Six from six

That's six ships constructed over six days. I'm now down to 51 of 70 to go (or 63 of 82).

Constructed since Monday, from right to left: Enterprise, Nagato, Pensacola, Houston, Northampton and Kyokuto Maru.

Enterprise at centre with Zuikaku and Akagi to her right and left respectively to show her relative size, especially height above the waterline. I had not appreciated how tall the Yorktown-class carriers were until I made this model. She's not much lower than the Akagi, which, as a converted Amagi-class battlecruiser, was a towering ship.

Nagato (left) indicating her size compared with the earlier constructed (and partially painted) Kongo. This Aoshima model of Nagato was a particularly fine kit to build.

Check out those 410 mm main guns on Nagato (c.f. Kongo's 356 mm)! It will be really interesting to put Nagato beside Yamato/Musashi with their 460 mm main guns, but I'll not be building them until towards the end of the 70. By comparison, Bismarck with her "guns as big as steers and shells as big as trees"** 'only' had 380 mm main guns. 
**To my way of thinking, he had this lyric the wrong way around. Perhaps it says something about Texans and their sense of size? Or maybe it's because I think of the height and overall size of a tree, whereas he is thinking of the girth of one that has been cut down?

R to L: Pensacola, Houston and Northampton, adapted from the Tamiya kit of Indianapolis, beside the model of Indianapolis that Julian had built earlier (a Revell kit).

Pensacola, Houston, Northampton and Indianapolis (bottom to top). The differences are subtle, but significant. It took me a while to work out what to change and how to use the parts that I had. Paint will cover up that line of putty filler that I added after cutting the deck to make Pensacola into a ship with a 'level' deck. The Pensacola-class should be about 8 m shorter than Indianapolis, the Northampton-class around 3 m shorter, but I was not going to worry about 11 mm and 4 mm at 1/700!

Kyokuto Maru, first of five fleet oilers that I will be scratch-building. Not my most accurate attempt, but it will serve the purpose.

I have been enjoying this: crossing off the previous tally and adding the new total to make.

Yamashiro is currently under construction and I am also working on Kenyo Maru, top left, the next of the fleet oilers on my list.

I am working on Ise and Hyuga concurrently.

My aim for my next post is to be at or below 35 to go. I have 16 to make to get to this milestone. It should be a far simpler process than the recent ships that I have made as they will all be direct builds of the ships according to the kits. I'll make my scratch-builds as I go along, doing a bit on whichever one is 'in progress' while glued sections of the kit(s) are drying. Can I get there by next weekend?!!

Out on the ocean white

I finished the conversions to make HNLMS Java and De Ruyter this past week. Now I have 'launched' all of the Dutch ships that I require for the battles involving the 'ill-fated' American-Dutch-British-Australian Command (ADBA) of early '42.

L to R: De Ruyter, Java, Tromp and two Admiralen-class destroyers. All except for Tromp are only undercoated so far—'fitting out' (aka painting) will occur at a later stage.

Tromp, which I scratch-built and have featured in a post previously, is the only one of these ships that is completed. I built the two Admiralen-class destroyers late last year, simple conversions of the Tamiya kit of HMAS Vampire.

Looking more closely at the Admiralen-class destroyers

Photo of a simple 3D model of an Admiralen-class that I downloaded from the web. Prior to realising that I could adapt the kit of HMAS Vampire, I thought that I'd used this a a guide for a simple scratch-built version.

The real thing, in this case HNLMS Everston in 1942 (netherlands navy.nl).

I'm happy with the conversions to represent the destroyers as well as those of Java and De Ruyter. The former look better than that 3D-printed model and the latter two hold up pretty well against contemporary photos of the ships.

My version of HNLMS Java, from the port side.

From above. I am particularly pleased with the look of the 'wings' around the fore-funnel, which mounted anti-aircraft machine guns (you might have to zoom the photo to see them).

A photo of Java in 1942 from the website of the Australian War Memorial. Those 'wings' are clearly evident.

A photo of Java viewed from the starboard side (netherlands navy.nl).

Box-art of HMS Penelope, the kit that I adapted.

My version of HNLMS De Ruyter, from the port side.

And from above.

Box-art of HMS Ajax, the kit that I adapted.

