New kid saying hi. (pic heavy)

[Gunbird]

well...."Hi"

Dutch gamer who is expanding his horizon so to speak. I have had a few 1/3000 scale ships for some time now and they where used as targets for my 1/300 scale aircraft, unpainted, just lead. Which is something I hate, wargaming with unpainted lead. But anyway.

Last weekend I happend to stumble across this forum, read the entire Victory at Sea part, looked at all of the pictures, and thought, why not?

One week later the models I had are painted and orders have been placed for 1/1200 aircraft and 1/3000 scale ships of WW2 vintage and later. The aircraft will be testers to see how they go, if they don't work out I might give 1/600 a try, but undecided about that at the moment. For ships I only buy Navwar, cause that is what my favorite UK shop has in stock and the quality is fine by me.

Anyway, the models I have painted up so far....all but one are not for WW2 but I don't want to withhold them from you, I think they are nice examples. If you are wondering why the back tab is bare, it is because I am still undecided what way I will place the national flag and the name. At the moment it would be the flag in the middle-top position, and the name exactly below that. Printed on paper and varnished in place they should do fine.

What you will note as well is that every ship has a companion model in the shape of a wreck marker. I'm very keen on good visual appearance, never liked monocolour paintjobs. On my own stuff, of course, to each his own.

Enough talking.

My first ship, a 1960's Russian small Bulk Carrier, with a semi submerged wreck. I had no Vallejo scenic water effects then, and I'm not adding it now. Did add another coats of gloss to the sea today.

I'm very fond of this picture.

After some questions on the local forum I painted up another one with a comparison needle Overdid it a bit on the highlights for the waves, and still had no weater effect stuff. Added another coat of gloss today for added effect.

..and used the remains of the other one to make this sinking wreck.

Like I said, I like visuals, so started to think about cheap shell splashes. And made a tutorial of them. By then I had finally gotten hold of a pot of scenic water effects and used it for this.

Then tried my luck on a Ton class minesweeper (which is still staring at me with its basecoat), converted one into a small merchant and added a more basic wreck marker for that one. Simple yet effective. And I like the scenic effects stuff, but try to keep the waves very, very low.....

Then my first (and only, so far) ship for WW2:

and the by now obligatory wreck marker for it, scratchbuilt (or should I say scraps-built :lol: )

So far I would like to thank the previous posters on this forum for giving me ideas on how to paint these ships. Secondly, Navwar ships are quite nice and they paint up so fast using the 30cm rule (I always cheat and go for 10 anyway) and they are very cheap, so I can afford cutting them up for wrecks.

Next year, when I get back from my holiday, I hope to work just as fast on the stuff I have ordered, as they include a great number of WW2 merchants and trawlers, the ships for that La Plate battle and some aircraft. The rest are modern and will be added to my targets collection. At the rate I am painting them now, 1 set a night after dinner should not be a problem.

My apolagies if anyone has seen these pictures before, as I have posted these on a number of forums just to check the feedback about the painting quality and general impressions. And for the long post, I must have kept you from doing some other important thing.

Johan

(PS Hey Tom, happy now? Weer een verslaving erbij)

 

[shotgun-toting chipmunk]

Very nice. I haven't picked up VaS because I have so many games to worry about already, but after seeing these I am very very tempted to give in...

 

[Lord David the Denied]

Nice wrecks. Got any warships in your collection or is it all merchantmen?

 

[Gunbird]

Nope, this is all I have at the moment, just merchants.

Won't have the Graf Spee and the 3 British hounds here till januari, but they should be painted up around the second week or so. If I then still like it I will order up 2-4 starter fleets . If I don't, they get relegated to target practice, and continue with pounding Exocets in ships.

 

[Captain_Nemo]

Duuuuude!!!! :shock: :shock: :shock: Whoa...

 

[Chernobyl]

man....I'm disgusted by the amount of pretty in the water detail you have...its really really really good!!!

Chern

 

[Ben2]

Would you consider doing a short tutorial on doing these water effects? I'll be doing some ships on GW bases in the next week.

 

[Gunbird]

Has to be a very short tutrial I'm afraid, my plane leaves tomorrow.

But lets see, it's fairly basic to be honest.

1. Base ship
2. Use brush to stipple vallejo water effects around it, make sure stipple some more for the bow and the propellor wash, and possibly do a few stripes at the side to represent the bow wave (if you want one) but that can be easily done with paint too later on. Let dry 24 hours (however, the sheets you will use are so thin that they dry really fast, I have started basing them before I leave for work so that I can basecoat them when I get back from work)
3. Basecoat (I use black)
4. Paint ship
5. Use a thinned dark blue and stipple it on the surface. It should be thinned enough to let a lot of the black show so you get a darker sea. If you want it to be more blue just cover it.
6. Add a bit of white to the blue, mix, and apply this along the line of the ship, the wake and the bow, and the occasional wave (less is in this case better then more unless its the Atlantic in winter time)
7. Either add more white and repeat, or go straight to 8, whichever suits you.
8. Finish with pure white. Let dry.
9. 1 Good gloss varnish coat (I use GW hardcoat for that)
10. finish the ship off with matte coat ( I use vallejo matte for that)

When I get back from my holiday I'll see if I can conjur up a better tutorial with pictures if you want.

