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.
These are the three destroyers that escorted Prince of Wales and Repulse. They include the Australian destroyer Vampire, and the two British E-class Express and Electra.
Over the years I’ve had all these genius ideas for games that required building plastic models. There was the Golden Age of Air Racing game. These mostly really old Hawk air racing models were pretty simple. I even bought an air brush and compressor that I stopped using after the planes were done. Pretty serviceable stuff. I built a model of a Littoral Combat Ship when Dave and I ran our Bulldogs Away game for a Gulf of Hormuz scenario back in the mid aughts. I took advantage of a local hobby shop’s estate sale of models. But there are some 20 boxes of 1/700 scale ship models sitting in my garage, none larger than an Aoba class cruiser waiting for construction.
What would I do with them? Well they are mostly scenic pieces waiting to be bombed in an air game. I have a few Americans, including a Liberty ship. I have a lot of Japanese. Thinking Rabaul. I have two friends working on Bismarck Sea projects, so that’s probably unnecessary. The two Aobas are for the day after Cape Esperance and what happened when American planes based at Henderson Field tangled with IJN planes from New Ireland over the damaged, fleeing cruisers.
This is kind of a tag-along I thought I’d go ahead and finish. It’s a Tamiya O/P class that I finished as Pathfinder with it’s green-gray/dark gray camouflage.
Now there is Force Z. I ordered the necessary ships in November. There are three destroyers plus the two capital ships. I’m not dilly-dallying. I finished building and painting the small ships last night. Tomorrow, I’ll start on the Prince of Wales.
This is so not my long suit. Painting figures just comes a lot easier to me. For painting, I always know what I’m trying to do. I know what colors I’m using. I know how to modify those colors if need be. I have appropriate brushes that I’m really picky about. I paint every day, it’s a matter of routine. For model building, I lack experience an confidence. I have to fight off urges to be impatient and press on when things should be drying. Ack.
The Vampire was a V and W class WWI era destroyer in Australian service. Sunk in 1942 by Japanese carrier planes. The first of the destroyers I built and a good learning model.
I have learned some lessons from building the destroyers. The models were Tamiya ship models and easy to work with. I made a commitment to actually using model glue, the Tamiya thin brush on glue that worked fine. In the past I’d used CA glue, which is pretty unforgiving and allowed me to accidentally glue searchlights to hulls and my fingers. I bought some really great tweezers for use on applying decals and that helped with some of the really small parts. Just a heads up, these were purpose-built tweezers for modelers that were really inexpensive on Amazon. I think it was three pair for about six bucks, and more than worth the cost. Yes, I’m sure they’re from China.
The Express was the second of the two E-class boats. Always good to learn, and find a way to apply one’s failures.
I also learned that sometimes things just have to dry before trying to move on. Honestly, the Tamiya glue acts fairly quickly, but it does its work by melting plastic pieces together. That can take some time. I can always fold clothes, take the dogs for a walk or read a book for a bit before heading back to the den for another session.
Two views of the Electra. Electra was a challenge. Lost a boat davit somewhere on my dining room floor so she is short a boat. Managed to cover up the holes. Though I sprayed all the ships with primer after completion, Electra just didn’t want to take my Lifecolour light grey, so the base coat for both the E’s was Vallejo Sky Grey. Did complete the decks and camouflage with the Lifecolour paints.
But amid all that learning there is still some frustration. Ships have lots of little pieces. Gun directors, searchlights, boats and boat davits. I don’t really have a model builder’s table, it’s a painting table littered with painting stuff. It’s easy to lose tiny pieces or, worse, drop them on the floor even if I’m being super careful. I can’t tell you how many times I managed to find a tiny 20mm gun lodged in a little fluff of dog hair on my floor. I actually managed not to lose anything. Well . . . there is the matter of some misplaced decals. Sigh.
Painting is likewise a bit different. I’ve tried to use accurate naval colors based on what I’ve learned are the camouflage patterns on the British destroyers. HMAS Vampire is blacks and grays, while Express and Electra used grays, gray-green and blue-gray. I used the Lifecolor paint set for the Royal Navy. I’d used these paints before for 1/1200 scale ships and really liked them. The problem with many specialty paint sets, for me at least, is that many are really intended for airbrushing while I am a brush painter. So the paints tend to be pretty thin and require multiple coats. That’s a pain, but I lived through it.
But the good news is that the three British destroyers are done. And they were just rehearsal for what is coming. This weekend I hope to complete the Prince of Wales. It is likewise a Tamiya model. I’ve popped open the box and looked at the directions, and like the destroyers is a lot of sub-assemblies that eventually all go together and then requires some paint. A pretty complex camouflage pattern. It’s too large to build at my painting table, so I’ve gotten permission to work at our dining room table, but at least I have a plan. The Repulse looks even more daunting. It’s a Trumpeter model instead of a Tamiya kit. 300 pieces. Lord.
A Gamer's Tales 