2019-20 New Release Schedule

[ACWBill]

It was released as mentioned on the 30th of April. It also appears on the yellow flyer sent out with my recent order. The code is indeed IT29.

[Donald M. Scheef]

Personal Opinion of 2020-2021 Micronaut Releases

GHQ’s release schedule for 1/2400 Micronauts offers interesting lot. It’s great to see another dozen ship models. Personally, it’s not exceptional for me. Only one of the dozen types are from my personal wish list (SUN-8, Storozhevoy (Type 7U)-class). However, six of the items will be on my shopping list as soon as they are released. With respect to the Consolidated Micronaut Wish List, one of the twelve ships were in the top four vote-getters and five others were in the top 100.

Here are some personal comments on the individual 2019-2020 Micronauts, beginning with what I consider best for me:

SUN-8, WWII Soviet destroyer Storozhevoy (Type 7U)-class. As I mentioned, one of my personal picks and tied for fifth place in the Consolidated Micronaut Wish List. I plan to get six packs to represent the 18 ships of this class.

GWB-39, WWI UK battleship Canopus-class. This, along with GWB-40, WWI UK armed merchant cruiser Otranto fills out the order of battle for the Battle of the Falklands. There were six ships in the Canopus-class, most of which saw combat at the Dardanelles/Gallipoli, SW Africa, and/or East Africa. Canopus-class had 23 votes in the Consolidated Micronaut Wish List, tied for 41st place.

GWB-40, WWI UK armed merchant cruiser Otranto. Otranto was at Coronel and the Battle of the Falklands. She had four sisters; Orvieto and Otway were also armed merchant cruisers. Orsova and Osterley were troop ships. 18 votes in the Consolidated Micronaut Wish List, tied for 77th place.

USN98, WWII USA K-class blimp. Highly effective as coastal anti-submarine patrol craft. Supposedly, no merchant ship was lost to U-boot attack with a K-class blimp in escort. In the Consolidated Micronaut Wish List, K-class blimps were grouped with other patrol aircraft. This group had 9 votes, tied for 278th place. Although 134 were built, I plan on getting only one because of the solitary nature of their role.

GWG-26, WWI Germany pre-dreadnought battleship Braunschweig-class. The five ships of this class were showing their age by the beginning of WWI. Several saw limited combat in the Baltic against Russian forces. Hessen of this class fills in the last gap among capital ships at Jutland. I will probably purchase five just for completeness. This class had 33 votes in the Consolidated Micronaut Wish List, tied for 13th place.

FRN-14, WWII France battleship Paris. This ship saw limited combat in June, 1939. After this, she was relegated to a depot ship. I will probably purchase three (hypothetically four) just for completeness. Paris had 20 votes in the Consolidated Micronaut Wish List, tied for 57th place.

UK-59, WWII UK aircraft carrier Colossus-class. I concentrate on surface warfare so I probably won’t be purchasing any aircraft carriers in the near future. Only four ships of this class were completed before the end of the war, and none saw significant combat during the war. I hope that GHQ takes the opportunity to provide late-war aircraft for this class, such as Fireflies and Sea Furies. This class had 23 votes on the Consolidated Micronaut Wish List, tied for 36th place.

GEN-27, WWII Germany aircraft carrier Weser (conversion of heavy cruiser Seydlitz). Like the Colossus class, I won’t be purchasing this because I concentrate on surface warfare. This seems a very strange choice. Graf Zeppelin was enough of a hypothetical ship. I would have preferred something like an ‘O’ class battlecruiser, Spahkreuzer SP.4 design, or Type 1936C (Z.46)-class destroyer. Weser had one vote in the Consolidated Micronaut Wish List, tied for 2172nd place.

I’m not buying modern warships at this time so I won’t be getting any of the following. However, I hope GHQ does well with these. They all seem to be choices that will be popular with modern warship gamers and collectors.

HUS 26 post-Cold War USA auxiliary Lewis and Clark (T-AKE-1)-class. The 14 ships of this class provide dry stores to the US Navy fleet. I think that GHQ should produce a modern fleet oiler (such as USNS John Lewis, T-AO-205) to go along with the Lewis and Clark. Lewis and Clark had four votes in the Consolidated Micronaut Wish List, tied for 27th place.

HJN-9, Late Cold-War Japan destroyer escort Abukama (Abukuma?)-class. This consists of six multi-purpose escort ships. The class had five votes in the Consolidated Micronaut Wish List, tied for 661st place.

HRC-12, Post-Cold War China Type 075 landing helicopter dock and
HSN-15, Post-Cold War Russia Gren (Project 11711)-class landing ship dock
These are two new ship types, so new that neither has any votes in the Consolidated Micronaut Wish List. GHQ has recently released several new amphibious types, a practice that I think is a good idea. Possible examples are USA Harpers Ferry (LSD 49)-class, France Mistral-class, Korea Dokdo-class, and UK Bay-class.

[ww2navyguy]

Excellent summary for the new list of Micronaut offerings for 2020-2021. I agree that Type 7U class destroyer is the best new offering. This will be a year I focus on buying older ship models that I still need, before I start purchasing a lot of "what if" ships that weren't built in WW2. But I do understand that there are many others out there that do like "what if" offerings, and that's fine by me. Who know, if I see some of the new "what if" models and they look good, I might buy some.

Thanks again Don for the summary of new naval ships for 2020-2021.