I've been looking at Navwar's 1/3000 Pre-Dreadnought range for some time now, for a fantasy project as much as anything else. I finally bought them very recently, and may I say Holy Cow in regards to Navwar's service. I posted them an order form and a cheque on the Monday (second class!) and received my packet Thursday morning. It wasn't just Pre-Dreads, I've picked up some Roundway 15mm Jacobites & British for playing Sharp Practice too.
Anyway, it was Phil Barker's Damn Battleships Again that got me interested in the Pre-Dreadnought period, since my group is familiar with the DBx mechanics and it will be easy to stat up fantasy fleets. I was going to split Navwar's starter pack between real and imagi- nations, but I got carried away with my British. Bear in mind that this is only about two thirds of the £10 starter pack - Navwar really is amazing value for money. So without further ado, the beginnings of my Royal Navy. Three battleships, five cruisers and three pairs of torpedo destroyers. Click on the photos for larger versions.
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| Cruisers top, destroyers to the right, battleships at the bottom. |
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| Cruisers top, destroyers to the right, battleships at the bottom. |
Painting Guide: The bases were done by crumpling tissue paper from a flower shop and gluing it to plasticard. Once the ship was stuck on, the whole thing was undercoated with grey car spray.
Ships: GW Charadon Granite hulls, GW Kommando Khaki decks, Vallejo Off White armour/guns and GW Dark Flesh lifeboats.
Sea: GW Regal Blue with a drybrush of GW Shadow Grey, which was also the colour of the trim. This was followed up by a clear coat of Pledge.
The ships look awfully nice in person, but I haven't quite found a way to show that with my funny little camera yet.
As soon as I find another suitably large sea surface (I foolishly made my bed with the usual sheet), an AAR will go up - British vs French. I recall something of a crisis during the reign of Edward VII when a failed assassin in Paris was found to have used a bomb of Birmingham manufacture...
They look very nice, I am using the WTJ ships, which I like better than the Navwar as sculpts, but I have to agree, the Navwar are great value for money, the DBSA rules are free, (and give a good game..) the low cost wargame...
ReplyDeleteThe aesthetically pleasing low cost wargame is my holy grail - I may be doing some posts on the cheeky cheats I use to keep my costs down soon.
ReplyDeleteI had a look at the WTJ ships, and I think I will keep them for my pet ships, like the Napoleonic-era Indefatigable. The L.C.W. won't allow them otherwise!
Nice to see crumpled paper bases; I've used that technique for a while now (although not on my ships yet, for some reason). A light drybrush with a paler blue, then a touch of white makes for a nice finish.
ReplyDeleteWhat else do you use it for? I really like the sea effect, but I couldn't think of any other uses for it off the top of my head (I bought FAR too much of it).
ReplyDeleteI've used it for water on HOTT elements, and one ship I painted for my parents for display purposes.
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