Corona Virus Project 3: The Knowles Collection of 28mm is started

Inspired by the milk bottle tops as 28mm figure holders I super-glued some of the Eric Knowles 28mm Malburian collection I picked up. These were a packet of loose spares so are perfect for a starting project (see below, the only question is - Red, White, Blue or even Green Coats?):

This will be a slow parallel burner of a project that I intend to enjoy.

Corona Virus Project 2d Completed: The Missing USN Midway Cruisers (CA, LC, LC-AA)

Ahead of the planned painting order the CA, CL and CL-AAs of the USN were dispatched across the painting tray. A whim of the painter, no more, no less, In the "murky" late night hours, well past midnight, they [the outstanding USN cruisers of TF 8, TF 16 and TF 17] were finished - huzzah (see below, admittedly not all sailing in the same direction which s rather worrying given the tight formation they are in):

In the better light of day they can be seen sailing (all in the same direction this time) on the Pacific Ocean (see below, I do like the slightly shiny look and feel to the Satin Gloss that "suits" the water and has a slight retro feel to it):

I know they are begging for some close-ups .. watch this space! Next: Back to the schedule and Corona Virus Project 2c and the Midway/Coral Sea USN Destroyers is up on eh painting blocks.

Corona Virus: Things you find in the back of cupboards - Long lost chess pieces

It is amazing what turns up when you have time on your hands to go rooting through the back of cupboards (Corona Virus post again). I am convinced these have been missing for a decade or more (see below, not the Isle of Lewis chess pieces but still a welcome find nevertheless):

Thankfully I also know where the board is!

Corona Virus - Loose yourself in some books

There are always "books" ...

In the professional wargame category I have plenty of books to skim, read and re-read (see below, Sabin's [Lost Battles and Simulating War], GLB [Successful Professional Wargames], Dunnigan, Perla [The Art of Wargaming] are old classics long read, but I have plenty of other stuff with interesting idea in abundance, mainly it seems from the History of Wargaming Project):

Then there are the books from the historical category and there are plenty of them on the bookshelves (see below, the Pacific War is my current theme which ties in with the 1/3000 Navwar models, so this is a small section of my dusty books):

Or a general scientific interest (see below, Blink if a good lite-read):

Slightly heavier but packed full of thought provoking ideas (see below, I particularly like Newton's "apple" on the front cover):

And let's not forget the rules which I have bought and should have really read by now. This is a large category. Carrier and Tokyo Express are specifically solitaire games so ideal for the current circumstances(see blow, XTR Victory at Midway is a personal favourite of mine that I am playing via email to an independent umpire against an unseen third party):

Hopefully chances are by the time you read "one or more" book and played "one or more" games then the Corona Virus thing will have all blown over! Famous last words. Anything not done by the end of the lock-down needs seriously to be put on the "never happening" project shelf!

Games to play with the family and friends .. Codenames

A simple grid of words (see below, some you must get your partner [not necessarily in th ebiblical sense] to guess - others that must be avoided, how to switch onto their "mental wavelength"): 

Blood, sweat and coffee or alcohol! And an oft used slap to the head (see below, teh night is drawing late and the players are still playing):

Note: A great game for reunions to find out if your old friends have really changed that much!

Corona Virus Project 2c and 2d (WIP): USN Destroyers and Midway Cruisers

Project 2c: Thirty "early war" US Destroyers (see below, I could not match "named destroyers" in teh battle [yet - that will have to wait for another order to Navwar], so I picked thirty "early war" destroyers to just "sub-in"):

Project 2d: The USN Midway Cruisers of Task Force 16 and Task Force 8 (see below, those already made in Task Force 17 and 16 are omitted) from the photograph:

Task Force 17: 

• USS Astoria .. already done
• USS Portland .. already done

Task Force 16:

• USS New Orleans (CA) .. already done
• USS  Minneapolis (CA) .. already done
• USS Vincennes (CA)
• USS Northampton (CA)
• USS Pensacola (CA)
• USS Atlanta (LC-AA)

Task Force 8:

• USS Indianapolis (CA)
• USS Louisville (CA)
• USS Nashville (LC)
• USS St Louis (LC)
• USS Honolulu (LC)

Once Projects 2c and 2d are complete it will be time to look at the IJN. The Coral Sea will be a relatively small affair but .. the IJN Task Forces are pretty large. Especially if you include the Aleutian force!

