Some of you may recall previous posts about the antique BMC / "Minfigs" ships here, and also most excellently covered at the SteelonSand and A Wargaming Odyssey blogs. I still have a lot of these ships as yet unconverted to my own style so I stripped and reworked a few more.
Amongst the warships, I also have several merchant and transport vessels. These should come in handy. In the next two photos, my updates on the left, originals on the right. I suspect the dazzle painting and hospital ship conversion weren't the original livery, quite possibly added by a previous owner.
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| Highflyer Class (I think) |
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| Pelorus Class |
I left the nationality flags and ship names off the bases this time, as they'll be serving a new ficticious country, most likely Saxonia (think I have hit upon a winning Imperialism map). Don't have much in the way of BMC pre-dreadnought battleships, but many cruisers both Armored and Protected as well as a host of destroyers & torpedo boats, plus a few subs.
However, I think I may have blundered in selecting 1/1800 as the scale of choice. I received the Shapeways 1/1800 ship samples this week and they are tiny in comparison with these ! Utterly incompatible. What hurts worse is that I ordered several more WTJ ships at 1/1800 and if they're they scale out the same as the Shapeways, I'd have been better off ordering 1/1500. For the purpose of this project at least, I'm going to have to jettison one set of ships or the other. Quite stupid, I'm an experienced enough modeler to have taken measurements and planned more carefully. In any case, it's all food for a subsequent thread with scale comparison shots.
Hi Steve,
ReplyDelete1/1800th is the scale for the Axis and Allies WW2 ship game. Included in the range is a Schleswig-Holstein (the modified WW2 version with the trunked funnels) and the Georgios Averoff which you could pick up reasonably cheaply. The BMC/Minifigs copies I think are 1/1500th.
I really like your painting technique with the models above - very clean and business-like.
All the best,
DC
PS I would interested to see what you have acquired in 1/1800th though as I think this is the way forward in ship models!
Hi, David.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the compliment on the painting and your feedback on the scale issue.
You know, I have quite a few A&A WW2 ships (but not the two pre-dreads). They look significantly more imposing to me than the Shapeways ships, but of course a WW2 battleship makes a pre-dreadnought look puny.
Interesting that you predict a good future for 1/1800. I see that Victory at Sea is also offering pre-based 1/1800 ships, but no reason to believe they'll get around to WW1 any time soon. I do like the VaS rule system, by the way. On the other hand, Jim at WTJ says 1/1800 are weak sellers compared to 1/1500 and 1/2400.
Anyway, I'm in a quandary now as the drawbacks/advantages of either scale kind of balance each other out. Do I want ?
* 1/1500. Most appealing models, easier scratchbuilding, most likely compatible with the BMC inventory.
* 1/1800. Cheaper (at WTJ), more compact and probably more practical for gaming.
Must decide soon !
Regards,
Steve
Steve do what you love to do and like. Nothing wrong with 1/1800. Also I have to pass on purchasing theWW1 flats that you offered. I am going a different route and scale choice and will be very selective. Don`t worry about the blunders as we all make them ... Jeff
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jeff. Sorry to hear you won't be needing the flats, but no worries. Sooner or later they'll find a good home on eBay.
ReplyDelete* Steve