Micronaut Only Thread

[Donald M. Scheef]

Mikee, here is a list of other possible WWII aircraft carriers for GHQ to produce: I have included a few that didn’t actually survive to the start of the war, some that were designed during the war but not completed until later, and some “what-ifâ€￾ designs that were never completed.
• France aircraft carrier Joffre design
• Germany light aircraft carrier I (converted liner Europa) design
• Germany light aircraft carrier II (converted French cruiser De Grasse) design
• Germany light aircraft carrier Elbe (converted liner Potsdam) design
• Germany light aircraft carrier Jade (converted liner Gneiseneau) design
• Germany light aircraft carrier Max Immelmann design
• Germany light aircraft carrier Weser (converted cruiser Seydlitz) design
• Italy light aircraft carrier Sparviero (converted liner Augustus) design
• Japan aircraft carrier Akagi, as in 1932
• Japan escort aircraft carrier Shinyo
• Japan escort aircraft carrier Kaiyo
• Japan light aircraft carrier Ibuki design
• Japan aircraft carrier Ikoma design
• Japan escort aircraft carrier Kamakura Maru
• Japan escort aircraft carrier Shimane Maru
• Japan escort aircraft carrier Yamashiro Maru type
• UK escort aircraft carrier Activity
• UK escort aircraft carrier Ameer-class
• UK escort aircraft carrier Archer
• UK escort aircraft carrier Attacker-class
• UK escort aircraft carrier Audacity
• UK escort aircraft carrier Avenger-class
• UK escort aircraft carrier Campania
• UK light aircraft carrier Centaur-class
• UK aircraft carrier Colossus-class
• UK aircraft carrier Eagle design
• UK merchant aircraft carrier Empire MAC-class
• UK aircraft carrier Furious, 1925 refit
• UK aircraft carrier Implacable-class
• UK aircraft carrier Indomitable
• UK light aircraft carrier Majestic-class
• UK aircraft carrier Malta design
• UK escort aircraft carrier Pretoria Castle
• UK merchant aircraft carrier Rapana-class
• UK aircraft carrier (repair) Unicorn
• UK escort aircraft carrier Vindex-class
• USA escort aircraft carrier Charger (CVE 30)
• USA escort aircraft carrier Commencement Bay (CVE 105)-class
• USA aircraft carrier Langley (CV 1), with complete flight deck
• USA aircraft carrier Lexington (CV 2), as at Coral Sea
• USA escort aircraft carrier Long Island (CVE 1)
• USA light aircraft carrier Saipan (CVL 48)-class
• USA aircraft carrier Saratoga (CV 3), 1942

Don S.

[Mikee]

Donald,

I see you did find one or two carriers that I hadn't thought of. I do have a few of them from Shapeways, and will get Sparverio from Sh.. when (or if) I make another order. For the American CVLs, I've had the ones from CinC for years.

Question: Earlier in the year or two, you mentioned that you were going to modify two of the Active model bows to make Blanche & Blonde. I want to modify one for my Jutland collection, but have no drawings or photos to show me what her bow looks like. I do have a book; "The Fighting Ship of the Royal Navy (E.H.H. Archibald), which has side view drawings of R.N. ships. Can 7ou point me to another CL class that had bows similar to Blanche & Blonde?

Another kit-bashing job I'm planning to do (if my health ever gets better) is to convert a GHQ 4-funnel German CL to a similar-looking 3-funnel one that GHQ doesn't make. First I need to get the energy to order a couple of "4-funnel" superstructure pieces from GHQ. (1 for mistakes & one for addl. spare parts; I always mess up at least one modification attempt.)

[Donald M. Scheef]

Blonde and Blanche have about the same bow as Boadicea-class cruisers. The difference between these and Active at the bow is relatively simple: On the two earlier classes, the bow was slanted back. Active had a "plow" [sorry, I forgot this was a British ship; "plough"] or "clipper" bow where the weather deck extended over the waterline. Active was slightly longer . All I intend to do is file down the bow of Active to make it slant back.

Don S.

[Mikee]

Thanks, Donald. There's a good drawing of Boudica in my "Fighting Ships . .." book, & I have a Shapeways Boudica model. Should be able to make a decent Blanch with those to guide me.

[regia-marina]

I'm getting ready for some action in the Med. I'm using the British "H" class DD for my representation of the Premuda (formerly the Yugoslav Dubrovnik). It's pretty close. Now we just need to get GHQ to make the Sebenico class destroyers. There isn't a close enough model to represent them.

[regia-marina]

FR 21 is ready for action with the Regia Marina!

[Donald M. Scheef]

My guesses for 2019-2020 Micronaut releases

GHQ has released the last of the 2018-2019 Micronauts and within the next month they will announce their new releases for the coming year. I would like to post my predictions/guesses for next year’s Micronaut releases. A suggestion from Mikee started this several years ago and it seemed to provoke some good discussions. We are interested in any support or contradictory opinions. Those of you interested in Microarmor, ACW or Napoleonic figures, etc.; start your own thread.

For those of you following the Consolidated Micronaut Wish List, predictions/guesses for next year’s releases do not count as votes in the Wish list.

For some time now, GHQ has consistently released twelve Micronauts per year. Since they resumed production of modern warships, there has been a pattern of four ships from the WWI era, four from WWII, and four modern (late Cold War or post-Cold War) ships (although in the 2016-2017 series there were five WWII and only three WWI). I predict that they will continue with twelve releases this year with four each WWI, WWII, and four post-Cold War.