A photo of De Ruyter viewed from the starboard side (from netherlands navy.nl).

There are now 57 of the 70 ships remaining to construct (or 69 of the ultimate target of 82). I have six that I am building at the moment. Enterprise, Nagato and Kyokuto Maru are nearly completed and I expect to finish within the next couple of days—the latter is the first of the five Japanese fleet oilers that I am scratch-building. USS Pensacola, the first of three conversions of kits of USS Indianapolis (and the one involving the most alterations) is about 50% completed. The other two, which will represent Northampton-class cruisers, are in the early stages of construction.

I am quite obsessed with making these ships at the moment and spending more than a few hours a day on them. The combination of the target, challenge, interest and pleasure are driving me on. Added to this I am finding it really enjoyable and rewarding, with tangible results at every stage! 

Ship building on target

As anyone who has set milestones, deadlines or other targets will know, the trick is to aim low, or at least below the best/most that could be done, so as to be able to over-achieve—under promise and over-deliver! Such is the case with my self-appointed target of 70 ships to be built in 90 days. I would like to average one per day, or close to it, but even I am realistic enough to know that I won't build one every day, so having 20 days 'spare' should provide sufficient latitude.

Recently constructed ships. From left to right: scratch-build Francol and Anking, three Kagero-class destroyers and two Fubuki-IIs, a couple of Japanese oilers/seaplane carriers, two transports and five Sims-class destroyers at the right.

I was going at a ship per day for the first five days of January (helped by having 'cheated' and built a couple in late December, haha), but then 'lost' nearly a week around 5th–11th as I had a visit by my brother from Queensland. He had come over to buy a car and then to drive it home (as you do). We had a top few days getting stuff for his trip, going to a couple of nights of speedway and generally have wonderful bro' time. Building 1/700 ships was not on the programme.

I have now caught up (basically), thanks particularly to building five Sims-class** destroyers. Amazingly, these are the first US ships that I have built. The other 26 US ships in the combined collection that have been 'constructed' comprise eight built previously by Julian and 18 x 3D-models that I bought (so no assembly required).

[**I crack myself up by calling these 'Sums' class, in my best Kiwi accent, in reference to 'Detictive Sums'; specially for Keith and others, like me, who enjoy the marvellous banter and humour of Brokenwood.]

My 'flurry' over the past few days means that I am now down to 59 of the original 70 ships to be built by the end of March. That's 59 to be built in 72 days, so my target is looking good.

Currently building: HNLMS Java and De Ruyter (as conversions of HMS Penelope and Ajax),  five scratch-built Japanese oilers (one in foreground) and then three kits of USS Indianapolis to convert to USS Pensacola, Houston/Chester and Northampton.

The next 10 ships could be the most challenging of all, since they are conversions or scratch-builds. I am progressing with the first two, conversions of HMSs Penelope and Ajax to HNLMSs Java and De Ruyter respectively, as well as the first of five Japanese oilers that I will scratch-build. Following these I'll do conversions of three kits of USS Indianapolis into a Pensacola-class and two Northampton-class cruisers.

I am hoping that I'll complete these ten by the end of the month, which would leave me with 49 more to build in 59 days. I did quite a bit of work on Java this arvo' after finishing the last two Sims class destroyers, so am feeling quite confident that I won't need 13 days for them.

Next in line: ships for Pearl Harbor—the Japanese battleships of the first and second divisions for the 'climb Mt Niitaka' bit# and USS Enterprise along with here cruiser escorts (described above) which, along with the Sims-class destroyers, form her carrier group for alt.-Pearl Harbor. We'll do the re-fight of the attack on Pearl Harbor at 1:6000, so I don't need the ships that were there (and they did not feature prominently later in the war after being repaired).
#Absent: Fuso, which is one of the eight that I am yet to purchase. I won't bother with Mutsu (sister to Nagato) as she did not feature at all in later actions of the war and was sunk in home waters after a mysterious explosion.

Following that: Japanese ships for the attacks on Wake Island (through to its eventual capture).

