A week ago Pierre the Shy pointed me at a message from another user on another forum

QuoteI got an order from Navwar the other day. The accompanying flyer mentioned that GQ1, which Tony very helpfully reprinted a few years ago, was now out of print, with no plans for a reprint. But what was a bit more alarming was that there was a list of 4 models from the 1/3000 range which were said to be "out of stock/out of production and can no longer be supplied". No idea whether this is a one-off or whether it's a sign that the moulds are too old to use or what, but it certainly made me think I should try to fill any gaps in my collection before too long.

Of course, I keep discovering gaps I didn't know I had ...

This prompted a discussion about gaps and me realising that Pierre the Shy did not have a lot of ships for the Russo-Japanese Naval War 1904-05

Navwar do a BATTLE OF TSUSHIMA - 1905 pack for £55.00 

Contains all warships present at the battle:
RUSSIA: 8 Battleships, 3 Coast defence Ships, 9 Cruisers and 9 Destroyers
JAPAN: 4 Battleships, 8 Armoured Cruisers, 21 Cruisers, 21 Destroyers and 31 Torpedo Boats..

30 Destroyers 31 Torpedo Boats

That's a lot of minor ships, even for me    WWII Japanese 57 WWII Allies 82     

General Quarters II includes optional Fleet Action rules so a single destroyer or torpedo boat can represent a Division of 4

But that pack doesn't include any of the early war Russian ships and not all the Japanese ships

So I've spent some 'spare' time over the last week researching the ships of the Russo-Japanese Naval War 1904-05

I was very lucky to come across a link to a Russian website that includes the orders of battle for both fleets at the start of the war. Obviously, they were in Russian and used the Cyrillic alphabet. Translation tools helped and having the Cyrillic names for the Russian ships removed a lot of challenges with varying transliterations

I now have a pretty good handle on both orders of battle and have added the Japanese ships that were completed during the war and the 2^nd & 3^rd Russian Pacific Squadrons.

I now have a tentative Navwar order:

RUSSIA: 16 Battleships, 3 Coast defense ships, 22 Cruisers, 12 Destroyers and 6 Torpedo Boats
JAPAN: 7 Battleships, 8 Armoured Cruisers, 22 Cruisers, 14 Destroyers and 18 Torpedo Boats

£89.85   

QuoteNavwar do a BATTLE OF TSUSHIMA - 1905 pack for £55.00 

Dammit! That's not the kind of thing I need to hear!
I'm trying desperately to put 1904 to one side and concentrate on the Ottoman Napoleonics (and the WSS and the ECW/W3K.)

I watched the Drachinifel 2nd Pacific Squadron videos again, and am on the verge of falling.

QuoteContains all warships present at the battle:
RUSSIA: 8 Battleships, 3 Coast defence Ships, 9 Cruisers and 9 Destroyers
JAPAN: 4 Battleships, 8 Armoured Cruisers, 21 Cruisers, 21 Destroyers and 31 Torpedo Boats..

No Kamchatka? OK. I'm safe.

Quote30 Destroyers 31 Torpedo Boats

That's a lot of minor ships, even for me   WWII Japanese 57 WWII Allies 82     

That is a lot of minor ships.    My 1940 British Med fleet has 18 destroyers; 32 ships in total, and that seems a lot on the table.


Just to check though, there's no Kamchatka?

N7709 KAMCHATKA – ARMED REPAIR SHIP 1 1903 £1.35 

I didn't count it above but my tentative order includes one

(Well, I am.  )

Well our order to Navwar will be doomed if I can't find a fax app that gives a few free sendings, only need send one....for now!

Mind you I have yet to figure out exactly what I want in the way of more ships....weither I need them is another question though  



 

Quote from: paulr on 25 June 2023, 05:58:36 AMA week ago ......

If it's not too late there is the 1:6000 option with Hallmark ships from Magister Militum.  That's what I did when I got the early 20th Century naval bug.  I thought I'd do Tsu Shima and ended up with the entire Japanese and Russian fleets for the Russo-Japanese war, and somehow The Grand Fleet and High Seas Fleet for Jutland too, plus books of course.  I'm in remission at the moment.

