Small Victories at Sea

The Regio Marina

The Regio Marina got it's first outings yesterday against bloggers Tank and Pooch, sailing the Royal Navy and the US Navy respectively. Without going into a blow-by-blow, the two games were really interesting.

In both games, the Vittorio Veneto did a lot of heavy lifting, sinking the HMS Belfast and the HMS Warspite before being gunned down HMS Hood against Tank and destroying basically the entire US fleet, less the USS Sangamon and a crippled USS West Virginia solo before being sunk. The challenge for me was learning where to place my ships and how to get my most effective weapons to be most effective. I outranged both fleets with my battleships but spent too much time closing with them, which was probably not a great plan, instead of trying to keep them at arm's length. 

Some highlights:

In which the RM Vittorio Veneto lines up HMS Warspite and HMS Belfast

In which I miss the USS Northampton with MAS Boats

In which Dauntlesses finish off the Vittorio Veneto before she can sink the USS West Virginia

I learned what happens when a US Cruiser takes a full broadside from a modern battleship and we learned that we've been getting the Devastating rules wrong and they are in fact devastating. I also learned that MAS Boats are neat and overall that my fleet, with all it's frustrating as hell candy stripes, looks pretty cool on table.

In conclusion, the Conte di Cavour and the Vittorio Veneto are both fine ships and will serve me well and I suspect that the Luigi Cadorna is in the same class, although taking a dive bomber to the deck put paid to my finding out. A look through the list after the game also suggests that the Duca d'Aosta, which is on the release schedule, is a good looking ship on paper and in model form, so we'll be all in there.

I'm less convinced as to why I'm paying 60 points for the Etna, a vessel that for 10 points more could be replaced with two Navigatori-class destroyers who have fewer hull points but are a) destroyers, b) fast and c) have torpedoes.

I also feel like I validated my general feeling that I should field fighter escorts as most of my ships don't have enough AA or, in some cases, no DP guns.

Next Stage Catalina

So I've finished the assembly, bar the clear plastic parts, and have put on a base coat of Luftwaffe Grey, as it's the nicest blue-grey I have, to see where else I need to fill. I love using Vallejo plastic putty as a gap filler but it shrinks as it dries so some gaps need a couple of fills and I've found that painting them does tend to help find the things that need doing.

Wonky Catalina is wonky

 A close look will also tell you that the top wing is slightly off level and yet the top of the hull is snugly fit into the recess on the wing underside. I discovered this when I fitted the struts under the wings and had to clip maybe 0.5mm off the ends to make the struts fit. Honestly, that's kind of just how this kit has panned out. I had similar experiences with the AC-130 but this kit has vexed me somewhat more. 

So now there's some more filling to do, some new transfers to order and then I can do the paint and fit the clear windshields and the nose turret. I suspect she'll get done in a couple of weeks.

L'Art de la Guerre

Also known as the rebasening. I spent a chunk of the weekend tearing all my old Byzantines off their bases, finding all the missing spears (none, I think!) and getting the most complex basing effort done first. With that, I give you what Blogger Tank described as a clown car:

CLOWN CAR!

Byzantine Kataphraktoi! A trotting, stabbing, pew-pewing clown car, but a clown car nonetheless. Honestly, I had 8 models and Cataphracts should be 4 per base because reasons. So much knurdling and finangling now I have two bases that can go edge to edge in either direction. They cannot column, ever. I still need to get the razor saw out and take a bit of material off those bases overhanging the base but that's no drama.

Next Time

Some things from the queue. I haven't really felt that inclined to paint at the mo, so I've been working on other productive projects. Getting the next two of my DnD models done and maybe knocking the Necromunda gangers on the head will be a plan...

