I recently mentioned about the great deal I got on ebay. This got me into WW2 naval wargaming in a cheap and brutal way. I now had rules, ships, counters and even reference books, all in front of me.
Sadly, I knew little about naval combat, or even ships. I had to do my homework and for this I decided to dive in the deep. I opened a Scharnhorst battlecruiser pack. There are two of these ships in the collection I bought, so I read a bit and found there were two of these in the Kriegesmarine. One was the Scharnhorst, the other one was the Gneisenau.
Flipping through the Camo book I see the Scharnhorst had a nice camo scheme. I want to do that, but that would be diving in the deep where the sharks with lasers dwell. So I decided to paint the “simpler” Gneisenau Scharnhorst battlecruiser (say that out loud, and it´s funnier)
I was thinking about paint, cause I´m a painter first, but this GHQ model had to be completely assembled first. The tiny instructions and the strange (for me) naval terms (and in English… I speak freaking Spanish) were intimidating. So I went online for some clues and got a nice idea of how the ship actually looks before building it. Hint, hint, hint.
With these tools I went on to the table to build my first little boat.
Here´s the main part. The deck is one piece, and it has the places where to start gluing everything else.
These are the rest of the parts. There are some spare cranes and guns.
Here´s the catapult with the scout plane. I realized it was good to do this while I´m still on my twenties. Otherwise it would have been painful for the eyes and fingers.
First step was to put the four single 5.9 guns and the four twin 5.9 guns in place. I didn´t know what a 5.9 gun was until now. You can see I am giving the impression of battle on the right side of the ship. (It´s called starboard, you know?)
Next I put the stack and the two big cranes on the hull.
I then put the catapult and little plane on the aft superstructure, and glue that to the hull.
Then the rest is assembled. First I put the two small cranes on the fore superstructure. I also glue one of the 11″ guns to it. Before gluing that to the hull, I put the other two big guns on the hull.
And that´s pretty much it. If you are not careful, you will lose one of the small cranes under a fingernail. Really.
Here you can see the ship in my hand. I could easily crush the entire German fleet. Ok, bad one.
Here´s some more detail.
I then make a base for the ship in 2mm plasticard. I got this basing idea from a site I checked (meaning drooled all over) when I was considering getting into naval wargaming. The site is Agis Neugebauer´s VaS section of his site.
And that´s really it. It´s a nice experience and I learned quite a bit from just building the model. Not 24 hours after assembling it I had this.
And that means I really like this new aspect of the hobby. I might even start to play naval battles.
July 16, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Great job with the painting!
If you’re new to naval combat there is a book that could serve as an introduction to it. It’s called ‘Fleet Tactics’ (1986), by some US Navy dude named Wayne P. Hughes. He explains the mechanics of war at sea through a series of diagrams and formulas (such as world-famous Lanchester’s Square Laws), pinning down every concept in a way that is understandable to greenhorns like me.
How fearless was Nelson in the battle of Aboukir? Why is it important to destroy in detail? What was the adequate fighter to bomber ratio in WWII’s brutal carrier-to-carrier battles? All of this stuff is treated in the book, and the final chapter is a scenario pitting a US carrier group against a Soviet coastal base with subs and everything.
I got it for as little as 7 pesos in last year’s book fair, I guess it’s more expensive right now.
July 16, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Hey Agustín, thanks for the tip.
¿De donde sos? Si sos de Argentina quizá puedas darme algún dato sobre cómo conseguir el libro 🙂
Cheers!
July 16, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Soy del barrio porteño de “Fatherly”, más conocido como Paternal ;P. En la semana ando por el centro, si te interesa el libro decime por donde andás y te lo presto.
Saludos
July 17, 2008 at 4:03 am
Muchas gracias.
Escribime a doguipreacher arroba datafull punto com así nos mantenemos en contacto 🙂
July 19, 2008 at 3:25 am
Hi there!
If you’re getting into VaS, you might want to take a look at my wiki site dedicated to it. I’ve got some rules tweaks on there that streamline and simplify parts of the rules that are a little twitchy. There is also a MS Word program that will let you build fleets quickly and easily, and print out some nice data cards for them.
There is some other stuff too. Check it out at:
http://victoryatsea.pbwiki.com
Enjoy!
July 19, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Thanks a lot HP Dreadnought!
I will take a look.
December 12, 2009 at 3:21 am
I highly enjoyed reading your post, keep on posting such interesting stuff.
December 18, 2012 at 8:47 am
I am very impressed with the result. You certainly have talent and your painting skills are excellent. If i may give you some constructive advise, try to go a bit more subtle on drybrushing.. ever so gently brush the surface, and you can achieve a more feinter effect for its scale. If the first brushing isn’t visible enough, you can always go over it again. Its easier to gradually build up the effect you want than it is to remove. Remember, less is better. I’ve been an artist myself for over 45 years who also collects naval miniatures. I think their a lot fun to build to paint and to collect. GHQ in my personal opinion is the best you can buy so you certainly appreciate quality. Their detail is incredilble. Congradulations on your first model. My first model didnt look anything near as good as yours. You should be very proud of youself and keep collecting… it can get addictive.
December 18, 2012 at 3:29 pm
Thanks for the comments and the advice Charles. I should tell you I don’t use drybrush at all on the model. Every light and transition is made with normal blending.
And I understand why it might look a bit harsh and not subtle. I have had that comment given to me about my historical models from historical players. The style I paint in is basically devolved from fantasy and sci-fi and it’s a bit more bold and colorful (while keeping the colors right, of course).
Appreciate the comment though and might try to be more subtle on the next models 🙂
Cheers!