To keep you busy, here is something I found while cleaning up one of my boxes of models and decided to convert and paint it last night. (sorry, no WW2....yet)

As you can see, depending on the available light, the sea looks almost black to very blue. It also shows that quality is sometimes lacking with Navwar ships, but as I like to scratchbuild and convert I'd rather cut op these then a couple of GHQ ships. These are 3 to a pound anyway, that helps. The next one will have the superstructure removed and planted a lot further forward to be more in line with the original photograph.

And here is just some Photoshop fun.

 

[Ben2]

Well I have soime GW water effect (no one around here stocks Vallejo water effect, and only one place stocks VGC for the exceedingly tight £1 a pot I'm willing to spend). Anyone used GW water effect before? Is it basically the same?
I should be receiving some Navwar ships in the next day or two (the River plate and Bismarck ships) and will base them up. I'll take some digicam photos and hopefully post a little on the forum showing WIP and finished shots.
What surprises me is undercoating and then painting over the water effect considering the GW advice to mix a little paint into it then add it. I can see why you would do this, and have done the same with ink/varnish glaze mixes for black armour or vinyl on models.
I'll definitely give this a go.

 

[Gunbird]

I never tried GW water effect as the local shop doesn't stock it, at 20 euros a bottle nobody was interested in them (what a surprise). Pot of Vallejo is about as much and cost me 11 euros. No contest really. The Vallejo stuff is more like a paste though, so you can sort of sculpt it into place, and you can cover your paintjob with it, or basecoat over it, works both ways, though I prefer the latter.

Looking at the tutorial from GW it seems more like pour in a hole to get a water effect, is it very runny? Looking forward to that tutorial (when I get back)

Hmm, another one starting with the River Plate ships...time for a secret handshake

Johan

PS VGC for 1 pound? Damn, here we pay 2.50 euro's a bottle....

 

[Breten]

I think there's a lot of us starting with the River Plate. I'm just waiting for my second Leander class to show up at the LGS. Might just come in at the same time as the book.

 

[Oly]

I should be receiving some Navwar ships in the next day or two (the River plate and Bismarck ships) and will base them up. I'll take some digicam photos and hopefully post a little on the forum showing WIP and finished shots.

I'd love to see some WIP shots of how the painting goes. At the moment I'm just painting the bases of my ships and not using any water effects. After seeing some of the great results that other people are getting I'm very curious to see how your ones go so I can pick up a few tips.

 

[Ben2]

Well I have now received the navwar ships I ordered (River plate ships, Eugen, Bismarck, Gnisenau (sp?), Hood, Prince of Wales, Ark Royal) and tideid them up and based them. The KM ships were all mint, and the royal navy cruisers and Hood were fine. The Ark Royal had some loss of detail on the turrets, and the PoW has some mold pitting near the bow, but all perfectly serviceable.

I put them on GW bases, which was fine, and then applied the GW water effects. Hmmmm. GW water effect is very runny, to the point were I think it is only suitable for puddles and pools. It dries to a nice transparency as well, so it is suitable for that use. For waves it is a bit more problematic. You cannot really sculpt it, and it does get the occasional bubble you have to burst with a pin. If I had paid more than a tenner for it I would have been very peeved. Needless to say I will now buy some vallejo water effects.
Leaving it to dry on a blister for a while gave a more sculptable medium to do the waves, but it in now way measures up to the effects seen above. What I may do is use some PVA to make the bases a bit more exciting, as the GW water effect just hasn't cut it.
VGC would retail for £1.20 from the guy I get it from, but I tend to get stuff at cost, as Ive done him some favours in the past. Getting stuff cheap is the only reason I have any GW 4th ed 40k stuff. However he sells GW stuff 20% off anyway, and also stocks WM, Mongoose etc. So I've got VaS on preorder with him right now, and have been slowly acquiring more SST classic (as that is now fairly static in terms of sales from being his second biggest seller after GW, most likely due to awaiting SST evo).
Basically I get all the hobby supplies I can from him, though I am now likely to go to the Ian Allen bookshop for some vallejo water effects.
So so far, Navwar ships good to acceptable quality and cheap, spirit games, whom I ordered them from, quick turnaround time (ssent order on Saturday after they closed, they aren't open Sunday/Monday, got email confirming order sent Tuesday, received order Thursday (during Christmas post season).
GW water effects good for pools and puddles, toss for sea bases (but my Eldar may now be fighting in a rainy city, not just a city).However as Spirit games don't do the fleet packs I will get those from navwar directly, along with the battle of matapan set.