royal navy

• This is what you get when you open your blister. Since Ark Royal has a closed bow, hull and flight deck are a single part. The island comes in two parts, and you also have two cranes to place on both sides of the hull. And a great total of 14 Swordfishes, if you fancy going after the Bismarck !

• The hull is fairly clean, you will need to do but minimal filing in order to remove small mold-lines. Now, here it is with both cranes glued on. The hardest part of the assembly, they are fiddle at that scale.

• Time to glue on the island. Notice, this comes after the cranes, Unlike with bigger scales, 1/2400 models are easier to assemble if you deal with the smaller parts first most of the times. There are indeed exceptions, but common sense is your friend.

• Assembly was not that hard... time to paint your model. First, in order to handle it easily, I glue it on a good support (in this case, the stopper of a barbecue lighter bottle readily available in my neck of the woods). I primed the ship grey – a good option for warships – but I primed the planes white, in the - perhaps vain- hope of getting better details,

• Paint the flight deck ! I used dark grey. I know, it will be hidden under the decal, but that helps when painting the remainder of the ship.

• The hull and island have been painted a light grey. This is a straightforward job, but the part you need to devote most attention to at this stage : it is important, in my opinion, to avoid trespassing as much as possible.

• Add details : I paint the lifeboats a creamy white, and the funnel exhaust and anchors black.

• The model is ready to be applied a black wash. Citadel Nurn Oil may well have a silly name, but it does the job perfectly. When the wash is dry, it is time to do some dry-brushing with your light grey to enhance details.

• Paint the planes grey, then wash them in black. Paint the camouflage (in 1/2400 scale, well, it means adding 2 stripes on the upper wing, and a stripe on the fuselage. It is important, too, not to forget to paint (black, dark grey, green, dark blue etc... depending on the model and its livery) the nose of the model once it comes off the sprue.

I use the excellent products from Flight Deck Decals

• Before applying decals, there is a very important step : spray a gloss seal on your model, This will provide a smooth surface on the flight deck to apply your decal. Let it dry for 24 hours.

• It's time now to cut your decal out of the sheet : this is how it looks before the operation, A good exacto knife with a sharp blade is mandatory, otherwise, you may damage the decal when cutting it out,

• Next step, before applying it to the model, test fit the decal. You may have some minor corrections to do...

• Dip the decal in lukewarm water, apply it, and let it dry for a few minutes

• Then use a setting solution, this will improve the final result.

All that's left to do is to spray matte seal on your model, and base it - or not - in your usual fashion.

I could at last try the Netherlands East Indies 1942 scenario I had written for the HALSEY campaign rules of Sam Mustafa’s NIMITZ set. I controlled the ABDA, and my old partner in games Patrick was commanding the IJN.

There was however a misunderstanding as he’d used the older version of the campaign to plan his deployment, but we had an enjoyable game nonetheless. He should have started all his forces between D1 & D3 on the 1st day’s 1st phase, but his main force made an appearance but on day 2 in C6. You will find a copy of my campaign here :

The Fall of Java 1942

And before people ask, yes, there is a discrepancy between the published map and the playing board. On the board, you can go from A6 to B5 as the peninsula doesn’t reach up to the square’s border. This is after all still a work in progress, and furthermore, mere handwork.

So, with this in mind, this the way forces were deployed. The IJN force in D3 is mostly a diversionary force, meant to be a sacrifice in order to allow the passage of the main body. It consisted of 4 transports (the campaign has a small land combat module, so these soldiers carried have an important role) with 6 destroyers. On the ABDA side, there are but few options, in fact, no good option, the least bad one being to have as big a force as possible to engage IJN formations, which is why I gathered 4 light cruisers (including the Boise) and 9 destroyers, using the last remaining 6 destroyers to create 2 diversions beyond the 2 decoy counters I was allowed.

With all ready, we started the game. You can see on the following map the moves of the 1st day. Given the presence of transports, the IJN moved only in the night phase, while I sent forces from Tilatjap in 2 directions.

The IJN failed a first detection roll, and I sent my B17 on a raid to Bandjermasin, losing one, but destroying 2 Lily bombers on the tarmac. A revenge raid by the Bettys on Tilatjap failed to do damage, but the remaining Lily bombers from Bandjermasin took out both Bleinheims at Surabaya, halving my bomber force. The Blenheims from Tilatjap then sank the 1st IJN transport of the game.

