From PeterD: The Beiyang Fleet (22 points)

 

More naval oddities from me this week, this time the opposing fleet in the Sino- Japanese War, The Beiyang (or Northern Seas) fleet was the largest of the four fleets operated by the Qing dynasty in 1894, operating from the ports of Lushunkou (also known as Port Arthur) and Weihaiwei.   Both ports were captured by the Japanese in the war, but ended up being in Russian and British control due to European skullduggery.  The fleet operated two reasonable but dated battleships and an assortment of rather lousy cruisers.  Information on the Imperial Chinese navy is sketchy and often contradictory.  It doesn't help that there are two sets of Chinese characters and three different English translations used by different sources.  It can be a handle keeping track of ships under all the different names used.

She flies the rainbow flag of Admiral Ding Ruchang.  Love the Dragon on the Imperial Ensign.

First up is the flagship, the battleship Dingyuan.  She was built in Germany in the early 1880s along with a sister ship in the mail from Tumbling Dice.  A turret ship with her 12" guns in the then fashionable en echelon arrangement, she was typical of her time.  Similar ships were operating in the Royal Navy's front line squadrons in 1894.   She was damaged at the Yalu River, but still operational due to her armour.  After repairs in Lushunkou, she left for Weihaiwei before the Japanese army could lay siege.  She was then involved in the siege of Weihaiwei, being torpedoed in a night time attack on the anchorage and eventually blow up by her crew to prevent her capture.  In 2005 the Chinese state finished a replica of her which is now operated as a museum ship (Trip Advisor Review).

To my very Anglocentric eyes, Chinese names are very similar and I expect confusion on ship names among my gamers.  Therefore I gave each ship label a number as well.

Next up the Pingyaun and Jingyaun  Pingyaun was a costal defence battleship, with a 10" gun in a turret.  She was captured at Weihaiwei and incorporated into the IJN as the Heien and then lost to Russian mines in 1904..  Unlike most of the fleet which were purchased overseas, she was built in China.  She managed to damage the Japanese flagship at Yalu.Jingyaun was an armoured cruiser built in Germany.  She had decent protection but was slow (as were her guns).     

Next a couple of UK built cruisers  from Elswick, providers of cruisers to the world's smaller navies before 1914.  Zhiyaun was a protected cruiser and better than most of Chinese fleet, but lacked the larger QF guns of the IJN.  Her captain is a folk hero in modern China and apparently they've built a replica of the ship.  Chaoyong was another attempt to overstuff a small hull, with a pair of 10" and no armour.  She and a sister were both sunk at Yalu River.  Oddly enough a third sister served in the Japanese fleet, wisely kept out of battle.

Most navies' TBs were painted black to make them harder to spot, and that's certainly the case here.  I wish to confirm that there are two TB hulls on that one base.

Finally some smaller ships, very similar to ones that served in most navies.  The Guangjia was a Chinese built corvette which was on loan from the Guangdong fleet.  She was probably sunk at Yalu River (but may have escaped).  Kwangping was a torpedo gunboat, captured at Weihaiwei put into service by the IJN.  Lastly, a base of two torpedo boats.

I make that 9 hulls for 18 points, and most of a squirrel. The rest of the squirrel will appear next week.

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Sylvain: As usual, very informative post. You're my weekly dose of naval history! And your ships are lovely. When we get to play these ships, it will be a fun game: fun because new strategies will have to be used and fun because trying to pronounce the names of the ships will be a challenge. I will add 4 points for the flags. Fabuleux!

From AdamC: Japanese Cruisers and American Destroyers (33 Points)

 Starting off with the "correct" Mogami Class Cruisers two and a half of them.

The Mogami class was the last of Japans prewar Heavy cruisers. Originally built with Fifteen 6.1-Inch guns(leading to the USN designing the Brooklyn class) they were upgraded to have ten 8-Inch guns (as was the IJN's plan all along. 

They had reasonable armor and were fast 37 knots combatants.

As with all Japanese Cruisers they carried a heavy torpedo armament: 12 mounted in 4 triple tube launchers. 

As previously explained I got two Mogami carriers so I converted one into a sinking ship maker to add some color to the table. A good wargamer doesn't let anything go to waist.

Four Porter Class Destroyers I named theses for the four that were built in the Four Rivers Shipyard where my grandfather worked during the Second World War. 

The Porter Class was the US response to the Japanese Fubuki class. They had a similar armament Six 5 inch guns on three turrets and a heavy torpedo(8 in two launches)armament.

The US intended to use them as squadron leaders but by World War II they simply served as destroyers along with the rest.

Four Mahan Class Destroyers(1934) the class of destroyers that followed the Porter Class. Smaller by 500 tons but only one gun lighter in armament. 

