From MartijnN: Steaming along into the Armoury (28 points)

 I think I might manage one or two little contributions this last week. Here’s one for The Armoury. I have been slowly building my 1/3000 fleets for WWI since the nineties. I really can’t think why it is talking me so long because these little ships are not really very challenging to paint , especially when you’re not going overboard with masts, pennants and other fiddly details. They are simple playing pieces to me. As such, the bases are actually the most work.  As the North Sea is fairly dark I try to make them not too brightly blueish. I first texture them, then a black basecoat followed by Vallejo Dark Sea Blue, Tamiya Light Sea Grey, and finally Vallejo Pale Grey Blue. Then white for the bow wave, the wake and the foam around the hulls. The ships themselves are simply Vallejo Neutral Grey for the hull and Vallejo Buff  for the decks. Then Citadel Nuln Oil and sometimes a drybrush if I fancy it. With my older models I have been fairly inconsistent with the colour of  the decks, but I finally settled on the lighter variant. I think. They are all Navwar castings, fairly crude but functional (like my photography skills, really). I actually like them a lot. The models, that is.

So here are some examples of the epitome of the armoured ship, the Dreadnought Battleship. This is  the Grand Fleet’s 2^nd Battle Squadron, 2^nd division, at Jutland, consisting of the four “super dreadnoughts” of the Orion Class: Orion, Monarch, Conqueror and Thunderer. Commissioned into the fleet in 1912, they were armed with ten 13.5” guns in five turrets amidships and displaced some 22,000 tons. Even though they were in the van of the battle line, they were not heavily engaged at Jutland, neither achieving nor receiving a significant number of hits (although Monarch and Orion both hit the German battlecruiser Lützow, that received such a pummelling throughout the battle that she would eventually have to be abandoned by her crew).

From left to right, King George V, Thunderer, Monarch, and Conqueror steam through the Solent, about 1914 (Wikipedia)

 
I do not label my ships (yet), only noting their names on the underside of the base, because I think it adds to the atmosphere of the game when the players have to do some ship identification like the sailors of the day. There are drawbacks too, however, so I might end up labelling them.

 

Here they are with (almost all of ) the rest of the battleships and battlecruisers of the Grand Fleet and an armoured cruiser, light cruiser and destroyer or two. Still got eight dreadnoughts to do, and a few destroyers, but  nearly there!

 

As to points I actually have no real clue, they are 1/3000 scale and each is about 5cm long. Based on previous contributions I would suggest 2 points per ship + 20 for The Armoury for 28 points? However, please  minion away, I’m happy with anything!