A Most Excellent Day

I've mentioned before that my Gaming Friends are spread from Hamilton and Collingwood to Chatham. About a 3 hour drive at highway speeds from end to end. 

We're sort of the middle intersecting bit of a vast sprawling Venn-diagram of many Southern Ontario interconnected Gaming groups, clubs, or local scenes. So we don't get together as much as we'd like.

One of the lads, finding himself centrally located now, has organized game days during August in between his and another's birthdays.

So Saturday I rolled up my sea matt, packed my ships, and drove off to join a dozen of my friends,  old and new, for a day of barbecue and dice rolling.

I playtested a Snorkers! (Good Oh!) scenario I want to run next month at KEGSCon. I'm hoping to accommodate 6 players.

Swordfish get some good hits on Italian cruisers

British cruiser squadron under attack. This game saw a first. Not one, but TWO flights of aircraft getting shot down.

Italian DE flotilla making a torpedo attack on British light cruisers 

British destroyers finish off the Italian light cruisers

HMS Glasgow crippled by Italian torpedo 

Another view of the Swordfish making their attack

Learned some things. I'll review the fleet composition before the convention. Hopefully my friends had fun.

The gang

After dinner it was a game of Blücher with Keith's lovely 6mm armies. Joe and Paul ran the Imperial army. Rico and I played the Allies.

Allies in foreground. 

Swedes

Prussians

French, foreground. Not as many Prussians as I had started with in the back.

Danes

I'm not sure how it ended. I had to leave.

There were some other games on the dinner table. Age of sail using The Full Nelson.

And something involving pirates.

And there was cake! 

I can tell I had a good time because, despite being completely knackered, I had trouble settling down and getting to sleep. 

Mail Call!

Some arrivals this week, just in time for the Civic Holiday Long Weekend. Tuesday UPS delivered my hardcopy of Clash of Rhyfles. and the new plastic cavalry. 

I was going to wait, but Zombiesmith had a sale on, so I ordered direct and got the printed pieces to convert them into Toulmorese Dragoons and Gwynt Lancers. The Gwynt Lancers will be a mounted troop for Princess P'trysha's Lifeguards.

Both sets include dismounts. Toulmorese Dragoons can dismount to skirmish, but anyone might end up dismounted if their mount is killed. People have recommended around 30% for dismounts, so not sure how to split the boxes between Crusaders/Toulmorese and Coftyrans/Gwynt yet. 

So this weekend I plan on charging about with my metal cavalry to get a handle on how they work before I start gluing figures together. 

These also arrived in my mailbox today.

Rising Sun Over Java is a scenario and campaign supplement for my favorite naval rules Snorkers! (Good Oh!). There are some new rules, and 16 scenarios. Fortunately I have some older USN destroyers on order from Donski's Printer Farm. I might also see if they can be reskinned for Royal Navy vs Regia Marina or perhaps the Kreigsmarine, since I've got several German ships also on my print list.

Gunkan Kōshinkyoku

The Gunkan (Warship) March

IJN Surface Action Group conducting high speed sea trials

The first 1:1800 scale units for the Imperial Japanese Navy are painted and undergoing sea trials until they get their labels. 2x Takao class heavy cruisers, 2x Tenyru class light cruisers, 6x Fubuki class DDs and 6x Kagero class DDs. 

Japanese heavy cruisers were very much the same in profile, so this one stl will do for many of them.

Takao Class CAs

Most Japanese CLs were intended as Destroyer Division Leaders, and they also looked much the same. At least the early war ones used around the Solomons up until 1943. Although the Sendai class had a different arrangement of more guns and torpedoes. But for game purposes their profiles aren't much different.

Tenyru Class CLs

IJN paint schemes are very simple: dark grey hulls, linoleum brown decks for anything smaller than a battleships. Tamiya helpfully makes IJN ship colours.

There are different shades of grey depending upon the shipyard, but I'm not getting into the weeds that deeply! I used the darkest grey for the hull and the lighter shade to dry brush the upper works. Successively lighter greys are used to drybrush the upper works some more and paint the boats.

Fubuki class DDs

The big difference in the IJN destroyers is with the torpedo load out. The Fubukis have 3x triple torpedo launchers, the Kageros have 2x quadruple launchers.

Kagero class DDs

Like the USN I have some other types of destroyers getting printed. Once they arrive I'll print everyone's labels.

These models caused some problems. Some supports from the turrets were stuck to the deck and I caused some damage trying to clean them up. These prints also had quite noticeable curving at the bows. I applied liquid putty to try and remedy both issues. I don't think anyone will notice mid-game.

Note odd little bits sticking out from torpedo launchers and turrets, and the big ding in the fo'castle

Anchors Away!

I've been listening a lot to the "Unauthorized History of the Pacific War" on YouTube, which does some very detailed examinations of several of the many surface actions around the Solomon Islands in late 1942 to '43. One of the hosts being a retired naval officer really gives some good insights into why things happened the way they did sometimes. So as a break from the Mediterranean Theater I decided to get some Pacific Theater models ready. A lot of these battles would be quite well sized for Snorkers! (Good Oh!). Because the narrow waters around the islands limited the maneuvering of larger units, the actions were mostly destroyer and light cruiser affairs.

Perfect.

My 1:2400 fleets were pretty unimaginiative in grey, which is basically "Measure 1". Dark grey or dark blue decks make it "Measure 3." So I decided to try and delve into USN naval camouflage for the war.

Old 1:2400 and new 1:1800

I think the new basing gives more action, and going bigger isn't taking up much more sea room.

Boy, howdy!

There were TWENTY-FIVE different camouflage schemes used by the USN at one time or another during the war. Several all at the same time or overlapping significantly.

 

So, you've got to figure out when they were used, where they were used, and which were just for submarines or landing craft etc. Or only used by one or two ships as an experiment.

The Wikipedia article World War II Ship Camouflage Measures of the United States Navy was very helpful. Complete with useful colour swatches to try and compare my existing paints to, instead of working on guesses from photographs or buying a specialty paint set.

Two squadrons of Fletcher class destroyers 

Despite my best efforts, 2 ships were crooked on their bases, so I painted their wakes to make them look like they were maneuvering at speed.

Trying to strike a balance between accuracy, easy to paint, and pleasing to the eye, I settled on "Measure 12" as the most likely livery worn by USN ships during the battles of the Solomon Islands campaign.

I hope. Maybe it's "Measure 14?" 

For the "Ocean Grey" hulls I used French Grey Blue. The "Haze Grey" upperworks were dry brushed with Light French Blue. The "Deck Blue" for the decks I used Admiral Blue. Which might not be exact but it's the same colour I use for the bases. 

Atlanta class 5" CLs in front

Brooklyn class 6" CLs in front

But here's a nice Task Force of 2x Brooklyn class CLs, 2x Atlanta class CLs, and 8x Fletcher class DDs. Although I need two more 6" gun CLs to make a complete Cruiser Division for an action like Empress Augusta Bay.

I've got two Northampton class CAs and two battleships to paint until some Porter, Sims, and Bagley class destroyers arrive from Don's printer farm. I'll hold off printing labels until I can do them all at once.