Then we have: ships needed for Sinking of Repulse & Prince of Wales, Operation C, Java Sea, Sunda Strait (others have or will have already been constructed). A notable absence is HMAS Perth. This is not counted in the 70 or the 82 since a model is not yet available in 1/700. A kit of HMAS Sydney is being produced by Flyhawk and will hopefully—HOPEFULLY— be released soon. I'll use it to represent Sydney, Perth and Hobart.

Finally: ships for Coral Sea and the actions of '42 which followed. Hatsuharu is missing from this lot, yet to be purchased.

Of course, my ultimate construction target is 82, which includes another 12 kits that are of ships that did not 'feature' until 1943 or later. I cannot see myself stopping before I have built these too and I am determined that I will build ’the lot’, while I am in ship building 'mode'. Mind you, I am yet to get hold of eight kits: two of which are part of the 70, six to make up the 82. They are not yet available in Oz, but hopefully they will be by the end of February at the latest. This is based on the expected date shown on the website of one of the shops over east (I have them on order from my 'local' shop in Perth, but they use the same suppliers).

Then there is HMAS Sydney/Perth/Hobart...

Powering on with the Pacific Fleets

I am powering on with the Pacific Fleets in 1/700. Current total 168 with 8 more ordered. Of the 176, 70 are yet to be ‘launch’ (built) so as to have all that I ’need’ for the battles of ’41–’42, with another 12 more after that, selected from the many, that joined those of the earlier ships that were still afloat for battles in ’43 to ’45.

Completed scratch-built ships to date (L to R, from front) MMS51, HNMLS Tromp, HMS Tenedos, HMAS Yarra, with constructed HMS Anking and RFA Francol that are being ‘fitted out’ based on the photos behind.

Most of the ships are model kits, with 28 3D-models and 11 scratch-builds. I have built six of these, with five more planned, to cover ships that I want to represent that are not available in kits (or conversions from existing kits). I am pretty pleased with the results.

HMAS Yarra

HNMLS Tromp

MMS51 (simply a ships' boat from a carrier or battleship (I cannot recall which), painted and based.

I am gonna keep going with making these ships until all are constructed as I think that if I stop, I may not get back to them with the same focus. I have set an ambitious target to 'average' around one per day, so want to have them done by the end of March—70 ships in 90 days. I am presuming, based on experience to date, that I can average more than one per day in the case of smaller ships, with more time needed for carriers, battleships and larger cruisers. I'll paint bits of some, perhaps even completing a few, as I go along, but most of this will be done later on an 'as needs' basis for each action in the chronology.

Like all plans, it will likely fail, but at least it gives me a target and end to this being my main focus. Not that I don't enjoy it, just that I wanna do other things too! 😃

Fleet update and hunt for the Bismarck (alt.)

I bought the Pacific Ocean last weekend. It's a lovely shade of blue and only cost me $22. What a bargain.

Another step in 'capacity building' so as to be able to work through, chronologically, all of the naval actions of the Pacific War. So too is the construction of 1/700 ships that has occupied much of my hobby time since my long latent interest in carrier actions was kicked into action in April. I have a goodly number now assembled (i.e. 'launched') and now being 'fitted out'.

Julian and Stephen came here yesterday and we played out an alternative scenario of the hunt for the Bismarck that Julian had devised. I took advantage of the cleared table and placement of my sheets to represent 'northern' oceans to do a photo shoot.

1/700 Japanese ships that I have 'launched' (made) since April, now being 'fitted out'. From port to starboard: Kongo, Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku, Zuikaku, Tone, Haruna (fore) Taiho, Junyo, Ryjo, Furutaka, Kinugasa, Taiyo, Shinano, Kiso, Yahagi (aft).

I have also made my first scratch-build ship: HMS Tenedos. She was an Admiralty 'S' class destroyer of First World War vintage that did not have a long career in the 'Second War', having been sunk in the destruction of Force Z by the Japanese in late 1941 (better known as the sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse)*. As such, and since I could not find an appropriate kit, it seemed a perfect subject for scratch-building.

[*No she wasn't, I mis-rememebered. She detached and was attacked by Japanese planes, but was unharmed. Her sinking was in April '42 during 'Operation C' off Ceylon (Sri Lanka)]

HMS Tenedos scratch-built. Scaled image printed on light card, stuck around a hull cut from mdf, with plastic parts used for boats, guns, search lights and mast/flag poles.