Corona Virus Project #2: Battle Sisters - USS Yorktown [CV5], USS Enterprise [CV6] and USS Hornet [CV8]

Next comes the Midway carriers, that magic combination of capabilities that made them the perfect modern carriers for the USN to fight the Pacific War against Japan, just at the right time (see below, primed in their basic colours):

CV5 the USS Enterprise is first up on the painting stocks. By the time of painting the USS Enterprise I decided that the flight deck deserved some more "effects" such as arrester-wires and elevator markings (see below, seen here after taking a coat of Humbrol 'satin varnish' for the sea and wet sheen effect):

I liked the look so much I decided to go back and work through CV2 to CV4 (Lexington, Saratoga and Ranger) and fill in the details and change solid lines to dashes (see below, the revised USN CV fleet to date with my hand scribed deck-markings):

Another fly-by (see below, Enterprise [CV6], Wasp [CV7, a smaller type of Yorktown - due to treaty tonnage restrictions] and Hornet [CV8] at the end of the line, still in their base colours):

A furious night of painting ensued and USS Yorktown [CV5] is joined by the USS Enterprise [CV6] in a battle ready state (see below, I am starting to enjoy this crazy adventure):

USS Hornet [CV8] was next up for the deck marking treatment (see below, I think the "number 8" marking is particularly funky):

USS Hornet again (see below, I am so liking this!):

Now the sisters are ready for battle (see below, bring on Midway):

That just leaves the USS Wasp [CV7] to do for the complete US early war carrier fleet.

Pendrakon Miniatures and Warbases - Corona Virus response starting to make PPE for Care Homes, GPs Surgeries and Hospices

Utterly Brilliant and Beautiful: 

You have my Respect and Admiration:

And awe at what can be done: 

https://www.gofundme.com/f/producing-ppeface-shields-for-the-northeast

And then don't forget that amazing 99 Year Old - Captain Tom Moore:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-52303859

Corona Virus Project #2: USS Ranger and USS Langley (CV4 and CV1)

USS Ranger was the first "designed" as an aircraft carrier ship for the USN - still experiment in many concepts - the funnel arrangement for one thing looks a frightening nightmare for any friendly aviator approaching her, but she did have a modern island bridge. She was deemed unsuitable for operations n the Pacific so spent her wartime career supporting European Theatre operations (see below, a rather large number "four" shows proud, a bit thicker than the one I put on the Saratoga, but that should not matter as they wouldn't be present in the same fleet operation):

Stepping back, I redid the USS Langley to be in keeping with the other ships (see below, but teh time WWII came around she had been converted to a sea-plane tender, so technically not a CV at all, but I am not going to quibble here):

The early war carriers together (to date I have done four out of the eight needed so I am halfway there). Originally I thought I would do these in an evening .. what a "foolish child" I was! The flight deck (surprise surprise causes all the grief .. I don't mind the "sea bases" now). Still I am pleased to get to this point (see below, an armada of US naval air power, this also means I an going to have to go back and look at the RN flight decks at some point .. I also want to upgrade my sea basing technique across the board): 

Note to Self: Still thinking about that big looking number "four" compared to the skinny number "three". Watch this space I might have to fiddle ;)

Corona Virus Project #2: Lex's Sister "Saratoga" - CV3

Following on from "Lady Lex", her sister "Saratoga" CV3, another 1922 converted battle-cruiser
design (see below, my hand painted flight-lines and "number three" will have to do for the moment):

Again using the Flight Deck Decals site for inspiration I took up a very fine paintbrush and tried my hand (please see link below for merchandise I hope to come back to [perhaps] in a post Corona Virus world as their shipping is disrupted to the UK/Europe at the moment):
https://www.flightdeckdecals2400.com/product-page/1-3000-cv-3-saratoga-gray-deck-nav3003a-1

To see if I had an acceptable match with the "sea basing" I put the USS Saratoga alongside her sister, the USS Lexington, plus two protective 'eligible bachelors' the modern battleships USS Washington and USS South Dakota (see below, a 'powerful package' or 'high value target of opportunity', depending on your point of view) :

Coming into land on the Saratoga (see below, a nice clear flight deck - something I might well change later as I found some 1/3000 Navwar US aircraft I can artistically add):

With the majority of the US Battleship stock resting at the bottom of Pearl Harbour it fell upon teh USN 8" cruiser fleet to protect the carriers (see below, these are the Task Force 17 cruisers that fault at the Coral Sea):

Task Force 17: This looks to be a nice little offshoot Corona Virus project in itself. I have "Lady Lex" and the USS Yorktown is coming after CV4 USS Ranger.

