by Matt Klimaszewski
1/2400 Warships (Pfc-CinC/GHQ/Scratch)
Two views of my GHQ Andrea Doria,
A scratchbuilt Russian 1905 Torpedo boat,
The same boat alongside scratchbuilt 1884 Russian Ironclad Sinope,
My Pfc Cin C Vittorio Veneto,
My CinC Italian Cruiser Zara,
My CinC WW2 German cruiser Blucher painted as
she was when sunk during the invasion of Norway;
CinC WW2 German Cruiser Leipzig as she was painted in the early months of the war.
For my Italian ships I use a greenish tint for the camouflage. Even though grey is the official colour used, action photos of the ships shows that the Mediterranean waters reflected off the grey giving it a greenish appearance, so I find the dull green produces a more realistic effect.
Once again the German ships have bright coloured turret tops to aid in identification by the Luftwaffe. Pinkish was the colour of choice in the Baltic, but yellow was usually employed when venturing on operations as with the invasion of Norway or when Bismarck sortied in 1941.
The Russian TBD is painted as were the Far Eastern-based ships just before the 1904 war, white with black-topped yellow funnels, and a green boot topping along the waterline. I intend to build all my 1904 War Russian TBD's from scratch because there were so many minor differences between each boat.
The company Panzerschiffe makes Japanese 4 stacker torpedoboats from that era which are really quite good, so I will be filling my 1904 Japanese fleet with their ships.
The Ironclad Sinope is painted as she was in the Black Sea, a typical 19th century black, with white upperworks and yellow funnels. I built both of these ships from scratch as an experiment. They turned out fairly well, but I still learned a few lessons on areas for improvement.
So with 1/2400 I find that the overall size (or lack thereof) of a ship doesn't prevent showing a fair amount of detail. Having achieved success with the smaller types, I am confidently planning to delve into the 19th century central battery ships which NO ONE makes in this scale. I think they'll prove quite fun. The Austro-Hungarians are particularly imposing in this regard, beamy, high sided ships with lots of character, masts and colourful flags. What could be better. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.
