Sunday 19 November 2017

Experimenting with Naval Visuals (1/1200) for The Battle of the Denmark Strait (1941)

Like it says on the tin I was experimenting with a "small tactical sea base" to mount 1/1200 ships on to represent their configuration in a long range naval gunnery duel. First up is the KM Bismarck (see below, as yet no foaming wake or cutting white bow spray):


Is this a more dirty looking "Atlantic green sea" (see below, pulling back the shot to get a full profile):


The German "raiding party" together for Operation Rheinuburg on the circular tactical base (see below, a way of reducing the 20,000' General syndrome or is this just another case of wargaming madness?):


The Royal Naval guardians of the Denmark Strait, HMS Hood leading HMS Prince of Wales (see below):


Part of the "cloak and dagger" operation to shadow HMS Suffolk (see below, HMS Norfolk is still suffering from my reluctance to customise the my duplicate HMS Suffolk into a reconfigured HMS Norfolk. The more I look into it I keep seeing more bits I have to do):


A single ship does seem the more sensible basing (see below, you can see that I envisage putting on counters around the outside of the 360 degrees of the "tactical board". Peoples thoughts honestly appreciated!):


Finally something 'caught inbound' on the "Mighty Hood" (see below, the Bismarck fires eight but two "straddle-splash markers" unaccounted for, something is brewing inside HMS Hood. Also note 'X' and 'Y' turrets are about to 'clear arc'):


More thoughts and experimentation to follow and perhaps even a walk-through war game using the old favourite GQII.

9 comments:

Paul Liddle said...

Very interesting Geordie, very very interesting. The big ships look great. I'm looking forward to seeing more of this project.
Regards,
Paul.

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Thanks Paul
Watch this space ;)
I think you can play GQII on two circles either "double blind" with a referee or with pieces of string as range markers

David Crook said...

Hi Geordie,

Looks very intriguing. You will have to let us know about the North Atlantic green you are using - love the colour! Also, what about the rules? GQ with tweaks?

All the best,

DC

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Hello David,

The "North Atlantic Green" was an on the spot concoction of things that were too hand. The 1/3000 painted ship bases were "too blue" IMHO (more Mediterranean than "foul" Atlantic).

Cheap "Home Bargains" acrylic paint (£1.25 a big tube). The Blue (2/3) and green (1/3) for the first coat. In addition I added some "artist medium" that I have had kicking around for years but never put to use on a naval base. Literally use it or lose it. That was all mixed together and splodged on the circular base (which is an old shop poster board: cardboard foam cardboard).

It dried too green (and there were some tiny white brush stroke gaps) so I gave a second coat of more Blue (3/4) and a little Green (> 1/4) plus a dab of Brown (> 1/8).

I would have liked to add some white tops but I am not sure how to attain that affect. Suggestions appreciated. The big ships need to sit on a transparent plastic base with foaming white around them! That could be teh next stage!

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Yes the plan is to use GQII with scenario tweaks. In fact I was going to initially do it with GQI to see if it plays simpler and better! All I need for the Denmark Strait is the spotting, move and gunnery sections as it is a (possibly very quick) big ship action

Ian said...

They look fabulous!

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Cheers Ian
A few small tweaks still to come!

Jonathan Freitag said...

Your 1/1200 ships do look terrific! Looking forward to seeing more action from them.

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Cheers Johnathan :)