Monday 28 December 2020

From PeterD Paynes Greyscale Ships for the Chamber of Darkness

Ships ahead - are they Ours or Theirs?

Sailing on from the aquifer, we sense shadowy shapes in the Chamber of Darkness but it's difficult to tell if they are friend or foe.

After a 6 year hiatus I have set getting my WW2 Naval project back in business as a goal for 2021.  I do my games in the Med theatre and have narrowed my focus to late 1941- early 1942 looking at historical squadrons and the actions that they fought.  Many of these actions were fought at night with identification (or lack of) playing a key role.

These four tokens were painted to represent potential sightings which have not been firmly identified.  My own experiences (Warning - Old Fart Moment Ahead) of night time Channel crossings with my dad showed me that recognizing shapes, sizes, directions and speed is very difficult.   I figured this would be a good opportunity to meet the greyscale challenge.  



The ships are 4 CinC 1:2400 scale destroyers which were deemed surplus to my needs.  There are 3 supposed British "L" class destroyers which turned out not to have the right feature plus a Spica class TB.  I will relay the full L class saga another times, but for now will note that I am odd and get persnickety abut fielding the correct destroyers.

These were quick to paint up but I am pretty pleased with the end result.

These were painted using mostly Paynes' Grey with Carbon Black shading and Titanium White mixed in to get lighter shades.   Paynes' Grey is actually a very dark blue, but I'm hoping the name will let me slide it through.  Tables include a radar blip image and Capital Greek letters for identification.  I spelled out the letter names for benefit of gamers who speak neither Greek nor Mathematics.

Points wise that 4 1/2400 ships @ 2 points plus 20 for the chamber = 28 points.  A whopping 8 of these go towards my death by a thousand paper cuts total in the Naval Side Duel.

25 comments:

  1. A nice use of “surplus” ships - good job Peter.

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  2. Great idea and very good work!

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  3. I think that is an excellent subject to be painting in greyscale- they look very good.

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    1. Thanks very much, it seemed like a good subject for greyscale.

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  4. I really like these, Peter. Your naval themed entries are always so interesting.

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    1. Thanks Jonathan. For me the history of things is a very big part of the appeal.

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  5. Very cool! Nice work on the boats!

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  6. Ships, just the thing for a bit of Greyscale
    Regards KenR

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  7. Great looking greyscale ships!
    Best Iain

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  8. I do like a bit of Paynes Grey, a very useful colour.

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    1. It also doubles as a floor polish and a desert topping

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  9. Beautiful greyscale. Very impressed.

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    1. Cheers Lee, it was basically a base coat plus a heavy wash and drybrushed water highlights.

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  10. Nice work, Peter. Using greyscale for unidentified targets is genius.

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    1. Thanks Stuart, I was happy to both hit the greyscale target and do so in a way that I can use on table.

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  11. Brilliant interpretation of the theme Peter. I look forward to indiscriminately shooting these to pieces and just hoping they are the enemy. :)

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    1. Cheers Curt. Well it’s a 50:50 chance isn’t it?

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  12. Nicely executed Peter, I've not played any WWII Naval for ages (checks blog 2014) I should rectify that.

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  13. Very nice indeed! I usually paint my WWI 1/3000 destroyers flat grey (or black, as the case may be), but I may have to reconsider that. Great work!

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