Back in my teens I used to own a massive collection of WWII ships and would play many a game of General Quarters with my mates. I let these ships go the way of eBay many years ago, and if I'm honest they looked like they were painted thirty years ago and were not getting any usage.
A couple of years ago we re-discovered General Quarters and I started building up a new collection of 1/3000 WWII naval ships again. Although this time I would find an historical battle and then purchase all the ships needed to play it rather than buying massive, disparate fleets on a whim. I've mainly concentrated on cruiser size battles and below as you can have a really good game on an 8ft square playing area.
A few days ago, I placed a small order on
Navwar and with typical
Navwar efficiency they were with me in just a few days. It was just a matter then of painting them. This is the method I use:
- Clean up the ships
- Stick to plywood bases, typically 75mm x 25mm for cruisers and 50mm x 20mm for destroyers
- Create a 'sea' effect with Vallejo Gel Denso
- Spray with Halfords grey primer
- Paint the ships with Vallejo paints, I find this guide really useful for painting the USN vessels. This is also a really good comparison chart for the Vallejo colours.
- Paint the bases with Vallejo Prussian Blue
- Drybrush the entire ship and base with Vallejo Pale Grey
- Wash the decks and super-structure with a glaze of Vallejo Black
- Wash the 'sea' with a glaze of Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue
- Hilight the sea, wake, etc. with Vallejo White
- Varnish with matt varnish
In just a few hours this weekend I have painted 5 IJN cruisers, 18 IJN destroyers, 2 USN cruisers, 18 USN destroyers, 2 Royal Netherlands Navy destroyers.
Here are some shots of the ships painted over the weekend:
Having painted these last few ships, I now have every ship in my collection to do the following historical engagements:
- Battle of the River Plate
- Battle of the Java Sea
- Battle of Sunda Strait
- First Battle of Savo Island
- Third Battle of Savo Island
- Fourth Battle of Savo Island
- Battle of Empress Augusta Bay
Plus I have a few extra ships so that I can do many 'what-if' engagements too. It's become rather an obsession and I now have the following painted ships in my collection:
- Imperial Japanese Navy : 2 battle-cruisers, 16 heavy cruisers, 10 light cruisers, 1 aircraft carrier, 44 destroyers, 1 sea plan tender & 3 submarines.
- Kreigsmarine: 1 battle-cruiser.
- Royal Netherlands Navy: 4 light cruisers & 6 destroyers.
- Royal Australian Navy: 2 heavy cruisers, 3 light cruisers & 3 destroyers.
- Royal Navy: 4 heavy cruisers, 1 light cruiser & 8 destroyers
- Royal New Zealand Navy: 1 light cruiser
- United States Navy: 2 battleships, 9 heavy cruisers, 13 light cruisers, 38 destroyers & 4 submarines.
- Merchants: 12 various ships
Here are some images of the ships painted this weekend:
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IJN heavy cruisers: Takao, Atago, Maya, Aoba & Kinugasa
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18 IJN destroyers of various classes |
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Koninklijke Marine destroyers Van Nes and Van Ghent |
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USN light cruisers Atlanta & San Diego |
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18 USN destroyers of various class |
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IJN heavy cruiser Aoba |
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IJN heavy cruiser Takao |
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USS San Diego |
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IJN destroyer Ayanami |
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IJN destroyer Harusame |
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RNN destroyer Van Ghent |
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USN destroyer Parrott |
Great looking fleets
ReplyDeleteNice looking ships.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the step-by-step. I'm just getting into naval gaming, and a post like this is very useful to me.
No problem, glad to help.
DeleteI'm currently painting the remaining ships I need for the Battle of the Coral Sea so hopefully will have those posted in the next few days.