1/600 Coastal Naval - Merchantmen

In the past I have played WW2 naval games in 1/3000 (I think) using big battleships and totally ahistorical fleets, just whatever ships took my fancy to buy and paint.  Yes, I said paint, because I actually did!  I know, what a surprise.  I know the rules - no pics, it didn't happen!!  Sorry, I can't provide evidence as I sold them on to someone else a littlewhile back.  Overall I enjoyed the games but felt that the long range firing that the larger calibre guns on bigger Cruisers and Battleships could do to the much smaller Destroyers, for me, took something away from the game.  I loved it when the smaller ships got up close and were able to open fire with their smaller calibre guns and torpedoes.  This got me looking for something that enabled me to use torpedoes more often which brought me to coastal naval battles using motorboats (MTB's, MGB's etc.) and Schnell boats, what the British called E-Boats.  I found a number of rulesets and picked up some 1/600 models from an old friend who was having a clearout of unused models which was great for me as they came ready painted - big bonus.  Over time I have had the hankering to add to the collection so I picked up some merchantmen along with a small number of Allied & Axis vessels from the Skytrex Coastal Forces Ships range, which are now sold by Heroics & Ros (http://www.heroicsandros.co.uk), quite a while back.  Due to my reluctance to paint they have sat in the pile of shame, until now.  

CF904 - Oil Tanker at the front after some serious filing of the hull
& CF905 - Coastal Collier behind.

I picked up the jiffy bag with the models in and had a good look through them all too remind me what was there.  With all of the boats and ships, there was a good mix, but only 1 of each type - I think I just wanted to see what was available and get an idea of how easy or difficult they were going to be to put together.   The MTB's, MGB's and S-Boots were put to one side for a later date and I decided that the merchantmen were going to be my next project on my desk.

 CF907 - 3000 ton Tramp Steamer, in bag, waiting to be built
& CF906 - 1500 ton Collier behind

From smallest to largest the ships are:

• CF905 - Coastal Collier (4 pieces)
• CF906 - 1500 ton Collier (4 pieces)
• CF907 - 3000 ton Tramp Steamer (6 pieces)
• CF904 - Oil Tanker (15 pieces)

All four ships waiting for basing & some paint. 

All of the models have minimal pieces, with 15 being the maximum including the hull, but most were half a dozen or less which was great as they would be relatively quick to build.  The loose pieces were all well moulded with minimal flash or mould lines but the hulls were something different altogether.  There were some quite deep mould lines or steps along the hulls which took quite a bit of filing to remove and in some places some filling, in fact on one ship, the Oil Tanker, I had to file that much off that I totally removed the moulded anchor as well due to the 'step' going right through this area. Not too much of an issue overall as the anchor was painted back on, just a bit of a pain due to the amount of filing needed.  

After cutting suitably sized bases from sheets of plasticard, they were spray undercoated in black.  Bases were 25mm wide for the 2 smaller ships & 30mm for the larger 2 - the base length was based on the measured length of the ships hull plus 10mm which gives just about enough space around the model to paint in some sea and the wake for a vessel under way. 

CF907 - 3000 ton Tramp Steamer based & undercoated

I painted the first three relatively quickly, in one evening session, and I can actually say that I enjoyed doing it.  My idea of how they would look was pretty much how they came out.  I think this is one of my painting kryptonites, in that I always think that what I paint won't look anything like I envision it or anywhere near as good.  Painting these has given me a bit of a confidence boost and made me want to get on with something else.

 CF905 - 800 ton Collier

 CF907 - Tramp Steamer

 CF904 - Oil Tanker

After finishing the Oil Tanker, Tramp Steamer and small Collier I had hoped to get the last merchantman painted reasonably quickly, but my get up and go got up and went for a few days.  It took me nearly a week to pick up a brush again and finish off the last of this small group of ships.

The 800 ton Collier was painted a mid-dark grey with the superstructure and hatches blue-grey.  This came out a bit 'bright' for my liking so it was toned down with a heavy grey dry-brush over the hull.  The other 3 were heavily dry-brushed with different grey tones and just had smaller details painted in, such as the ships boats & life rafts.  In some places I have also used an Army Painter Strong Tone wash. 

The bases were first dry-brushed Prussian Blue, then gunship green (although the green doesnt show too well in the pictures) before I dappled in the bow wave and dry-brushed the stern wake with off-white.  I have seen some ships that had textured bases where the wake had been built up with ready made plaster before painting which looked really effective & may try this at a later date.  For now, I think the wakes I have painted on look pretty good.

At some point in the next few days I will take some photos of the other painted ships I have and use these for my next blog entry.