The gaps for the water to come in (😳) are not as obvious to the eye as they are in these photos!

It's nothing like the fabulous pre-dreadnoughts that people like Ion and Jim build and I 'cheated' and used scaled, printed images on card as the basis, but I am pleased with the result, nonetheless. Some of the 'spares' that are provided with 1/700 ship kits were perfect for some of the 'fittings and fixtures', making adding those details much easier.

I have scaled and printed images to build HMAS Yarra and HNLMS Tromp as my next scratch-builds. Similarly these had brief careers in the Second World War. HMAS Yarra was involved in an heroic but ultimately doomed attempt to protect the Tjilatjap convoy, 'charging' at the larger and superior Japanese forces of three Takao class cruisers and two destroyers in a valiant but ultimately futile attempt to defend her charges that had been told to scatter. An amazing story in the annals of the RAN and one that I look forward to recreating on the tabletop.

Scaled sides and deck of HMAS Yarra, cut out ready to glue onto the mdf hull that I have cut out.

HNLMS Tromp, scaled and printed.

HNLMS Tromp was part of the ill-fated American-Dutch-British-Australian (ADBA) command which was effectively wiped out at Java Sea, Sunda Strait and second Java Sea as part of the Japanese sweep south in early '42. She was 'lucky' being badly damaged by the Japanese destroyer Asashio during the Battle of Badung Strait, she was sent to Australia for repairs and survived the war. Once again, I could not find an appropriate kit for this ship, so scratch-built it is.

Hunt for the Bismarck (alt.)

Julian devised a fictitious scenario for us to use as a further test/familiarisation with Seekrieg 5. The Bismarck and Prinz Eugen successfully evaded the Hood, Prince of Wales and co. and have made to the Atlantic in search of convoys to prey on. They found one, 'cept it has HMS Revenge and Cornwall as escorts. These RN ships head out to intercept the German raiders so as to protect their charges.

HMS Revenge ahead of HMS Cornwall, with Bismarck (to starboard) and Prinz Eugen aft or her 18 000 yards distant.

The ships engaged one another at 18 000 yards, pairing off as Bismarck-Revenge and Prinz Eugen-Cornwall. Julian and I played two turns of firing before Stephen arrived. Just as well as it took us a little while to re-calculate the scale for movement and ranges and then to get our heads 'into gear' with the charts, but after the first fire that we tested (from Revenge as it turned out), we were off and running and it flowed brilliantly from then on.

We actually, incorrectly 'fired' twice the number of shells in the first turn, so counted this as two. This produced effective shooting by both sides, with damage inflicted on all by all, most serious of which was a small fire on Bismarck and damage to her rudder. Yes, the rudder again, just like in the historic action!

Bismarck (to port) with smoke from the small fire in her superstructure.  One of her rudders was also damaged.

Fortunately, I was able to extinguish the fire on Bismarck and we happily proceeded straight ahead, so this did not affect the German side too much, for now.

The exchange of fire and hits continued. This time Bismarck managed to knock Revenge's 'Y' turret out of action (turn 3) and followed this by knocking out a boiler (turn 4). For her part Prinz Eugen, despite some of her shells passing through Cornwall's weaker armour, caused flooding to one of the latter's engine compartments and knocked out her 'A' turret.

For their part the British ships inflicted minor damage on the Germans (turn 3) and most of their shells missed their targets (turn 4). Accumulated damage was building up on the British ships and the German commanders were confident that the action would soon come to a successful conclusion.

'Twas not to be. The British found their targets again, taking out Bismarck's D battery and temporarily suspending command with a hit to the bridge (both Admiral Lütjens and Captain Lindemann unharmed). Prinz Eugen was not spared, losing 'C' turret.

The pounding went on, each on the other, but, a chance shot from Prinz Eugen produced a magazine explosion on Cornwall. Stephen had rolled a 01, yielding table 100 as the damage effects table. Just like at the historic Denmark Strait, except that it was a hit from Prinz Eugen on Cornwall rather than Bismarck on Hood.

Ka-

boom! HMS Cornwall's magazine explodes.

Thick, black smoke soon filled the air.

This left Revenge alone, now with only two effective turrets with which to respond.