Footnote: Renko raised a verry interesting point in the comments .. Blue or Brown that is the question. A slight OMG have I done it wrong moment (I went Grey/Blue instead of Brown) but then it seems in 1941 the USN carriers went to a Deck Blue wash/stain by default on their carriers prior to seeing combat. So given the 'paint I had to hand (Vallejo 868 Dark Green Grey instead of 867 Deck Blue Grey) I may have to do a subtle "blue wash"on the carriers deck [Or touch up the flight deck with 867 when I 'eventually' get a pot of it] ;)

I go by the this excellent reference resource as the final word:
https://www.shipcamouflage.com/specialtopics/BlueFlightDecks.html

Corona Virus Project #2: Making out with "Lady Lex" - CV2

Mea culpa, after reading through the links from a previous post I found out that my hunch (of brown flight decks) was completely wrong (maybe I was thinking 18th and 19th century navies, rather than 20th century navies) and for the USN the Blue and Green Gray are beautiful. Out of the fifty shades of grey out the one I was looking for was :

Deck Blue Grey Vallejo Model Colour 867

Extremely useful was this Vallejo Colour Chart link:
https://www.megahobby.com/products/17ml-acrylic-paint-bottles-model-colors-vallejo.html

Well guess what, despite what I thought was an extensive selection of Vallejo paints - this was one I was missing, but I had the next door cousin 868 Dark Sea Grey- so in these Corona Virus times of make do I used that instead. I was going to mix in a lighter shade anyhow so what the heck! (see below, my revised carrier flight decks, no more "wooden walls"):

I decided to take one example through to the end. I opted for CV2, the USS Lexington "The Lady Lex" and tried my hand at a little bit of shading to the deck and give her some "flight landing lines" (see below, my hand drawn lines will do for now, although there are some excellent decals from: https://www.flightdeckdecals2400.com/product-page/usn2a-cv-2-lexington-grey - another casualty of the lock-down, just now as no air-mail)

A hypothetical shot of "Lady Lex" being escorted to the ball (see below, two previous 1/3000 scale warships are used to eyeball my sea base painting for wargaming compatibility between them all - in fact I think that is it is unlikely an historical reconstruction as I think "Lady Lex" was "down and out" [sunk 8/5/42 at the Battle of the Coral Sea] before these two [USS Washington - although 15/5/41 commissioned she started her Pacific duties much later from 23/8/42, and the USS South Dakota - entered the war much later, it was 26/7/42 before she was ready for active service] got into the fight in 1942):

Close up of "Lady Lex" (aka "The Grey Lady). She was a big ship an would have been a heck of a battle-cruiser if finished to her original design (see below, she still carried 8x8" guns so potentially packed a hell of a surface punch too):

The painted "Lady Lex" alongside the other early war USN CVs (see below, the sea base was an additional wet-brush layer of Anita's Acrylics Navy Blue mixed 50:50 with Ocean Blue, followed by a highlight of Ocean Blue, Green Vallejo "wash" was added, then with wave-tops and churn being achieved by mixing in Antique White and White for a feather-lite highlight - in an artistic fashion):

A final Humbrol "satin varnish" was applied (see below, not "an in your face" gloss but a subtle reflective shimmer is achieved [as per the battleships]): 

OK, end-to-end test was a success, production mode is on ;)

Corona Virus Project #2: US WWII Pearl Harbour CVs - Base Coat

Base Layer Painting: Despite having researched the pants off WW2 USN Pacific Ships I decided to go with what looks good IMHO (see below, hull - Vallejo Model Colour - London Grey [70836] and flight decks, Vallejo Game Dark Flesh [72044]):

Technically "wargame table ready" .. but I want to highlight and sea effect too!

What I am reading just now ... naturally a wargame book

I know that in this time of world crisis, a place of unreal social distancing, people contact is good via Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype or Chime .. not forgetting to House Party, but it is also nice to find a quiet corner, sit down with a cup of tea and just read a good book (see below, Successful Professional Wargames: A Practitioners Handbook - maybe not available at newsagents but at good online retail outlets there should be copies available):

Graham Longley-Brown is one of the driving members of the Connections UK Professional Wargaming Conference, an experienced British Army officer and a genius of bringing together disparate information into a cohesive whole, his art is the art of the "seemingly blindingly obvious" which people forget about, he restates it and it comes to the rightful place in the front not forgotten back of the mind [thank you for also reminding us that, no one person has the answer to everything and a collective of people working together is far more stranger than a silo of clever individuals not talking to each other]:

John Curry's - "History of Wargaming Project":
http://www.wargaming.co/professional/details/professionalhandbook.htm

Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Successful-Professional-Wargames-Practitioners-Handbook/dp/0244803641

PS: The introductions section itself is a "Who's Who" of Wargaming and informative read!

