A rather gaudy depiction of one of the pivotal moments of the Battle of Jutland. Note the circling H.M.S. Warspite in the centre foreground
After a short interlude due to a technical issue mt desk top PC is now back with us - much improved albeit rather more noisy when in use. The repairs required meant that an additional cooling fan was needed in order to keep the hard drive suitably chilled. The original drive in fact needed replacing and ordinarily when a repair bill running into three figures was mentioned I would probably have decided that enough was enough and started looking for a replacement but, as our machine was described as being of a high enough spec to be warrant saving, we took the hit and had it repaired. The sobering lesson with this episode though was that whilst all our data (bearing in mind the PC is some 5 years old) was saved it could have been potentially catastrophic and so I shall make sure that a more frequent back up regime is in place.
Enough of this technical stuff....;-)
I have cleaned up and based the remaining capital ships that I have in my 1/2400th collection prior to readying the last of the orders for this class of ship. This will give me 12 for the RN and 7 for the Germans to complete with the remainder being ordered over the weekend. I shall finish all of these before tackling the cruisers - all 42 of them I have included the 8 RN armoured cruisers in this category) allowing for the 3 that I have - and will leave the 140 destroyers (plus the oddments) until last. The destroyers will be based and named individually but I will be experimenting with some movement bases for these as it will make life easier when I tackle 'Der Tag'.
My thoughts at this stage are around using bases of 4 models deployed in two ranks of two ships but I will experiment in due course. The other question I will need to spend some time on is ascertaining the colours to paint the models. There are mentions in the book Death in the Grey Wastes of British ships being painted black (I thought at this period they were grey and the Germans vessels were black - at least until 1917) so a little research may be needed to decide this. Initially I wanted to to paint the RN grey and the Germans black as this makes for easier identification and I have no desire to attempt researching individual ships colours if I can possibly avoid it!
Of the 21 models on the painting tray the 12 RN ships (4 battle cruisers and 8 battleships) are all undercoated and I plan to make a start on painting these over the course of the coming weekend with, as usual, pictures on the blog in due course.
On one of the model railway blogs I came across recently the modeller was making the WW2 armoured train of the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch on the south coast, he couldn't find out the colour scheme so painted it grey as that was the colour it was in the photos. I think he had his tongue firmly wedged in his cheek at the time. Extropolete this over to WW1 warships, and they are all shades of grey! Though I could be proved wrong I thought only the destroyers were black
ReplyDeleteI will repeat my suggestion to at least pick two different shades of paint for the deck planking of the two navies . . . that is something that really helps with telling them apart (and it is something very difficult to argue about).
ReplyDelete-- Jeff
Impressive David!
ReplyDeleteHi Joppy,
ReplyDeleteI have settled on two shades of grey for the ships of light cruiser size and above with the RN being darker than the Germans. The problem is with the destroyers and contemporary pictures are not a great help as often the black can look quite washed out into varying shades of grey. I have a while to think about this anyway but certainly it is something to bear in mind.
All the best,
DC
Hi Jeff,
ReplyDeleteIf I am honest I am beginning to wish that I had done this originally but will not be repainting anything anytime soon! Having said that I am going to experiment with a quick and easy solution to change the tone of the RN ships - I reckon a very watered down coat of a brown wash might do the trick.
All the best,
DC
Hi Chris,
ReplyDeleteI certainly hope so in the fullness of time!
All the best,
DC
I watch and wait with bated breath
ReplyDeleteJutland is the "big one"!
And in two years time its hundredth anniversary
Hi Geordie,
ReplyDeleteWell you wanted WW1 naval so who am I to deny your wish! Seriously though, the plan is in place to amass the fleets in 1/2400th (probably with divisional sized bases for destroyers) with a view to running a multiplayer refight of the battle of Jutland in 2016 for the anniversary. The action will be on 28 and 29/05 as the 31st is on a Tuesday.
This is a slow burner and my priority is to finish the capital ships first and work my way down via cruisers and destroyers.
All the best,
DC