Furthermore, the damage to Revenge was increasing (she had reached tier 10, the top level in Seekrieg). The ship was falling apart, fire control gone, command suspended, crew casualties mounting and then, uncontrolled flooding. She settled in the water and would sink, 20 minutes later, the order to abandon ship having been given and carried out.

Having dispensed with the British ships, the Germans planned to go in search of that convoy. Or at least, Prinz Eugen would. Bismarck had also suffered from hits and accumulate damage. In addition to her damaged rudder and 'D' battery being out of action, she had flooding in some of her compartments, resulting in her listing to starboard. She would make for port in France, hopefully protected in her progress by a cordon of U-boats, but with the Royal Navy and Air Force sending out 'everything' in hope of intercepting her. 

Once again we enjoyed greatly the sensible detail and narrative aspects of Seekrieg. They are 'involved', as I have mentioned previously, but not difficult. There are a lot of dice rolls; to hit, hit location, damage, possible critical hits (damage effects) and which specific damage effects table is to be consulted, but they are dice rolls with a purpose (and two D10s read as a percentage), not merely grabbing a handful of dice and counting 5s and 6s, or whatever, in a completely random manner.

Details

Rules

Seekrieg 5 (2004). Seekrieg https://www.seekrieg.com/Seekrieg5IntroPage.htm

Ships

1/6000 scale Figurehead Ships.

Operation Z or planning Operation AI: constructing the Kido Batai (2) the pleasure of little things

When I first began acquiring these 1/700 models, I wondered why there was such a range of prices for, seemingly, the same model of the same ship. Then I realised that some are more detailed than others. Fujimi in particular seem to specialise in the detailed end of the spectrum (with associated higher prices), but even within the same manufacturer there are standard and 'deluxe' versions of the same kit.

Being a cheap skate and only wanting 'wargame standard' models, I purchased the cheapest kit that I could find for each of the ships. As I became aware of the differences and since I was struggling to find any of the 'basic' versions available, I decided to splash out and purchased the Fujimi version of Soryu—added incentive was that is was available at a discounted price 😁. I have enjoyed and at the same time struggled with construction of this more detailed kit. 

The added detail comes in the form of more and smaller parts to the kit that provided a more accurate and detailed representation of parts of the ship. Part L48 is an example. These are fire controllers which go on each ack-ack platform, and elsewhere.

A section of the instructions showing placement of two of part L48.

Here they are on the sprue. Tweezers for size. Other detailed parts on this sprue include the ladders at the ends of various gangways around the top of the hull, below the flight deck (parts L16–L32).

There were 21 pieces of part L48, the little darlings, to glue on to various platforms and other fixtures below the flight deck and a couple on and near the island. Fiddly in the extreme, but they were not as difficult to fit in place as I had thought they would be when I saw the size of them. The nature of the polystyrene cement, which becomes 'tacky' almost immediately was a great aid to this, allowing one (me in this case, haha) to simply drop them on top of a dot of glue and then slowly and carefully adjust the position and make sure that they were vertical. Remarkably none of them went 'ping', propelling out of the grip of the tweezers, flying across my table never to be seen again. This has happened several times with parts from each of the other kits that I have made—particularly the wing floats of the float-planes, which were the smallest parts (2–3 mm long) that I had handled prior to L48. Perhaps I was especially careful when handling these controllers? 

Fortunately, most of the models that I have made are of the ilk of the more pragmatic Aoshima Hiryu.

Note the little vertical bits moulded on part A7, a more stylised representation of the fire controllers!

There was some added detail in the Soryu kit that I decided not to attempt:

I wondered at first what the millimetre sized parts on these small sprues were. A small information box at the end of the instructions exclaims: "Upgrade parts for precise reproduction of machine guns!"

I later saw the photo on the outside of the box: "Includes 25mm machine guns (triple, twin, and single), bulletproof plates, and ammunition boxes".

Nah. Too small and fiddly for me. I stuck with the basic, moulded version of the machine guns that was provided (part F2).

While pleased to have bought one of these more detailed, Fujimi, 'proper scale modellers' models, I was equally pleased that I only bought one (plus the two Kongo battleships that I had already built and which were far less fiddly).

With the six carriers built, it's time to stop building and do some painting, for a needed change of pace! 😁