Page 4 of 88

Hurricon '06

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2006 1:41 am
by nuts4ships
Scott,

I do remember you and Tony from Historicon '06. I'm pleased you like the rules. You or Tony left a GW tape measure at the table, if you would like it back, send me your address. I used to do a lot of east coast cons, but recently I've relocted to Salt Lake City, so I'll be in the west from now on. We do have playtesters all over however, maybe some can get down there for Recon.

Italian Camo

Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2006 9:06 am
by regia-marina
I received the definitive Italian camo book today. La Mimetizzazione delle Navi Italiane 1940-1945 has it all! I hope this helps ww2navyguy.
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Posted: Sat Sep 30, 2006 2:25 am
by Mk 1
Regia:

Got to say that the Italian Navy knew more about making their warships stylish than just about anyone else.

Now, for those who are intersted in the other major Mediteranean naval power:

http://www.servicehistorique.sga.defens ... tebato.php
I think this marks new availability of this collection. French Ministry of Defense plans, illustrations, and photos for all French Navy ships launched from the mid-1800's to the mid-1900's.

Hope it helps you Francophilic floaters out there.

(Think the site is all in French... but drawing should be self-explanatory.)

Posted: Sat Sep 30, 2006 5:04 am
by regia-marina
I have to agree with you on the stylish part Mark. It is nice going into battle with a good looking fleet!
John

Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:16 pm
by av8rmongo
regia-marina,

Does the book say what the paint colors are for those patterns? I have a couple dozen Italian ships ready to paint.

Paul

Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 7:44 pm
by jb
Mk 1 wrote:...Got to say that the Italian Navy knew more about making their warships stylish than just about anyone else...
Aye,Mk1 those are some nice "lined" ships,also those late war Nippon Lt. cruisers were beautiful,I believe they were the oyoda(can't remember the spelling :oops:)

Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2006 8:46 pm
by Donald M. Scheef
Sorry, jb, but I can't agree with you on this. The Japanese certainly had some good-looking ships, but Oyodo was not one of them. The design has this horrible box of a (useless) hanger and no main armament on the after deck. This was a result of the original intent to use the ship as a base for high-speed reconnaissance seaplanes. When the aircraft design didn't work, the ship design became a white elephant.

Now, if they had placed a triple 6" turret aft with a normal-sized catapult and hanger amidships, it would have looked much better and would have been a more useful combat ship as well.

For good looks, I suggest that you look at the destroyers with their sleek enclosed 5" gun mounts or the Mogami class cruisers with their blended swept-back stacks.

Don Scheef

Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2006 4:58 am
by cbovill
Having been deeply impressed with the quality of work on this site, I have decided to revamp my ship painting process. I have never baked MicroArmour or MicroNauts in an oven before, but I understand it is supposed to make the paint job stick to the model very well. Have any of you done this with Micronauts before? and if so, at what temp do you cook them and for how long? I am very concerned about melting down my ships just as they are nearing completion - they are simply too expensive in money and my creative effort to risk losing.

Thanks,
Chris

Agano not Oyoda

Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2006 6:05 am
by jb
Donald M. Scheef wrote:Sorry, jb, but I can't agree with you on this. The Japanese certainly had some good-looking ships, but Oyodo was not one of them...
Don Scheef
...sorry Don :oops: ,its been awhile since I've even looked at my ships. The class that I really loved just because of it's lines and looks are the Agano class. Of course the oyoda was an improved Agano class,so I still don't think you would agree with me :P

Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2006 12:20 pm
by Donald M. Scheef
On Agano I can agree that it was good looking. Compared to Oyodo, the open platform looks better than the boxy hanger and there is a main gun mount aft. On the other hand, I think that it, like Oyodo, was an inefficient use of materials and effort. Adding a second aft turret or going to three triple turrets would have greatly improved its fighting power (although requiring some increase in size and displacement).

Don Scheef[/img]

Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2006 12:24 pm
by Donald M. Scheef
With respect to baking figures to fix the paint, I have done this successfully with Micro-Armor. So long as you follow the instructions and limit the temperature of the oven it produces a more adhesive paint bond without damage to the model.

Don Scheef

Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2006 4:31 pm
by Tony Aguilar
8)

Regia-Marina thank you very much for a taste of that book. About how much did it cost including shipping to the States?

Posted: Sun Oct 08, 2006 5:03 am
by cbovill
Here's some pictures of the latest batch of ships I've completed. There are many things with this group that I did differently, and many of them I will have to either drastically improve or never do again. For one thing I wanted to start painting camo schemes on my ships, and since Tirpitz, Adm Scheer and Adm Hipper were in this group, I decided to paint them up for the raid on convoy PQ-17. The camo scheme for Tirpitz in particular is very intricate - especially in this scale but the result came out great, so I am glad I now have the confidence and skill to do more camo patterns. Also, the masts I built onto these ships are the most intricate yet and are beautiful and very realistic. I also tried aerial recognition symbols on the ships and these turned out okay, more practice here will improve that.

What did not come out well was the weathering. I tried using a black wash on these ships and when I got to the part where you try to take the black wash off so that it gathers in the crevices, it started to damage the paint job. I also primed these ships - first time and last time. The primer was a high quality Tamiya fine gray primer, but it made the paint job on top look bad. Considering that each ship will get more than one coat of paint during the building process, I am eliminating priming as undesirable and unnecessary. I had also toyed with the idea of baking the paint on but feedback from another posting swayed me away from trying that with these expensive ships.

The one that came out the best was Tirpitz, she is wearing paint scheme H (July 1942):

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Port side view - this scheme more than doubled the counstruction time involved with painting this ship, but I think it was worth it.

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Starboard side view. Note how different this scheme is for each side of the ship.

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Overhead view.

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Port side view of Admiral Scheer (modified Graf Spee kit).

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Starboard side view of Admiral Scheer.

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Overhead view of Admiral Scheer.

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Port side view of Admiral Hipper. I tried weathering her and it started to damage her paint job so I had to stop.

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Starboard side view of Admiral Hipper with a piece of styrofoam that I didn't see while taking the picture.

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Overhead view of Admiral Hipper. Note the difference from the weathering - I don't like it, its too severe.

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Port side view of Graf Zeppelin - her flight deck took me ages to paint and then it got ruined during the weathering process - I was just a little upset!

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Starboard side view of Graf Zeppelin.

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A possible carrier battle group formed around Graf Zeppelin.

So I've got some lessons learned and a whole lot of practicing to do to get some of this stuff right for the next time.

Chris

Posted: Sun Oct 08, 2006 8:39 am
by regia-marina
Chris-
You did a great job on your ships! They are beautiful.

Posted: Sun Oct 08, 2006 8:42 am
by regia-marina
Hi Tony, the book was a bit on the expensive side but worth it if your into the Regia Marina. It cost $100 with shipping. But it has every known camo scheme for every Italian ship.