Day 2 was the day the naval decison was made. Things started extremely well for the ABDA, which managed to catch the detected IJN diversionnary force in square C4. This was a true massacre, as the Allies destroyed te remaining 3 transports as well as 3 destroyers for no loss. IJN Kates however crippled Boise in 2 successive attacks, and the cruiser had to drop out of the Task Force.

The night phase saw the big battle take place, as the transports had anchored and were still with their escorts, giving the ABDA a great advantage. This is why, despite te unbalance of forces, I decided to attack. I still had 3 light cruisers (De Ruyter, Java & Marblehead) & 9 destroyers  in my formation) and I could hope to deal a lot of damage to the IJN force (8 transports escorted by Nashi, Haguro, Myoko, Sendaï, Jintsu, Nagara, Aganon & Yubari with 14 ! destroyers, as the other force escorts had joined). I won initiative & decided to play 2^nd, for the sake of the positional advantage.

The battle itself was something most inelegant, actually more a brawl than and organized fight. When the IJN heavy cruisers advanced, I could position 4 destroyers to try to torpedo them. But I paid a heavy price in the gunnery phase, as the IJN rolled so well, both for hitting and damaging, that 8 of my destroyers were crippled. In return, I sank a single IJN DD. In the torpedo phase, I rolled for a single destroyer, and missed. The second turn saw the slaughter of the cripples, while the 3 light cruisers escaped the battlefield.

All hope was not lost though, as I had mauled the landing force previously. With but 5 days to go, and an equal number of counters, I could still hope to hold Java. In fact, I was still confident enough to allow a single counter to evacuate in order to get VPs… But the dice gods had decidedly turned against me. Submarine attacks on the IJN heavies resulted in the loss of 6 ! submarines for the ABDA (special rules in my campaign to allow for this), and the land battle went swimmingly for Japan. In the end, Java fell by the end of day 7, after an astounding number of excellent dice rolls for the IJN. Meanwhile, the Japanese Air Force found the 3 retreating cruisers and sank the poor USS Marblehead (De Ruyter & Java escaped).

In total, the IJN scored a great 106 VPs (with 30 due to the excellent ASW performance) vs 39 for the ABDA. The butcher bill was somewhat more balanced though, with 15 ABDA infantry counters, 9 destroyers, a light cruiser sunk, a light cruiser crippled (the Boise escaped after all !) against 6 IJN destroyers sunk and 11 infantry counters destroyed. I also lost all my planes (4 Blenheim, 6 P40, 3 Buffalos & 3 B 17) but killed 4 Lilies, 2 Bettys and 2 Vals, 2 Kates and 1 Zero.

In the end, a result close to what happened then and a very enjoyable game. I’m doing some adjustments to the victory conditions, in favor of the  ABDA, and am looking foreward for playing the IJN next time.

The refight of our previous game, somewhere North of Java, some time at the end of winter in 1942. Here are the opposing sides, 2 fairly evenly matched forces. In the previous game, the Long Lances had availed the IJN of a crushing victory, sending both  Houston to the bottom, alongside with a Clemson class DD 1 box from sinking. Would it happen again ?

Starting positions were according to NIMITZ rules, and both fleets were facing each other, still out of range. 10 ships a fleet make the 1’x1’ starting square of each fleet severely crowded, making each player forced to adopt a multicolumn placement…

This left little room for niceties, as both sides understood it would be like a bar room brawl, not unlike 1st Guadalcanal. IJN won advantage on the 1st 2 turns. 1st turn saw te fleets get closer, and things started in earnest no later than turn 2. 

The gunnery phase was quite bad for the ABDA : a single Japanese DD was hit (though the crit destroyed a torpedo mount), but De Ruyter, Exeter & Van Galen were hit, Van Galen ending crippled. Then it was a festival of Long Lances. Both Myoko & Haguro, both Jintsu and Sendaï, as well as a destroyers Siratsuyu and Samidare let loose with all they had at Houston.

Surprisingly, not a single hit was achieved, taking a lot of the fangs out of the IJN’s maws.

