Big Ship, Little Ship....Cardboard Base...

1:4800th scale HMS Hood courtesy of MY Miniatures. The model is roughly the same size as the Axis and Allies plastic version (a shade under 2 1/2") although not as tall.

Following my recent forays into the American Civil War and the Colonial (not to mention the Napoleonic naval aside of my previous post) era it is almost with a sense of relief that I am at last back in the grey wastes of the North Atlantic in early 1941. If you recall my plan originally was to use the models that come with the Axis and Allies strategic World War 2 board game as well as a similar game called Global Conflict. The scales for these models are fairly elastic with the destroyers coming in at around 1:2400^th and the larger ships – which are roughly the a similar physical size – coming in at a relatively smaller scale. Initially I was going to use them as is but had a minor relapse as whilst the odd variation in scale is OK visually the difference in scale between destroyers and battleships was difficult to ignore. I opted to get some 1/3000^th models from Navwar but these also look a little oversized alongside the models I have and so I shall be exchanging them for something else. As an experiment I can chalk this up to experience!

For the most part the capital ships from the two games mentioned are around the 1:4000^th to 1:5000^th mark with 1:4500^th being the average. The 1:3000^th models looked OK with certain combinations of types but wrong where it counted i.e. destroyers alongside the capital ships. Then I remembered 1:4800^th as a scale.

I had posted about this scale a few years ago but like many ideas at the time it fell by the wayside. These models are small but not as much as 1:6000^th and they will fit in alongside many of the major Axis and Allies capital ships. Using this scale also means that I can keep to 3” squares for the rules I shall be using (Barry Carter’s WW1 and 2 set with a side dish of Bob Cordery’s Gridded Naval Wargames)  as well as having access to a pretty good range of ship types available from the manufacturer – MY Miniatures.

The selection I need will be fairly modest and painting them will be very straightforward indeed. Naturally the models will be based using my tried and tested technique of ‘waves, wakes, names and ensigns’ and I already have a cloth I can grid, even a large MDF board if needs be, to use with them when they are finally ready.

The 3” square grid is probably going to be my naval gaming standard as it will enable me to use the very small WW2 (and WW1 in due course) models as well as the larger scratch built ACW and other vessels I am planning.