When last we met I had finished the British destroyers for Force Z, and was about to begin working on The Prince of Wales.

Well, it’s done. I took a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to build it. Relatively painless . . . sort of. In a painful sort of way. The PoW is far larger and more complex than the wee destroyers. Lots more pieces. I managed to only drop and lose one, the pontoon from the Walrus scout plane. The one major faux pas was not getting the hull to fit firmly down on the bottom piece provided with the kit. I had it glued and used rubber bands and a clamp, but no not good enough. The gap is plenty big enough for me to see, and everyone else I’m sure. I also managed to glue the main guns of turret A in a semi depressed state, and I wish that hadn’t happened. But the bottom line is this: each of these ships serves as a big ol’ piece of terrain. They don’t move, and will simply have to do.

The painting was the real challenge. I brush painted the ship. I don’t own an airbrush, and just don’t see the need for one. I only build models as I need ’em and that’s not often. But painting the Prince of Wales was a big challenge because it is large and had a very elaborate camouflage for 1941. The Repulse is also camouflaged, but it’s scheme is pretty monochrome and blocky, all angles. The PoW’s scheme flows, includes several shades of gray, but additional shades of green and blue. I approximated it as best I could, but painting the camouflage, all the detail, usually multiple coats with my somewhat thin Lifecolour paints took more than a week.

The good news is I’m ready for the Repulse. I was going to start working on it in between painting sessions, but I opened my box and found it missing an entire sprue, including most of the main deck. I had to re-order, and the new Repulse should be here tomorrow. It’s a Trumpeter kit and a bit different than my Tamiya Prince, but I’m looking forward to it. The original seller has offered to send me the missing sprue, but he’s located in Asia, so who knows how long that will take.

One ship to go until everything is complete. I still need to finish up some rules issues. Chiefly I’m concerned with generating and recording damage to the capital ships. I’ve been looking at other rules sets and am not quite finding what I’m looking for. Maybe I need to look harder. First playtest on March 14th so I need to get on my horse.