Note: I am not taking commission but an intent on propagating good wargaming knowledge.

;)

Tomb Banshee - Impulse Buy

Passing through Tesco last week I noticed an Age of Sigmar magazine, kind of overpriced at (£8) but in these times of "closed shops" and "no unnecessary travelling and mingling" it seemed an incredibly prudent buy on reflection. So I decided to treat myself seeing because it looked like a generic "cool undead" sculpt (see below, a D&D monster if there were ever a GW monster that could be used for other RPG games - I also got a bottle of red Khorne Bloodletter Red, which could be useful):

Welcome to the Painting Tray "Ms Tomb Banshee"!

The First Corona Project Completed: An Italian Western Desert Task Force

Next comes the armour (see below, there may be fifty shades of grey but I am using three grades of sand on top of one layer of primer that gets washed in "Vallejo Brown Wash"):

I took one vehicle (M11/39) through to completion to get a feel of what to do (see below, kinda got it, taking Green Ochre (914), mixing it with Buff (976) and finally highlighting in pure Buff):

The tracks were initially painted in Flat Brown (984) and the highlighted in Gun Metal, flowed by a Black Wash and further Gun Metal highlight (see below, primed and ready for action):

From another angle coming at you (see below, the 47mm gun is the hull is anachronistic, the Italians only ever bothered equipping two battalions in the Western Desert with them, but a tank is still a tank when the other side does not have one):

The finished one alongside the other painted in the base coat Green Ochre (914) on the 40mm bases (see below, the Italian armoured column is taking shape):

The 10mm Western Desert Italian Project (see below, Infantry done, supports painted and half based, armour just started painting):

Pause for thought .. mu eldest wanted some help painting a D&D figure (Iron Golem) so while he was learning the secrets of "bronze armour" - I also experimented with Citadel Texture pain and under-painted bases (see red-orange-yellow). The idea being you paint over the bright colours in thick back texture paint goo. The goo dries, cracks and the colours of hell seep through the cracks. It can be extremely dramatic and very effective. Part way through this process I thought - they would be quite good as Chain of Command "shock markers (see below, the acolyte in training and are those "shock markers" I see?): 

An aerial shot of the painting table (see below, 28mm WWII British Infantry sprues on the top left, 28mm GW Fantasy bottom left, 10mm Pendrakon WWII Italians in the middle):

A close-up of the WIP 10mm Italians (see below, I am having second thoughts on how "light" the sand is on the finished infantry bases):

The Italians from another angle (see below, in the background you can see the bottom half of a Steve Young San Fran QB "Action Figure" - although it has to be said I am more of a Joe Montana fan):

An artistic shot of the Painting Table and a hint at my bookshelf (see below, a lot of Vallejo Paints [and unopened can of Carlsberg Export] - including duplicates - see previous post for details):

Another look at those bases (see below, they definitely look like "shock markers" to me): 

The Italian armoured column gets a Green Ochre and Buff 50:50 mix (see below, I can see the effect coming on nicely):

Buff highlight and I think we are there. Other bits, exhausts Flat Brown with Red Leather Highlight. Spades and MGs, black with Gun Metal highlight, tyres black with a mixed a dark grey highlight (see below, based on PVA dunked in sand and grit, soaked with an Anita's Acrylic Coffee Brown diluted wash):

Now came a a depressing moment when I took yet another look at the infantry basing and finally accepted that they were too light (see below, I preferred the look of the infantry supports and armour): 

The horrible answer was to Brown Wash the bases and start from the mid-tone up again (see below, once I had done one base I knew it was the right thing to do, that way they were all based the same too - which as a collection works better IMHO):

Finally painted awaiting a matte varnish (see below, after all the effort I put into these I decided I was not going to skimp on a varnish to make the wargaming figures more "wearable" or protect from hand-to-hand contact or is that clumsy handling combat?):

The Italian Infantry package (see below, note the alternative use of a chocolate box - which needs a bit of strengthening and interior divisions, so they don't all end up in a heap in transport):

The "Final Showcase I" (see below, head-on a furious sight of Italian armour and infantry in rapid advance):

The "Final Showcase II" (see below, side-on - a nice target for artillery):

The Italian Army is now in search of the British Western Desert Force (WDF) under General Richard O'Connor.

More importantly in the context of current world events - this is my first (perhaps of many) Corona Virus Lock-Down [UK] Projects.