QuoteIf it's not too late there is the 1:6000 option with Hallmark ships from Magister Militum.  That's what I did when I got the early 20th Century naval bug.  I thought I'd do Tsu Shima and ended up with the entire Japanese and Russian fleets for the Russo-Japanese war, and somehow The Grand Fleet and High Seas Fleet for Jutland too, plus books of course.  I'm in remission at the moment.

Jutland?  Do tell!  Website AAR?

We're pretty heavily committed to 1:3,000 with ships for:

• Eastern Med, Adriatic & Black Sea 1910s
• World War I
• World War II

I'm not sure how much detail you can get on a 1:6,000 scale 54m long torpedo boat

Quote from: hammurabi70 on 26 June 2023, 06:37:53 PMJutland?  Do tell!  Website AAR?

Not sure what AAR stand for, I'm guessing it isn't Air to Air Refuelling   This is Magister Militums website https://www.magistermilitum.com/  Search under 1:6000 or Hallmark, the manufacturer

Quote from: paulr on 26 June 2023, 07:10:15 PMI'm not sure how much detail you can get on a 1:6,000 scale 54m long torpedo boat

Not very much though the capital ships have a surprising amount of detail and are instantly recognisable.

Started off with a few 1/4800 Leister micro models in the 1970's...buy a few British postal orders (only allowed one per week) and air mail off the order to the UK... some weeks or more later a small cardboard box would arrive with the ships inside.

Now you can fax orders to navwar and pay by credit card... luxury!!😄

We use 1/3000th as big enough to get plenty of details but much cheaper than 1/2400 stuff. We have literally hundreds of navwar models between us already so just stick with that scale 👍

Quote from: pierre the shy on 27 June 2023, 03:51:27 AMWe use 1/3000th as big enough to get plenty of details but much cheaper than 1/2400 stuff. We have literally hundreds of navwar models between us already so just stick with that scale 👍

My first foray into naval was with GHQ WW1 1:2400.  Stunning little models but, as you suggest, expensive.  I also soon realised that I'd need a table the size of a small country, so for 20th Century I went for 1:6000 Hallmark but it's too late for you to downsize I'd say  

Quote from: John Cook on 27 June 2023, 01:17:37 AMNot very much though the capital ships have a surprising amount of detail and are instantly recognisable.

I can't recognise the 1/3000 scale ones without a name label!

QuoteNot sure what AAR stand for, I'm guessing it isn't Air to Air Refuelling   This is Magister Militums website https://www.magistermilitum.com/  Search under 1:6000 or Hallmark, the manufacturer

After Action Report

QuoteI can't recognise the 1/3000 scale ones without a name label!

I'm not a big fan of labels on ships, after hearing of a game in which one battleship took a pot-shot at a distant destroyer and caused a hit. Chap asked his opponent to roll the saving throw, opponent said "maybe you should do it, it's your ship!".

Friendly fire in action.

Wouldn't happen with name labels & national flags.

Quote from: Raider4 on 27 June 2023, 07:04:09 PMWouldn't happen with name labels & national flags.

You clearly haven't played with the groups I have!

Last BKC game my opponent placed an artillery template so as to catch three of my PzIVs, rolled the dice and failed to do much damage. As he reached to remove the template I pointed out he hadn't rolled for the last remaining target. The die rolls blew his FAO to fragments. Would have been less amusing if it weren't for the fact we were playing on my green mat and his Russians are all on snow bases and in snow cammo.

We normally label bases with ship name, national flag, and General Quarters rules armour type and defence factor. Helps as not everyone in our gaming group has been studying ship recognition books for the past few decades   

At 1904-5 ranges with battle ensigns flying its pretty hard not to see who is on whose side, so in daylight we don't normally come across "blue on blue" situations, though after night falls things can potentially become very sticky using the optional night fighting rules we use for GQ 1&2, especially if you're not expecting ships to appear in a particular sector.

Yes John, we're pretty committed to 1/3000 with limited table sizes and existing fleets that we have. 1/6000 sounds like a very good idea if you want to do larger type fleet actions like Jutland.