Turn 3 saw the ABDA win the advantage roll for the 1st time, and they would do so till the end of the game. While Myoko put an end to the sufferings of Van Galen in the secondary battery phase, the main battery phase saw  2 interesting duels take place.

The 1st one pitted  Encounter and Piet Hein vs Harusame & Murasame, seeing Murasame destroyed by a torpedo and Piet Hein severely damaged, Harusame & Encounter taking moderate damage. Light cruisers of both sides, each side supported by DDs, engaged on a duel at point blank range. This saw the end of De Ruyter in the gunnery phase, but a torpedo from a Clemson  class sent Jintsu to the bottom (Renzo Tanaka will have to find a new flagship !). Haguro and Houston traded desultory long range fire, with a plunging shell from Houston scoring a solid hit on Haguro however (destroying 4 structure boxes).

Turn 4 saw Sendaï & Java keep on their duel, Sendaï taking some damage in the process. The plucky Clemsons took on the Japanese heavies, losing USS Edwards but adding 2 more boxes destroyed & planting a 21’’ fish into Haguro, which was very close to being crippled. Shiratsuyu, Shigure and Samidare finished off Piet Hein, one of them being also destroyed by shots from Exeter & Houston.

The next turn saw a decrease in the violence of the struggle, as both sides started to disengage. Java & Sendaï however were once more heavily damaged, but remained afloat. Turn 6 was the last one, both sides disengaging, trading desultory & ineffective shots. The butcher’s bill was bad for everyone : ABDA lost De Ruyter, Piet Hein & Van Galen, took heavy damage to Java, light damage to Exeter. The IJN lost Jintsu, Samidare & Shiratsuyu, taking severe damage to Sendaï & Haguro.

We agreed on a draw, and stopped the game at that point, it could have gone either way, with perhaps a slight edge to the ABDA.

Admiral Beatty’s management of the Battlecruisers force at Jutland remains a subject of controversy, more than a century after the battle. The truth of the matter, however, seems to be less a lack of protection than defective ammunition procedures, compounded by a rash decision to rush at Hipper’s throat, cancelling the advantage awarded by his bigger guns’ longer range.

Under Beatty’s command, on that fateful 31st May 1916, were 6 battlecruisers and the 4 superdreadnoughts Admiral  Evan-Thomas’  5th Battle Squadron, the biggest, best armored, heaviest gunned ships (15’’ caliber guns !)  of the line at the time. Confused signals kept them too far away at the start of  the engagement, compounding Beatty’s tactical error. Under his command only the 6 ships of the 1st & 2^nd Battlecruiser Squadrons rushed at Hipper’s force.

British Battlecruisers design evolution, illustrated with this top-down picture : the apparition of superfiring turrets gave the Lion & Tiger class improved arcs of fire. The most notable improvement, though, can’t be made out on the picture : instead of 12’’ caliber guns like the Invincible & Indefatigable classes, they sported 13’’ guns

HMS New Zealand and Indefatigable

Barely improved versions of the original Invincible class battlecruisers, the class comported 3 ships in all, alongside HMAS Australia that was accidentally damaged days before the battle and so missed the engagement. Indefatigable was the 1st RN ship lost at Jutland. New Zealand survived the battle without even being hit.Tradition has it that her captain wore the traditional Maori garb & amulets he’d been offered by a Maori chieftain for the protection of the ship.

The Lion Class

The « Splendid Cats » as they were collectively known, were the joy and pride of Admiral Fisher. They  were better gunned, 13’’ caliber guns instead of their predecessors’ 12 ‘’, moreover sporting superfiring turrets forward, giving overall better arcs of fire. They were fast, and better armored (though not as  well as their German counterparts). Lion was Beatty’s flagship, and took part at the Dogger Bank battle where i ts propulsion was knocked out, ruining Beatty’s ability to pass orders efficiently, and hit again at Jutland, where she was saved from Indefatigable’s & Queen Mary’s fate by the quick thinking and sacrifice of Royal Marines Major Francis Harvey who managed to get the magazines flooded. Queen Mary was the 2^nd Battlecruiser exploding during the battle. From Lion’s bridge, a bitter Beatty commented « There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today ».

