"US Pacific Fleet vs. Japanese Fleet at Pearl Harbor" Topic

I posted a number of photos of Figurehead models representing some of the major combatants in a fictional, pre-emptive engagement at Pearl Harbor.

Here is the link: link

Regards,

GuruDave

The label on Shokaku has a typo.

Great to see these models - I've not done any WWII naval gaming in this scale. Have you played the engagement yet, or have you just finished the painting?

How did you do the deck stripes on the carriers?

How did you do the wave effect on the bases?

Bill,

The bases come cast with the waves sculpted into them. They look fantastic. The only real problem comes when you work with destroyers. They get tiny. Still I think Hallmark ships are some of the best things going.

Bill, yes, I think you are right. If I do a search for "Skokaku" or "Shokaku" I get hits (no pun intended) on the Japanese carrier, unless these are two different ships. It has been a while so I am not sure which is correct.

Tom is correct about the waves on the bases. Just a dark blue base coat, black wash, heavy white highlights, and a thick gloss overcoat for the bases.

To get the stripes on the carrier deck, I created artwork using CorelDraw (but any graphics program would work) and then printed them out on white decal paper. In retrospect, the decal paper probably is not necessary -- any thin paper would work, then glue it to the deck.

Regards,

Dave

I haven't played the engagement yet. I bought The Rising Sun module of the Command At Sea rules set. It looks very good...detailed like Harpoon...but quite frankly I haven't had time to learn the rules yet, and I still have a few more ships to paint.

How will you handle aircraft and submarines?

I second everything nice being said about the Hallmark 1/6000 stuff. I have all the WW1 fleets and they look great and on a table top. The visual look and feel of distance is so much better than the larger models that look as if they are right next to each other.

Something tells me the Ed is getting a hankering for 1/6000 naval gaming.

when I saw the ship next to the penny my jaw dropped. Im amazed at how much detail you small scale gamers can pack on to your minis.

I have all the Figurehead ships for the Battle of the Coral Sea. I have been putting off painting them but Dave has inspired me. I just want to know how he got the writing on such tiny bases? Amazing.

[Something tells me the Ed is getting a hankering for 1/6000 naval gaming.]

Yes, but I should paint up my 1/2400 models first...

Dave

Where can the essay you mentioned be found. I would like to read it before I make any comment on the idea of the US fleet being obsolete at the start of the war. In my mind they were on a par with the rest of the world's navies when it came to technology. Oh yea, the ships look really good.

Tom

rat of tobruk: I cheated and printed out the ship names on decal paper!

Thanks all for the encouraging words.

Unfortunately I was not able to find the original artwork I used for the carrier decks or I would be glad to make it available to anyone who wanted it. I did however create similar artwork for the Soryu and posted on the bottom of the page that the link above will take you too (see the first post).

As the web page describes, I simply printed them out to fit on the models (that takes a bit or trial and error) using white decal paper, but any thin paper would probably work.

I confess I am not a details guy, and I am sure there is some inaccuracies in the artwork, but it works for me.

Ed -- good question on planes and subs. Since aircraft models at 1/6000 would be pretty tiny (!) I think I would create artwork representing several planes in formation (whatever the organization is for 3-12 planes) and print them on clear plastic (overhead transparencies) then cut them up into the various formations (1" square per formation) and then use that to represent aircraft. Subs I haven't thought about....

Waterloo -- give me some time to think about it. I want to say Stephen Ambrose, from his Americans at War essays, but I can't say for sure.

I suppose when I (or the author of the essay) said that the US fleet was obsolete, that didn't necessarily mean it was not comparable to other major fleets of the time. The implication is that, even in late 1941, the aircraft carrier had replaced the battleship as the capital ship of the fleet. In any engagement that starts at long range, the aircraft carrier has an obvious advantage against the battleship unless the latter is part of a fleet which includes carriers.

For my "experiment" I plan to try a scenario in which only the ships that were in Pearl Harbor on December 7 would engage the six carriers of the Japanese fleet, and then repeat the scenario adding the American carriers that escaped attack that fateful day.

I wish CnC would get off their duff and get a full line of 1/4800 scale ships.

You could use the CAP Areo planes that are about 1/2400th scale. One plane representing a squadron. Thats what I am thinking about doing.

rat of tobruk -- that's a good idea. Either way, some bookkeeping would be involved to keep track of planes damaged or shot down, weapons expended, fuel, etc.

Can somebody tell me what the OOB would have been for each fleet in a pre-emptive Pearl Harbor engagement between the Japanese and American fleets? That sounds like fun, and I might be inspired enough to do it in 1:2400 and do a battle report!

Soulmage, this might help:

link

BTW, you might know me on another site, where I go by B u S h i p s…

Holy crap that's a lot of ships! LOL!!

Thanks!