Starting the Catalina

Many moons ago, I started a 1:144 scale AC-130 Spooky as support for my Team Yankee Marines. I was stoked to discover in a local hobby store, a 1:144 PBY5 Catalina, just as I was working through clearing up my Pacific War Australians, an army that will rely on Air Support for serious AT now that the British 3" AA gun has been removed from Flames of War. So here we go: 

This is the hull after a solid six or seven hours work over the course of the week. It has NOT gone together as well as I'd have hoped. The hull parts themselves dry fitted together really nicely but once I tried to fit the cockpit, many swears were had. The tiny little windows don't fit all that well either. Well, one did. There's a strong possibility they'll get filled and overpainted as they just don't seem to be adding a lot to the styling of the kit - the big bubbles windows are the important bit.

I'm way happier with the wing assembly so far but I imagine sticking the struts in between the wing and the hull are going to make me super mad.

So overall she's been a tough run so far. I had a lot of trouble with the AC-130 kit as well due to some frustrating design choices in the kit and this kit is no different. While I found the nose wheel covers immensely frustrating on this kit, I think I'd have been even less happier had I tried to build the Catalina with it's landing gear down. Too many parts, all too fiddly. 

Limited Palette Painting Projects

When I painted Saskia Waldlaufer as my character in WFRP, I tried to do it with a very limited palette, just a dark red, orange and dark yellow. I've got a bunch of models from Reaper and others that will go around her for a Frostgrave crew (and for other RPGs) in which I am trying to do the same. 

On the right is my fighter-type, who's getting a palette only of blue and a barbarian, who I'm thinking will only be brown. The inside of the fur coat basically set me down that path. I'm also starting work on an obvious ranger-type in shades of autumn, so I'll use dark green, dark orange and a pale yellow but haven't got past the fleshtones on that one.

Next Time

I'm definitely taking the Regia Marina out for a run against Blogger Pooch's Yanks. Should be great for a laugh as I learn to use submarines. I'll also be looking to finish the Catalina build and do the paint while I wait for the transfers to arrive.

Lockdown Workbench #4-ish

So down here we're out of lockdown in Wellington (kia kaha Auckland!) so I did get out for a gaming day with some of the bloggers in which we tried out L'Art de la Guerre as a replacement Ancients game for Impetus.

 Victory at Sea

And it is done. The last of the planes and the battleships are complete. And I still hate the planes.

The Conte di Cavour, the smaller of my two battleships, is actually a really lovely model and I'm quite pleased with how it came out.

Secondly, a repainted Vittorio Veneto which has come up much better than it did the first time and I'm quite happy. Blogger Pooch has suggested we have a battleship-off at some point which I think is an excellent idea.

L'Art de la Guerre

I didn't actually play! Bloggers McBeth and I rulebooked for Bloggers Tank and Scotty who had both recently rebased their Impetus armies for ADLG having never played a game. Scotty used a pike-heavy Seleukid list and Tank his Western Early Imperial Romans. Eventual victory went to the Romans after they rolled the Seleukid left flank more quickly than the Seleukids (thanks to some appalling CP dice for Scotty) could clear out the Roman left.

This is the only photo I took which was us working through the wheeling rules after working out what happens when a unit makes a 90-degree turn straight into the side of an enemy. 

It took us most of the day as we had to look a lot of things up and learn as we were going along. I think we must have come up with every single thing that needed checking. We also discovered quite late in the piece that there are some implicit abilities for troops that aren't in the actual lists (Cataphracts have the Impact and Heavy Armour abilities by virtue of being Cataphracts) which means I suspect we may have made some other mistakes but for the most part, it was pretty successful. 

I enjoyed the look of the board and so won't have any qualms about tearing my Byzantines off their bases and putting them on new ones. The fact that, unlike Impetus, I think we'll struggle to go board-edge to board-edge also makes for a more tactical game when everyone is going to have flanks to protect.

I also learned that my preferred method of combat calculation (work out all the modifiers and then add them to the die roll) was much more complicated for everyone but me!!

Next Time

I've started on a couple of projects that have been hanging around, painting up a collection of DnD characters for a Frostgrave Warband with a deliberately limited palette on each model, and getting some Crusaders done for my Imperial Guard so it'll probably be Workbench #5 if I can't somehow wrangle a game of Victory at Sea this week...

Pooch's August update

And with that, August is gone too. For NZ, August finished up with a COVID lockdown, as the country experienced got it's first taste of the Delta variant.