They also carried 12 torpedoes and twice as many depth charges as the Porters. With all that you're probably thinking I am about to comment on them being too much power in too little ship but actually they managed not to do that.  In part this was due to new lighter engineering plant  allow the tonnage to be used in other ways.

 They were stable and capable designs... or would have if technology has stayed still. These ships suffered as nothing could be added (Radar, improved AA guns etc) unless something else was taken away. So war progressed they shed a five inch mount, torpedo tubes etc. 

Four Sims Class Destroyers were a later design (1937) slightly larger than but initially with an armament identical to the Mahan class.  

The extra weight and size went to engines with a top speed 38.5 knots 

By 1941 they had shed a five inch mount for a pair of 40mm guns and added K guns for additional ASW capabilities. The USN would learn (eventually, See the Fletcher class) that it's a good idea to leave space (and weight) for future developments.  

So we have 12 US destroyers, 2 Japanese cruisers and a sinking Japanese cruiser. That should come out to 30 points. 

 

 

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Sylvain: I'm very biased about your tiny ships because I adore small scales. You did a fine paint job on these and I like your transparent bases. Your cruisers, even sinking, are worth 3 points each for a total of 33 points. I'm sure your games will be fun and furious. Fabuleux!

 

From SylvainR: Regia Marina at 1/300 (52 points)

I'm such a sucker when I think I will make a "good deal". Last year, I was googling for 1:300 landing crafts for my Canadian army and I "re-discovered" the game Cruel Seas, launched in 2018 by Warlord Games but now under the banner of Skytrex. Anyway, I was using Facebook's Marketplace to look for adapted equipment in the area of Montreal and, just for fun, entered the search words "Cruel seas". Lo and behold, I found a guy who was selling 14 unopened box sets for all nations for $200, shipping included. I thought that for less than $2 per ship (about 100 in total), that was a "good deal" and ordered the whole lot, which included many landing ships I was looking for. I'm such a sucker.... 

Above is a starting fleet for the Regia Marina: 4 MAS boats and a Gabbiano-class corvette. 

I like to base my ships and there are two reasons for this. First, it protects the miniatures because players are manipulating the base instead of the model. Second, it creates the illusion that the boats are moving, which I find very satisfying.

 

For fun, I wanted to have one of the MAS boat jump off a huge wave, holding on the crest by the tip of the stern. But then I realized that these models are cut at the waterline and it would look silly to have what is obviously only the upper hull flying out of the water. Deception. So I sculpted a smaller "big wave" and kept most of the hull in the water.

 

I did similar big waves for 2 of the Vospers I painted last year. They look nice in rough seas, but the truth is that these fast ships would never be allowed to go out in this kind of weather. If there is any interest, I could write a short tutorial on how I created my sea bases. 

Here is the Italian corvette with her unmistakable "barber shop" identification mark. I admire painters who can do a clean paint job on these small ships, but my own personal preference is to do heavy weathering with rust spots and rain stains. 

 The little life rafts add a nice touch of color.

I like the little crewmen. The whole boat feels like a diorama to me :-). 

 

The AA crew keeping a watchful eye on the sky.

 

A aerial view on Capitano Paolo Schettino. His grand-son, Francesco Schettino, captain of the Costa Concordia, obviously did not inherit his seamanship...

 

Points claimed: 

I looked up past entries for reference:

4x MAS Boats @ 8 points = 32 points

1x Gabbiano-class Corvette @ 20 points = 20 points

Total = 52 points

Thanks for reading!

 [P.S. Paolo Schettino never existed.]

 

Wonderful looking WW2 small craft Sylvain, kinda like aquatic micro armour.   I agree on basing ships and love the planing MAS boat.  Well done on the barber strips and other fine details.  FYI, I a one point planned to do some Gabbianos in 1;2400 scale.  I'll trust your research on the points.

 

From PeterD: Imperial Japanese Navy 1894 (25 points)

Over the years, I have developed a taste for rather obscure naval campaigns.  Challenge veterans might remember my Chilean and Peruvian fleets from the War of the Pacific in 1879, as well as my more recent Spanish American War fleets.  David Manley of Long Face Games has just this week released a campaign book for another bucket list obscure naval war, the Sino Japanese war of 1894-5. I got an advanced copy and provided feedback, so was ahead of the game and had my fleets ordered back in January.  Here's the first set of ships for the campaign, all from the IJN and all 1:2400 scale from Tumbling Dice.  The IJN had no battleships, but had some good modern cruisers supplemented with older ships.

