World War 2 at sea

The special maritime operation of the missile cruiser Moskva in the Black Sea with the aim of converting the ship into a stationary submarine went on schedule and strictly according to plan on 15 April. With this operation, the world was shown that the Russian Navy is in no way inferior to the Russian land forces in terms of competence.

Russia has achieved its goal: It successfully occupied another piece of Ukrainian seabed.

But enough jokes about the Moskva. They all go way below the waterline.

I’m currently focusing on painting minis for Star Wars Legion, but I’ve also started painting the first two italian ships – the heavy cruiser Pola and Zara. So here’s a little update of the painting process to keep my little naval WW2-project afloat:

The last ship for the time being planned for my U.S. Navy is an Escort Carrier. Since I’m still pondering which one and looking for a model, I’ve ordered the first two ships for the italians a friend of mine wants to play.

The first two italian ships are two of the Zara-class heavy cruisers: The Zara, first ship of the class, and the Pola, last ship of the class with a slightly different superstructure architecture.

The ships of the Regia Marina were pretty modern ships with good guns, good optical range finders and fast speed, and originally designed to defeat the ships of the french navy. Their range was limited, but since they were intented to only operate in the Mediterranean, this was no issue and part of their concept. I read that the shells for their main batteries had some issues in that they had a deviation of up to 1000 metres at longer ranges, but this could also be a result of their guns being very close together, so that the shockwaves of the shells fired influenced each other’s trajectory. The issue with the shells never got addressed, since the manufacturer of them was a buddy of Mussolini – just goes to showcase one of the many flaws inherent in autocracies and dictatorships.

The two Zaras are ordered and supposed to arrive early next week, so stay tuned.

Last week, the Baltimore-class heavy cruiser USS Baltimore joined my fleet, I just didn’t find the time to post her.

In the interwar-period, the 2nd London Naval Treaty prohibited the construction of heavy cruisers. When the treaty became obsolete with the outbreak of war in 1939, the U.S. Navy immediately initiated studies which culminated in the conception and building of the Baltimore-class heavy cruisers, the first of which was commissioned in 1943. They proved to be an effective design and stayed in service long after the end of World War 2.

I present the first ship in the class, the USS Baltimore – like all ships in my U.S. Navy as she appeared in 1945.

I’m still looking for a large gaming mat with a dark, oceanic water texture to my liking. Many are a bright blue and don’t much look like a deep ocean from above, but I’m confident I will find one.

This also got me thinking about some terrain. Good thing is: In the pacific theatre, many engagements took place in the vicinity (at least in nautical dimensions) of islands large and small, or were fought to gain or prohibit control and/or use of such locations.

The first island I plan to build will have an airfield with appropriate facilities, most likely used by the Japanese. So I’ve started scratch-building some detailed structures in 1/1800-scale – the first two being middle-sized hangars for housing and maintaining fighter planes and/or bombers. The one with the doors wide open is finished, the other one is a work in progress:

Here’s some visual reference for the Baltimore-class heavy cruiser I will paint next once the model is delivered to me:

Here’s how I store and transport my fleet of tiny ships – as I do all my miniatures: The bases – or here the underside of the ships’ hulls – are all magnetized. I just put them in these neat little biscuit tins, and that’s it – they stay where they are, no other material required to protect them.

I finished 4 Fletcher-class destroyers today. I marked each with a black or white stripe at the top of the mast so they are identifyable as individual ships with regards to book keeping during a game.