From MartijnN: Cruisers and Cossacks (Perelandra and back to Corsucant) (78 points)

Having left Corsucant we make our way to Perelandra. Its Oceanic theme gave me the perfect excuse to paint some of my backlog of WW1 1/3000 ships by Navwar (actually, there are not very many left now). Here are 8 Royal Navy destroyers. Six are M class (Magic, Marne, Minion (!), Mystic, Nestor, and Obdurate), one is I (or Acheron) class (Badger), and one K (or Acasta) class (Owl). All saw service at Jutland.

Magic, Marne, Minion, Mystic, Nestor and Obdurate

Badger and Owl

HMS Badger picked survivors from HMS Invincible when she exploded after a direct hit from the German Battlecruisers Lützow and Derfflinger.

Next there are five German Light Cruisers. These are Augsburg, Kolberg, Karlsruhe, Rostock and Regensburg. Two of the Kolberg class (Cöln and Mainz) were sunk at the Battle of Heligoland Bight in 1914, where the British destroyers also served, while Kolberg took part in the Battle of Dogger Bank in 1915. Karlsruhe was in the Carribean when the war broke out and did some raiding, causing quite some concern, if not actual damage, before being destroyed by an accidental internal explosion. Rostock and Regensburg saw heavy action at Jutland, where they were leader of torpedo boats; Rostock was scuttled by her crew after the battle to avoid capture. 

Regensburg, Karlsruhe, Rostock, Kolberg, Augsburg

After exploring Perelandra we return to Corsucant, in order to proceed to Vogsphere next week. For Corsucant I offer these Imperal Russian soldiers. They are 15mm Minifigs and have that special toy soldier feel to them. They were (and are) sold as Caucasian Lancers. The Minifigs Crimean War range is not very accurate historically, and whether these lancers even existed I don't know; I decided to paint them up as cossacks. The details of their dress are rather obscure, but they are good enough for me.

So there we are.

Points:

13 hulls @ 2 points = 26 points

8 15mm horse @ 4 points = 32 points

Perelandra planet bonus = 20 points

Total: 78 points. And two squirrels!

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Lovely work Martijn, and what a wonderful juxtaposition in both scale, warfare and period. I quite like your Minifig 'theoretical Cossacks'. They certainly look the business to me, and I quite like the large basing you've used. What system are they set-up for? Of the two groups, my favourites have to be your WWI ships.  I have a real soft-spot for this coal-driven period ever since reading Massie's 'Castles of Steel' years ago.  You've given them such nice definition with your brushwork and, similar to your cossacks, I really admire your basing for these. 

78 points it is, but please remember to label your squirrel submissions. This will avoid the embarrassing scene of Stuart gleefully flashing you a yellow card as he did to me! :)

- Curt

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!

 

 

From JonathanO: Viking longships - Adventurer's Landing (24 points)

 I found two more 1/1200 ships from Navwar to use for this location.

There is only a slight breeze as these two ships glide gently ashore with their sails still up.  Who knows what adventures await the Viking warriors as they land?  Have the local inhabitants fled to safety, or do they have a surprise waiting for the travellers?

The base is 80mm x 60mm. 

For points I think 2 each plus the 20 location bonus = 24 points.