First we have two ships from the Flying Squadron, which was composed of four modern fast cruisers.  Naniwa was built at Elswick in the UK and was one of the earliest protected cruisers.  She as given two 10.2" guns in the hopes of giving her a ship killing role and some secondaries, but was over gunned for her size.   She played key roles in the Battle of the Pungdo and the Yalu River her shooting was very good.  She was also active in the Russo Japanese War by which time she was rearmed with 6" quick firers.  Yoshino was considered one of the best Elswick cruisers, being fast, sea worthy and armed with 6" and 4.7" QF guns.  She was still considered a first rate cruiser in the RJW, but was lost when she was run down in the fog by a larger Japanese cruiser.  She flies the flag of Rear Admiral Kozo.

I would like to confirm that the first two ships are facing and steaming the same direction, to the left.

Next we take a step further into the weeds.  The three Matsushima class cruisers were French designed and took ship killing up a notch.  Each had a single 12.6" gun plus 4.7" QFs, which actually formed her main armament given the slow reload time on the big gun.  On two of the ships the large gun was sensibly in the bow facing forward, but on Matsushima it was in the stern facing aft.  Matsushima was the flagship of Vice Admiral Ito and was the most heavily damaged Japanese ships at the Yalu River.  Chiyoda was built in Scotland, and was originally intended to have the same 12.6" guns.  However, the design was changed and she was given a more sensible armament of 4.7" QF instead.

Finally some supporting ships.  Fuso was an ironclad central battery ship and Hiei an ironclad corvette.  They were reasonably well protected but were slow and armed with older slower firing weapons.  However they served in the main fleet and were heavily engaged at Yalu River.  Katsuragi was a composite (wooden hulled but iron framed) corvette, useful but suitable to be in a major battle.   Saikyo Maru was a passenger ship requisitioned as an armed merchant cruiser and carried the flag of Rear Admiral Sukenori at Yalu River.  Akagi was a small gunboat, tasked with guarding Saikyo Maru.

That's 10 hulls in 1:2400 scale, for 20 points.  Next week I should have some opposition, in the form of the Beiyang fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy.

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Sylvain: Ship design was indeed crazy in those early days of big guns. Your miniatures are superb and I like that you added the Japanese ideograms (called "kanji") to your ship bases. Your ships look clean and convey an aura of 19th century. I will add 5 points for the festival of flags. Génial!

 

 

 

From:PeterD European Coalition Squadron (22 points)

For my second post this week I have a squadron of ships from a European coalition formed in response to American aggressions against the North American colony of a European nation in 1898.  The Long Face Game campaign pack for the Spanish American War allows for Europeans to come to the aid of the Spanish.  There is a coalition squadron that can cross the Atlantic to the Caribbean and an German Asian squadron that can operate in the Philippines.  Historically, Spain was on its own.  However, the German Asian squadron did enter into a long staring match with Admiral Dewey in Manilla Bay.

First up the German Battleships Wörth (with VizAdmiral flag) and Brandenburg. These were half of the German Navy's first class of pre dreadnought battleships.  This pair survived into WW1, but were disarmed and converted to accommodation ships during the conflict. Their two   two ships were sold to Turkey in 1910 and had had more "interesting" late careers.  They lost a couple of battles to the Greek fleet in the Balkan Wars, and one was torpedoed by a British submarine during the Gallipoli campaign.  The Germans had no great connection with the Spanish, but were also keen to pick up any colonial crumbs that might fall their way.

Next two Austrian sister ships,  the protected cruisers Kaiser Franz Josef I and Kaiser Elisabeth named after the ruling Kaiser and his wife (there's an entertaining rabbit hole to fall down looking into the succession to Franz Josef).  The Habsburgs were closely connected to the Spanish royal family and wanted to help.  But they needed other nations' support, which in the end wasn't coming.   Another Austrian cruiser stumbled onto the end of the Battle of Santiago and nearly got attacked by the US Navy.

Then we move onto the French Navy, with the battleship Charles Martel, the armoured cruiser Bruix and the protected cruisers Linois and Lavoisier.   French naval designs were specularly bizarre in this period with exaggerated ram bows and tumbled home, odd turret placements and heavy military masts.  Sylvain likened spar torpedos to Space Orb weapons, and I think these ships are one that the Imperium could have produced.  I'm not sure but I've heard that absinthe makes the brain grow softer.  Tumbling Dice do fine model ships, but I don't think that 1;2400 really does these justice, so have include pictures of the Charles Martel and Bruix.

Charles Martel nose on, showing the tumblehome and fierce face military masts.  Note the Quick firers in the fighting top, wouldn't want to work those in a fight.

Bruix at anchor, note the shape of the bow and the general Steampunk look.

The flat grey shows off the Charles Martel's lozenge turret arrangement.  Russian ships with similar tall superstructures were lit up by Japanese quick firers at Tsushima.