WWI era releases: GHQ has already provided a fairly good collection of German and British ships of this era (although there are still a pre-Dreadnaught battleship, the Renown-class battlecruisers, several cruisers, and plenty of destroyers yet to be produced). For other countries for which GHQ has produced WWI ships (Austria-Hungary, France, Italy, Russia, and the USA) there are still some good choices.

All of the ‘modern’ (by Great War standards) battleships, cruisers and destroyers of the Austro-Hungarian navy have been produced. The armored cruiser Sankt Georg and the never-built ersatz Monarch, are possibilities. There are a number of pre-Dreadnought French ships that would make reasonable choices, including Charlemagne-class battleships and Edgar Quinet-class armored cruisers. Italian ships of this era include the battleship Dante Alighieri, armored cruiser San Georgio-class, large destroyer Aquila-class, and destroyer Indomito-class. Among Russian ships, the Svetlana-class light cruisers and Kerch-class destroyers are desirable. For the USA, New Mexico (BB 40)-class battleships and Caldwell (DD 69)-class destroyers would extend the available line.

This may be the year GHQ introduces Japan into the Great War series. Although they did not participate in extensive combat during the war, their ships were interesting and there were possibilities among hypothetical battles. I can’t think of any other nations that would be significant to WWI.

My predictions for Great War releases are:
- UK battlecruiser Renown-class
- France pre-Dreadnought battleship Charlemagne-class (three in the class, all at the Dardanelles). The armored cruiser Edgar Quinet-class is my backup choice.
- Italy battleship Dante Alighieri (only a single ship but with unique appearance)
- Italy destroyer Indomito-class.

For my four selections in the era of WWII, I’m going to divide them according to type of ship rather than by country.

Recently GHQ seems to have been producing at least one aircraft carrier each year. Although I am more interested in surface warfare, I predict that there will be another aircraft carrier in this year’s offerings. My prediction is USS Lexington (CV-2) as she appeared at Coral Sea (most notably; four twin 8-inch guns replaced by seven quadruple 1.1-inch anti-aircraft guns. As a backup, I think the UK Vindex-class escort carriers might appear – it’s been a while since a new model of a WWII British carrier has appeared.

I also think there will be a battleship from WWII produced in the next year. I’m going to guess that it will be a Japanese Haruna. Both early-war and late-war versions are needed, but I’m not going to specify which in my prediction

GHQ should produce a WWII era cruiser in the coming year. My first choice is the New Orleans class, third group: USS Quincy, CA 39 and USS Vincennes, CA 44. My second choice in this area are the Dido class cousins Scylla and Charybdis.

For my fourth choice in the WWII era, I am having trouble deciding between a destroyer type, an amphibious type, a merchant/auxiliary type, or a pack of aircraft. Last year, I predicted UK V & W-class long-range escort conversion and missed. This year I’m going to stick with that choice.

Without going through a lot of details, my predictions for modern Micronauts are:
- China corvette Type 056 (Jiangdao-class)
- US amphibious transport America (LHA-6)-class
- UK aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth (R08)
- Russia frigate Admiral Gorshkov (Project 22350)-class

As a backup, I suggest that GHQ might start a line of modern NATO ships with the Horizon (Forbin/Andrea Doria) class frigates and FREMM (Aquitaine/Bergamini) class frigates.

Don S.

[CG2]

I do enjoy this annual exercise to embarass myself in public by completely failing to guess any right! Here goes :

WW1 - I predict only 3 WW1 selections this year :

- Renown Class Battlecruiser
- German Submarine Pack
- British Erebus class Monitor

WW2 - I predict 5 WW2 selections :

- British KGV Class Late War without aircraft facilities
- British T Class Submarine
- Japanese Seaplane Carrier Nisshin
- German Aircraft Pack #2 - Me109s, Ju88s, He-111s, He-115s, Do-18s
- Donald's US CA suggestion makes sense to me as the 5th one

Modern - I predict 4 modern selections :

- Russian Buyan Class Corvette
- British Queen Elizabeth Carrier
- Chinese Type 055 Destroyer
- US Seawolf Class Submarine

[MechCommander]

My predictions for this years micronauts is

WW1
Diadem-class protected cruiser
Apollo-class protected cruiser
HMCS Acadia research ship

WW2
Minotaur class light cruiser
U-V class destroyers
River class Frigate
Loch class Frigate

Modern
Halifax Class Frigate
St Laurent Class DDH
Restigouche class Destroyer
Iroquois class DDG
HMCS Bonaventure (Modified Majestic class)

[regia-marina]

I'm going to predict that we finally get a German E boat or an Italian MAS. Perhaps it's wishful thinking but they have been a long time on the Consolidated Micronaut Wish List. Both are big holes in the German and Italian lines and if I am not mistaken it has been many years since a similar model has been released.

[ACWBill]

Denmark Straights minis all done using GHQ Models.

[regia-marina]

ACWBill, your ships look great! Very nicely done. I like the fog effect. I can almost feel the cold. What are you using for the water? Is it a mat? When your Royal Navy finishes with the Germans sail south to the sunny Med. for action against the Regia Marina.

[ACWBill]

Mine is made with white foam boards, painted and then coated with water gel.

[BurtWolf]

They look spectacular. I’ve never painted micronauts, looks very challenging. How did you get “Hoodâ€￾ on there - decal?? The photos are just great too!!

[ACWBill]

With a black .005 Felt Pen.