It created much more work, but did mean that I did a bit more painting at home. A catch-22 to be sure... 

1. Finish a table of terrain

I ran out of the spray paints I used for my Frostgrave buildings, so I have a set downstairs fully built, waiting on lockdown level changes to allow me to pick up what I need.

In the interim, I painted TWO DUMPSTERS. I know, be excited.

2. Play a game a month

Managed this one early on in the month, playing yet another game of Victory at Sea. This time, the Royal Navy and US Navy joined together to fight against the Kriegsmarine. We sank a lot of cruisers, got suprised by U-Boats and unsuccessfully trying to sink the Bismark.

I was clearly too busy hunting the cruisers to take any photos!

3. Finish a 1,500 point 40k army

More progress here, first up a squad of six Retributors, equipped with Heavy Bolters.

The whole squad

The four Heavy Bolters

Sister Superior, Simaraculum Imperialis (Flag) and two Cherubs

A Dogmata and a Dialogus, because praying extra hard to Emperor gives the army extra boosts!

Dogmata (left) and Dialogus (right)

And last but not least, a tidy up and a rebase of a Callidus Assassin!

Just in case you want something really murdered

Well on track to achieve this goal, next up is more Sisters and a Rhino!

4. Finish armies that I have part started

A slightly different tack with this one, during lockdown I remembered that I had a few Titans left to build and paint. First up, a Warhound Titan bringing me up to a total of five, for a full Lupercal maniple!

Many logos showing devotion to Legio Astorum

Vulcan Mega-bolter and Inferno Gun

And on the base, some Blood Angels bikers tangle with some Plaugebearers

5. Buy, build and play a new game

I got a bit jealous of those other Regimenters having ships to paint during lockdown, so I picked up the USS Missouri

Mighty Mo!

But that didn't last that long- it really doesn't take long to paint these ships. Luckily for me, an order I had done a month or two ago arrived as well, containing more ships! 

USS Sangamon, USS West Virginia and USS St Louis

This set are 3d printed from Shapeways, and are absolutely stellar quality. I built bases from MDF with permafill waves, and I am astounded by the quality.

Guess that means I need to buy more of them?

Acceptable progress, keep going.....

Lockdown Workbench #3

 So. Two and a half weeks into this lockdown and it's looking promising that we might have knocked this delta outbreak on the head, which is good. Waiting patiently till tomorrow to find out if we're going to lower the alert levels further and maybe, just maybe, get back to some gaming soon.

I'm also completely out of black primer now, having used up the last of it on a couple of optimistic projects for this week coming up. I have done a bit of painting this week although not as much as I would have liked.  

 Warhammer 40K

Two single figures done this week. 

First, Janus Drake, the second to last Blackstone Fortress model I acquired. He'll be going into the mix as a Stargrave Rogue. The last one is Gotfred de Montbard - painting him will give me a unit of 4 Crusaders for my Imperial Guard. That's going to be funny.

Second, a Phobos Librarian. This guy is intended for (if we're lucky) for our stage 3 40K Slow Grow. It's a sweet model and I think the tiger stripes that I use on all my 40K camo have come out really well on the camo cloak. He'll be an interesting add to the Deathwatch forces I think.

 Victory at Sea

 

So the first finish this week was the RM Pola, the largest of my Cruisers in the Regia Marina fleet. It's a very nice model this one and I enjoyed painting it very much. I also didn't mind the candy stripes, even with the amount of swears that may have come out each time I got ratty about what had been a promisingly straight line. 

 

The second finished ship is the imaginary RM Aquila. Italy didn't expect it's navy to be operating too far from land so the RM Aquila was started, but never finished. I was planning on making a transfer for the back deck but I cannot, for love nor money, find the transfer paper I bought in the dim dark past so just resorted to masking tape and I'm not altogether unhappy. It's straight enough. 

Next Time

I'll have my Regia Marina battleships done. The base coats are already down and it's just the second washes, highlights and the candy striping to do. If we're still in lockdown, it'll be some random models from the random pile of things that are in the queue now....