Finally the Italians, the armoured cruiser Marco Polo and the protector cruisers Umbria and Lombardia.  The Marco Polo was considered under armed and the two protected cruisers a bit slow.  Umbria was stationed in South America in 1896, losing half her crew to yellow fever.

I make that eleven ships (two German, two Austrian, four French and three Italian), good for 22 points and just short of a full squirrel.  I have the German Asian squadron on the work bench to flesh out the squirrel. 

From DaveD . Peters second bite of the cherry today . That’s an interesting assortment of ships indeed l agree the French certainly have a dystopian steampunk vibe about them . Put them on a flight stand and they would not look out of place .22 it is .

From Curt: Thalassa: 6mm Ancient Greek Naval Warfare (ships n' stuff) (85 Points)

I saved this entry for our last Wednesday (and our last day) as I wanted the chance to wind Greg up. I say this as I know he absolutely looooves naval entries. Sorry my friend, you'll have to grin and bear it for a few paragraphs at least. ;)

Last spring I came across 'Thalassa' while spelunking through 'Wargames Illustrated Online' and MyMiniFactory looking for, you know, useless cool stuff which demands storage to keep and brain cells to learn. 

'Thalassa' is 1:1 game set in the Hellenistic age of Greek naval warfare. It's historical(ish), but does make some allowances for more 'heroic' combat and leans heavily to a 'Sword & Sandals' type of cinematic game. One unique aspect of 'Thalassa' is that all of the models, dice, tokens etc. are available as 3d prints. They are all beautifully done (1:300 scale), very robust. and quite easy to paint (though admittedly one can get a bit lost in the detail). Last spring I printed off a handful of ships, painted them up and put together two small forces for a rousing game with the boys. I then packed them up and moved on to, you know, the Next Big Thing. 

Fast forward several months, and just before the beginning of the Challenge I noticed that there were a few new ship designs put on offer and thought I'd use it as an excuse to platform the game and add a few more hulls to my collection.

So first up are two triremes with thei very recognizable silhouettes. One is a 'Protos' design and the other a 'Ischyros'. Yeah, I dunno, it's all Middle Sea lingo to me. 

These are the classic Mediterranean 'battleships' of the 4 and 5th centuries CE. The level of crafting and technology packed into these vessels would have likened them to a spacecraft to a lay person of that time. Very impressive.

'Thallasa' allows players to customize the type and specializations of the ship's crew. Archers, hoplites, marines, various types of engines of war are all on offer. You just make your selection, pay your points and then 'slot' them into place on the hull. Fun!

You can also modify the hull with various figureheads, upper command decks, shrines, armoured skirting, etc. It's all pretty neat. 

Next up are the smaller-class ships, the Penteconters. One is a 'Tolmiros' design while the other is a 'Grigora'. 

These are the workhorses of the fleets. The vessels which carried the Greeks to Troy and which were crewed by Odysseus and the Argonauts during their Odyssey.  Nimble and quick, they are quite fun on the tabletop, though they can't take too much abuse when compared to their much larger tri-decked cousins. 

I magnetized the sails and masts so they are easy to store and are not so prone to break during play.

Finally we have a siege barge with a huge stone-throwing ballista on its center deck. It's very much a specialist vessel - a glass cannon with one purpose in-mind. 

Still, a very cool model with its top-heavy armament and supporting crane. Fun!

Finally, and not for points, here are two sets of wreckage markers I did up for the game.

One set is meant to depict when the enemy hull as just been split, with significant debris in the water, while the other is to show when some time has passed and most of the wreckage has sank into the deep.

As to points... In light of Greg's irrational-but-hilarious naval peccadillo, a part of me wants to nickel and dime each model for every measly point from every cast detail and burly crewman. But lets keep this simple and civil shall we?  I suggest that the larger triremes are equivalent in mass and complexity to a 28mm vehicle (20 points) whereas the smaller three vessels are not dissimilar to a 20mm vehicle (15 each). So 85 points in total. I hope this seems reasonable to you Greg, but I leave it to you for final adjudication.

I think I'll have one more entry before the close, but I'll have to get a wiggle on. 

See you at the finish line!

- Curt

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Well, I suppose I should be relieved you are not pulling the usual "I'll claim an extra ten points because I painted this water specifically to represent salt water" sort of thing I have come to associate with all of this naval wargaming blarney!

My fully-rational views of naval types aside, this really is some tremendous painting, and the modular aspects of the models really drive home the tremendous potential offered by the combination of 3D prints and talented brush-holders such as yourself. As cool as the larger ships are, out of all of these, that bonkers one with the stone thrower on the middle of the deck takes the cake for me. I suspect the stakes are quite high when those fellows manage to find the range!

Tremendous work dude, and it is always an honour to "minion" one of your posts - even naval ones...thank you again for hosting and contributing to another wonderful Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge! 

GregB