foxbat's stuff. last update 08/02/2026 USS North Carolina

[redleg]

Beautiful ships Foxbat! Those are spectacular!

[pmskaar]

Excellent work on both of those French Heavy Cruisers, Foxbat! I also appreciate the ships histories as you have described and the reason you did not add the aircraft for one of them. I always love seeing your lovely ships here and on TMP as well.

[foxbat]

Thanks for the kind words, gentlemen.

Adding a new ship to the collection, the Italian heavy cruiser Bolzano. A veteran of many battles in the Med.

[redleg]

Beautiful ship, Foxbat!

I need some naval education though - is the red and white striping that I see on a lot of their ships for aerial recognition? Seems weird to have the colorful stripes on a ship with a camouflage paint job.

[Donald M Scheef]

Yes. Red and white stripes on the bow/deck of WWII Italian warships is for ariel recognition. Apparently, they thought that Italy would have air superiority in the Mediterranean.
Don S.

[pmskaar]

Great work on the Bolzano, Foxbat! I have a large number of GHQ WWII Italian ships myself but currently all of them are unpainted. I did paint the Pola and the Russian destroyer, Tashkent, for the GHQ catalog. The Tashkent was an Italian design.

Aerial Recognition Stripes. One story I heard is that early in the war, there was a friendly fire incident involving Italian aircraft mistakenly attacking their own ships. The "Barber Pole" marking were supposedly to prevent future incidents or so I have heard.

[Paul B]

Superb work!!! Well executed from the basing to the details as always.

[redleg]

Thanks for the info on the stripes, fellas! I was that guy wearing a full color American flag patch on my camouflage BDU uniform so I can't criticize the Italians! The stripes are beautifully executed, Foxbat!

[chrisswim]

Beautiful work Foxbat. including the setting Sun.

[foxbat]

Thanks gentlemen.
Actually, the recognition stripes were put in place after the battle of Punta Stilo in July 1940. The Italian Air Force had - ineffectively - bombed Regia Marina ships during the engagement, and the "barber stripes " were to prevent a repeat of the occurrence. Which still happened afterwards, the mistake being mostly due to the lack of cooperation between the Italian Air Force & Navy... Now, I won't complain, this is by no means a boring paint scheme to do.

[foxbat]

My latest ship, HMS Renown, in her 1941 paintscheme.













The last model to be completed. Thankfully, I got a refill (and, unbelievable, no customs fees this time! )

[redleg]

Beautiful work, Foxbat!

[pmskaar]

Excellent work on the Renown, Foxbat! One of these days I will have to get back to painting some ships again.

[chrisswim]

Foxbat, radioing Foxbat. Awesome, looks great!
Very nice work. Love your setting. Thank you for your posting.

[foxbat]

Thanks, gentlemen. I need to share something personal : last Tuesday was my last day at work. I have reached retirement time, and joined the phalanx of the grey-haired wargaming retirees. Celebrating here with a few pics, as it is due (there should also have been USS Ess-ex, but my matte sealant maliciously spoiled the paint job. No bother, acetone is there for that... )

So what is left, USS Princeton CVL 23. An interesting ship, which, before having the dubious honor of being the last USN fleet carrier to be sunk by enemy action at Leyte Gulf, took part in a lot of the engagements starting from late 43. IMO, the Independance class CVLs were quite a successful class, providing flight decks to 30 F6F Hellcats apiece, a major contyribution to the safety of the fast task forces air space.















Deck done with Flight Deck Decals. Ican't heap enough praise upon their products, IMO : a perfect solution for me, who can't paint these deck lines & numbers straight.