruiser Emden....

....and the above is a commemorative postcard issued to celebrate the fact! 

The 'Town' to which I am referring is of course the 21 ship class of Town class light cruisers built just before the outbreak of the First World War. The Stonewall Figures range incorporates two of the sub groups being the Bristols and the Chathams. I have four of each and intend splitting them between the Royal Navy and the Fezians for the WW1 era. Thus far I have all eight cleaned up and fixed to their card bases awaiting some paint which will be this evenings task. A potted overview of this class, which saw much action during the First World War can be found here - Town Class Cruiser.

The models are very nice and the detail is very well rendered. There was a little cleaning up to do but nothing major and seeing them for the first time on a base 3" long by 1" wide fully justified my decision to opt for 1/2400th - they look suitably imposing on the table top in a way that similar vessels in 1/3000th do not.

SMS Magdeburg

I also have a batch of four German light cruisers of the Magdeburg class - the most famous of which was of course the Breslau which accompanied the battle cruiser Goeben into Turkish service in 1914. The name ship of the class - the Magdeburg - had the dubious distinction of providing the Royal Navy with a code book when she ran aground and was seized by the Russians off the Estonian coast. Again, a potted overview  of the class can be found here - Magdeburg Class Cruiser.

Again, this is a lovely model and the twelve 4.1" guns are very clearly defined - in fact the twin gun positions fore and aft even have the barrels with a clear undercut and although they are hugely too fat still look very effective indeed.

I am hoping to have these finished in a couple of days - to be honest they are not too taxing, even for me - and all being well the order from Stonewall would have landed in the interim and so the serious work on this little lot can at last commence.

HMS Mars in 1/1250th scale - you have got to love that Victorian paint job!

The 1/2400 pre-dreadnought era models will be painted in WW1 grey finish - simply because I have a pile of larger models in 1/1800th (courtesy of Dave Ryan) for the period that will look far nicer in the earlier livery.