HMS Tiger

The last of the « Splendid Cats », Tiger was an improved version of the Lion class. Launched & commissioned in 1914, she took part in the Dogger Bank engagement. She was moderately damaged at Jutland, but her gunnery was deemed to be the poorest of the Battlecruiser Force, that was itself inferior to that of Jellicoe’s Battle Squadrons.

5th Battle Squadron

HMS Warspite

HMS Barham

HMS Valiant

HMS Malaya

Attached to Beatty’s Battlecruiser Force, they were left behind at the start of the battle due to bungled signals from HMS Lion, and the strict adherence to received orders, traditional among British admirals of the Victorian era ; Admiral Evan-Thomas, the 5th BS commander, was no exception. He nonetheless managed to get back in time to pull Beatty’s squadron from its predicament, inflicting Grievous damage on Hipper’s ships and the 1st Battle squadron of  the High Seas fleet, getting hammered in return. With the exception of Warpite that was badly damaged, the British Queen Elizabeth suffered no combat efficiency loss for the treatment, dishing out more than they got.

British Destroyers

A few L class Destroyers, as some of those that were with Beatty’s force at Jutland.

I started collecting WW1 Micronauts with the ships present at the battle of Coronel. At the time, you couldn't find a GHQ model for SMS Nürnberg, so I substituted SMS Bremen in its stead, and acquired both HMS Canopus and SS Otranto from another manufacturer. I added HMS Defense, which barely missed being present in the South East Pacific at that time.

Coronel… A forgotten battle today, but one from which the mind recedes with horror at te image of the savagery of the combat, of its  terrifying conditions, of the horrible butcher’s bill at the end of it, of the utter absurdity of it all : 2 commanders trapped in the rigid code of honor of 19th century European aristocracy fought a battle that could but doom them and their crews to destruction : Craddock, hopelessly outmatched by the superior German squadron, Von Spee trapped by geography and logistics, fully aware that after his victory, a merciless chase would be on. And yet they fought, in the cold water of Southern Chile, in a stormy November night…

The British

Good Hope, launched in 1901, and already an obsolete design, with half of her secondary 6’’ battery out of action in moderate weather conditions, without modern targeting equipment, barely good enough to show the White Ensign in far off backwaters. Sunk with all hands.

Monmouth, throwing a heavy, but desperately outranged punch, one of the 10 County class cruisers launched in 1901. Sunk with all hands.

Glasgow, a modern light cruiser, with the punch to outfight German light cruisers and the speed to outrun Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. Heavily damaged, retreated and was present for retribution at the battle of the Falklands.

HMS Defense, somewhat of an unlucky ship. Flagship of Admiral Troubridge during the Goeben chase, its squadron retreated when admiral Troubridge, who was court-martialed for his decision, wisely renounced to intercept. It could have been present at Coronel as it was ordered to join Craddock’s forces but  the order was cancelled as the Germans were still in the Pacific at that time. It met a fiery death at Jutland, the 4th Royal Navy ship lost to a magazine explosion that day.

The Germans

SMS Scharnhorst & Gneisenau, possibly the best armored cruisers ever built. Heart of the East Asian Squadron, they were also reputed to be the best gunnery specialists of the whole German Navy. The reservists on board Good Hope & Monmouth never stood a chance against them. Likewise, they were utterly outgunned, out-sped, out-armored when they had to tackle HMS Invincible & Inflexible at the Falklands, 2 battlecruisers specifically designed to destroy marauding armored cruisers.

SMS Dresden, Leipzig & Bremen (to substitute for SMS Nürnberg). Unlike their heavier brothers, they were outdated ships, sporting a light armament compared to their British counterparts. Their crews, however, like in the rest of the squadron, were top notch.  Nürnberg also gave the derelict Monmouth the coup de grâce at Coronel.

The French

Lastly, and because I cannot think of another page to display it, the French semi-dreadnought Vergniaud of the Danton class. After taking part in the battle of Antivari at the beginning of the war, the Vergniaud spent the remainder of the war in lackluster - but risky, as illustrated by the torpedoing of its sister ship the Danton, -  blockading duties. Part of the allied task force at Sebastopol during teh Russian Civil War, its crew took part in the  mutiny that affected numerous French ships in that occurrence.