From AdamC: Grand Old Ladies and their American Cousins (49 points).

 

First We have three Queen Elizabeth Class Battle ships in their World War II guise after modernization in the 30s.  

Queen Elizabeth, Warspite (nick named the Grand Old Lady) and Valiant.  All three had very active careers in Two World Wars.

Warspite is of course one the most active ships in world history with 15 battle honors in Two World Wars. The Museum ship that should have been government bureaucracy being the only enemy her "plot armor" couldn't overcome.  

Four Omaha-Class Cruisers these were built by the US after the Great War and were the first cruisers The USN had built in 10 years.  It was clear that the USN needed Ships to Scout for the Battle fleet and initially these ships were called "scout cruisers" (later they were classed as Light Cruisers) and included two air craft to help with this scouting. 

They had an odd combination of  6" guns with two mounted in twin-turrets, one fore and one aft as well as four more mounted older style sponsons on each broad side.  Almost as if the designers couldn't make up their minds so they did both.  Unlike Most other US cruisers the Omahas have torpedoes.  

Next up are four ships of one of my favorite classes The Brooklyn Class Light Cruisers.  These ships were developed as a response to the Mogami and share that classes original armament with fifteen 6" guns mounted in fife three gun turrets. 

These ships were light in name only being of similar size to existing US Heavy cruisers. They were built to be fast and pack a punch.  The guns of this class could fire 10 rounds per minute meaning one of these ships could absolutely drowned and enemy in 150 shells in sixty second! Small wounder they were nicked named the "machine gun cruisers."  They were good ships, with several serving in the 1980s in South America. (Again why didn't one of them become a museum ship?!) 

Finally we have 4 Bagley class destroyers and 4 Mahan class Destroyers both good 1930s American destroyers, which as I have described them elsewhere I will not discuss them now.  Most of these ships will see action at up coming convention (Mayhem and Huzzah)  here in New England this year, maybe I'll see some of you there.

If I have the points right it should be an additional 16point for the Destroyers (8 at 2 points each) and then 33 points for the larger ships (11 at 3 points each) for an additional 49 points.

I'm glad I was able to come back this year its been great fun and I am as always in awe of the quality and quantity of work one can see here. 

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Wonderful work Adam (and great mini-histories on these storied ships). The painting is crisp and clean, and I really like the clear basing. Well done and I look forward to having you with us the next time we hoist anchor. 

- Curt

AdamC: shipwrecks (10 points)

 

These are 3D prints of sinking/wrecked ships

The largest is a big frigate or small ship of the line.

The others are possibly a 50 gunner or frigate but since they are mostly below the water they are quite flexible. 

I used toothpicks for broken masts and bowsprit... Estimates are hard for painting time but maybe two to three hours. 

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 These will make great wrecks along the coastline or along shoals in games.  They are pretty simple but effective and therefore I am going to grant them 10 points.

- Byron 

 

From BenF: A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far Far Away... (242 points)

Now that Christmas and New Years is sorted, I've finally managed to crack on with a bit more painting. The weather here has been rather extreme, with temperatures regularly above 35C - and consequently I've been spending rather less time than I'd like painting and more time at the beach cooling.

With the release of the exceptional Rogue One (I saw it for the third time on Sunday afternoon!), I've gotten back into playing Star Wars Armada. While the capital ships come pre-painted, the smaller squadrons come in a rather unappealing grey or tan plastic. So, my submission for the past fortnight is a whole shedload of Rebel Alliance and Imperial ships, along with a brace of Imperial Assault 28mm Stormtroopers for which I have nascent plans to get some games in with 7TV.

We'll start with the Imperial Stormtroopers. These are 28mm from Fantasy Flight Games, and despite the plastic being dreadful to clean up, they have come out rather well. I've got a bunch more Imperial Assault figures which I plan on using during the challenge to break up the monotony of painting units. Darth Vader and Boba Fett are next on my 'in case of painting fatigue, paint these' list.

Now, on to the Armada ships. These are I *think around the 1/600 mark, however really have no  idea. Below is a pic of a TIE Fighter and an X-Wing next to a 28mm Perry AWI figure for scale. Suffice it to say they are flipping tiny!

Ok, so the Imperials first. For your consideration, a swarm of twenty-one TIE Fighters. I painted some in the grey as per A New Hope, and some with the blueish tinge as seen in Empire Strikes Back. The fighters with the red stripes are 'aces' in the game.

Next, here are six each of TIE Bombers, TIE Inteceptors, TIE/D 'Defenders' and TIE Phantoms. All in the blueish grey as seen in Return of the Jedi. The Defenders and Phantoms are from the expanded universe and the Defender looks set to debut in this season's Star Wars Rebels TV Series. For the Defenders I tried to paint an engine glow.

Here are a few of the larger ships which act alone rather than in squadrons - two VT-49 'Decimator' attack ships, and two Lambda Class Shuttles. Again I tried out some engine glow techniques on these.

Here are four more large ships, this time the ships of the bounty hunters seen in Empire Strikes Back. From left to right is robotic hoodlum IG-88's 'IG-2000', everyones favourite Boba Fett's 'Slave I', Reptilian hireling Bossk's 'Houndstooth', and brining up the last Dengar's 'Punishing One'.

Finishing off the Imperials is Darth Vader himself with his escort of Black Squadron TIE Fighters, all ready to clear the Death Star trench of pesky Gold and Red Squadron rebels.

By my count, the Imperials have a total of 60 small painted ships, and god knows how many tiny black panels.. Phew! Now, on to the rebels

Starting off, we have the iconic ship of the Rebel Alliance, the X-Wing. Now I took a lot of extra time on these, replacing the bendy telegraph pole looking wing weapons with clipped drawing pins. They are painted up as Red Squadron, with individual markings for Red Leader thru to Red 12. While it seems crazy, I actually enjoyed the lack of uniformity with these guys, particularly after the TIE fighters. I copied the method (or madness?) was copied from Ica over at Rule 37 blog.

Next up, the support ships for the Rebels. Six each of A-Wings, Y-Wings, and my personal favourite, the ungainly looking B-Wing. I kinda went to town with the markings on the ace B-Wing squadron, but am happy with how they turned out.

Finally for the Rebels, it's a their larger ships, in this case representing a bunch of rogues. From left to right we have the 'Outrider', piloted by smuggler Dash Rendar, the Moldy Crow piloted by Jan Ors (this one should be familiar to anyone who has played the Star Wars: Dark Forces II video game), Han Solo's iconic 'Millenium Falcon', and a Scurrg H-6 Bomber 'Havoc' piloted by Nym. Apart from the Falcon, all are from the expanded universe.

A group shot, and the total for this pitiful little band is 34 ships, which brings the overall total of tiny ships to 94.

Tomorrow evening they will be travelling to my friendly LGS to do battle for the galaxy in the refreshing cool of an air-conditioned shop! (tomorrow is supposed to be the 42C peak of another heat wave!)

I have absolutely NO idea what kind of points this lot translates into for the challenge, but hopefully I'm on the way to reaching if not surpassing my initial goal of 400 points.

Coming up next on the painting desk, I'm currently well underway with the first of my American Revolutionary War forces for Sharp Practice 2, so my next post will be back to historicals.

Till then, may the force be with you!

Alan and Paul: Like you, I've been inspired by the wonderful Rogue One to get my Armada ships out on the table. Your Stormtroopers look great, but as for your teeny tine ships: wow. They really are exceptional, and the effort you have gone to with the colour schemes of the Rebel ships, and even converting them (!!) is incredible. In recogniton of the intricate paint job you have managed, I've scored your Imperial ships as 6mm vehicles and the Rebels as 10mm.