Dry Dock paining - some completed ships

Lutzow

Lutzow

Started painting ships for Naval Thunder. These are the 1/3000 ships I found for a $1.00 each at Miniature Market.

This is harder than I thought.

And I will paint my destroyers from here on out with a grey paint and a couple touch ups like black on the stacks and perhaps some dry-brushing. I painted the HMS South Hampton and Arethusa. Yeah, this is not pretty. But I want to keep them the way they are to hopefully see how I improve.

The South Hampton I could find only had two stacks and I couldn't find anything about retrofits. Mine has 3 stacks - maybe I can say it's extra fast! Just kidding purists!

The Graf Spee and Lutzow however, were fun to paint.

And yes, I've reached new levels of Nerdaton with my attempt at painting a swastika flag on the bow of the Lutzow. Yes, using a filament off an old toothbrush. Better luck next time.

Graf Spee

It's fascinating the paint schemes they used on ships in WWII. Some of them are quite effective making the ship look different than it  is. You can imagine at sea and dusk that it would be hard to get a good spot while targeting.

I've been thinking of basing and was going to get some Litko But I'm really trying to not spend money. I'm either going to try cutting some plexiglass I have (though I hear it's challenging) or perhaps using a heavy letraset. Like a heavy cardstock. With the latter I'm concerned for warping.

On another note: tried playing Basic Impetus again with the paper representing Samurai and Korea. And not so much interest this time. Impetus is a good set. I like the rules. Nice and easy to get, like Naval Thunder. However, I just wasn't interested in finishing out my test. And, when I was looking over the rules to clarify a few things, I found myself forcing the issue. It's my hobby and have other things I would like to try. I'll put thoughts of this era aside for awhile. When I get around to reading the books I bought for the era my interest may be rekindled.

On yet another note: watched the original True Grit and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I'm leaning toward the new one as my favorite. I was impressed with the 1969 iteration though.

Here are a few of the sites I'm using as guidelines for painting and books for inspiration:
http://www.bismarck-class.dk/index.html
http://steelnavy.com/gallery_cruisers.htm
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/index1.html
http://uboat.net/index.html 
 

From Amazon

From Amazon

From Amazon

You Guessed It, From Amazon

And My Favorite, From Amazon