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Tuesday 20 March 2012

Fleet Review

Taking my lead from Tim Gow, here is a photograph of the currently finished and painted 'fleet':

24 comments:

  1. Hi Bob,

    Love the Torpedo Boat! Seriously though, they are all really fine looking and my next visit to Hobby craft is likely to be an expensive one!

    All the best,

    DC

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  2. David Crook,

    I must admit that it looks better now that it has been painted.

    Seen alongside the other ships, it looks in keeping with them in terms of size.

    Good luck when you visit Hobbycraft!

    All the best,

    Bob

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  3. To the high seas* and beyond!

    *or lawn....

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  4. Phil Broeders,

    Are you commenting about the fleet or me?

    All the best,

    Bob

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  5. These are brilliant. There was a book about wargaming that had a battle fought between 2 imagi-nations with wood built ships that I always wanted to replicate.

    Think I'll join the crowd and head down to Hobbycraft....

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  6. Telemachus,

    I am intrigued by your comment, and I would be grateful for more information about the book. I remember a battle with wooden ships being featured in Donald Featherstone's book about naval war games, and I wondered if this is the one you are describing.

    All the best,

    Bob

    PS. I think that I should have bought shares in Hobbycraft!

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  7. Shares in Hobbycraft, yes but shares in my company, no. I'm working from home today and since I wrote about it I had to find the book I was thinking about so have spent the last hour rooting around for it.....

    It is indeed Donald Featherstone's book and has a battle report between the 'Empire of Scandinavia' and the 'Empire of the Baltic' as well as a how-to-build section on a wooden HMS Temeraire.

    Ben

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  8. They look great, Bob. And I concur, the torpedo boat came out just fine.

    I too would like to hear about this book with the naval war of imagi-nations.

    Regards,
    Steve

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  9. Telemachus,

    My record of buying shares is not a good one. I bought shares in Carnival Corporation & PLC just days before the Costa Concordia disaster wiped out about 25% of the company's share value!

    After your comment I also went off to look for Donald Featherstone's book ... and have spent an enjoyable time reading through the relevant chapter.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  10. Corporal_Trim (Steve),

    I was not sure that the torpedo boat was going to 'fit' in with the others whilst I was building it ... but once it was finished and painted I knew I was on to a winner!

    The book is Donald Featherstone's NAVAL WAR GAMES, and the chapter that Telemachus was describing is number 13, 'Late Nineteenth Century'. It features a battle between the 'Empire of Scandinavia' (whose fleet comprises the battleships Denmark, Sweden, Hotspur*, and Huascar*) and the 'Empire of the Baltic' (whose fleet comprises the battleships Latvia, Lithuania, Devastation*, and Dreadnought*, plus the screw sloop Crown Prince).

    The battle ended in a draw, with both sides down to two battleships each.

    All the best,

    Bob

    *These ships were based on the prototypes after which they were named. All the other ships were generic designs.

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  11. Continuing my efforts not to do any work. The Featherstone book contains some great ideas about valuing the ships.

    I remember that years ago when I was a member of the Naval Wargames Society I chatted with one of the other members about building wooden ships and adding metal armour strips to them.

    The ship would be weighed and the speed would be dependent on the weight plus the modifier of what power it had (2 engines = 2 funnels etc) and the defence value by the thickness of the armour.

    Like so many projects nothing came of it until I found this blog...

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  12. Bob,

    Your ships look good . . . but I would like to make a couple of suggestions as to your painting.

    First, for ease of recognition (and in the case of Pre-Dreads, reality), I would suggest painting the two fleets differently . . . light grey and dark grey would help distinguish them (and certainly aid with torpedo boat recognition).

    Also I would suggest painting the main decks in a "wood" colour . . . and again, choose different deck colours for your different fleets.

    Not only would this help new players keep things straight, it will also aid in pre- and post-game sorting of fleets.

    Finally, you might want to write the name of each ship on the bottom of model . . . yes, it will be hidden, but it will help you once you have large fleets . . . and you KNOW that you will, don't you, Bob?


    -- Jeff

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  13. Telemachus,

    Sorry to have put you off your work!

    The concept you are talking about sounds familiar, but I am not sure where I have heard or read about it before.

    If you do develop this idea yourself, please let me know.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  14. Bluebear Jeff,

    Thanks for the suggestion. As it happens I do intend to paint the ships I am building in different paint schemes to distinguish each side from the other.

    I have now found a suitable colour to paint the decks of the larger ships ... Bleached Bone. This seems to combine the right levels of white and cream I have seen on the clean decks of ships I have travelled on. That said, some of the ships have had decks that were very light cream/grey. I suppose it depends on the type and age of the wood they have used.

    I will certainly be naming all my ships in due course, and painting the name underneath makes a lot of sense.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  15. Don M,

    Thank you very much for your kind comment.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  16. A very impressive display Bob?

    Is there a garden game a brewing?

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  17. Conrad Kinch,

    Thanks for your kind comment.

    I have plans for a large floor game that might easily be fought out on a lawn as well.

    All the best,

    Bob

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