Sunday 22 June 2014

It's Competition Time!

For the plenary game* at the forthcoming Conference Of Wargamers I need a 'fleet ' of warships,  I already had two big plastic toy aircraft carriers and pair of smaller carriers.  Bob Cordery has also offers to bring two of the larger toys.  All well and good, but I wanted other vessels as well as flat-tops so last weekend it was off to the garage with some of my stock of off cuts of insulation foam and     a sharpened knife.
Though the COW game is set in 1944 I had already decided to go for a slightly more 'modern' look so that the ships might have a future role supporting amphibious landings in Little Cold Wars games.
Emerging some time later with four lumps of foam vaguely shaped like ship hulls and a few bits of potential superstructure I used PVA to stick the bits together.
For armament I cobbled together some missile tubes and after laboriously carving a pair of turrets had the idea of rummaging in the spares box.  This yielded seven suitable(?) turrets and some missiles which were secured with more PVA prior to the fleet being daubed with grey emulsion paint.  The newly built models are shown with an iPhone (which I didn't build) for scale.

Which brings me to the question.  Can you identify all of the turrets I rescued from the spares box?  I'll need the original kit manufacturer(s) and kit names.  Feel free to ID the missiles - I've no idea what they are!

The first correct answer will entitle the winner to name two ship models of his (or her) choice from the four in the photo.  The second and third placed entries will each get to name one of the remaining ships.  Comment moderation is now on until Tuesday.

Ok, so it's a crap prize but come on- what did you expect?  Blame Paul at Plastic Warriors for giving me the idea.

*more about this game after the event...

19 comments:

Archduke Piccolo said...

Crap prize? The heck as like: I reckon it would be a cool prize to name such fine vessels. Unfortunately I can't identify enough of the turrets to make a serious go at it. I can see a Crusader tank turret, and what looks very like a KV2 (the top down angle makes me a little uncertain about that - possibly it's a KV1-A turret); and I believe there's a T34/85 turret in there as well. That's about my lot.
Cheers,
Ion

Uncle Brian said...

My guess is as follows;
From bottom, Left to Right
Ship 1: Pair Airfix Crusader turrets
Ship 2: Airfix T-34/76 turret and Fujimi KV-2 Turret
Ship 3: turrets are scratchbuilt
Ship 4:All three are Airfix T-34/76 turrets

A rather nice looking flotilla - I look forward to seeing pictures of them in action.

Martin Rapier said...

Well, I think I can see:

Four Airfix T34 turrets, the 76mm variety.

Two Airfix Crusader turrets, 6pdr version.

I'm struggling with the last, it looks like a KV-2, but I'm not sure who would make such a beast. I shall guess Fujimi.



Neil Patterson said...

Tim,

I can spot 2x Airfix Crusader III, 2x Airfix T34/76 (wasn't it nice of Airfix to give you spare turrets for 2 versions), what I'd guess to be a Pegasus KV2 & 3x KV1 (also Pegasus at a guess).
Of the above I'm not sure if one of the turrets is another Airfix T34 or a Pegasus KV1 as the photo's not clear.
The missiles look familiar & look like AIM54 Phoenix from a Tomcat...
Neil

Don M said...

Don't know why but I love home made boats...these look pretty nice!

Paul Foster said...

Okay, my satb in the dark.

Top vessel: 3x Airfix T34/76.

2nd from the bottom vessel: 1x KV2 Fujimi and 1x Airfix T34/76.

Bottom vessel: Hasegawa or maybe Airfix Crusader turrets x2.

Tim Gow said...

Archduke Piccolo
A brave effort Ion but no cigar this time.

Tim Gow said...

Uncle Brian
Spot on! Name 'your' ships sir!

Tim Gow said...

Martin Rapier
All correct again - second place goes to you!

Tim Gow said...

Neil Patterson
Not quite - but I think you're right about the missiles. I wonder how they ended up in my spares box. I'll award you a special bonus prize for that, as I have another ship to name!

Tim Gow said...

Don M
Thanks for your kind words Don. They look a lot better than I feel they have any right to!

Tim Gow said...

Paul Foster
Bang on - but I'd expect nothing less from you! Name your ship.

Uncle Brian said...

Wow! Thanks Tim! May I ask the intended nationality of the ships, and which two I get to name?

Tim Gow said...

Uncle Brian
For the COW game they'll be WW2 USN ships - after that they may show up as anything from British to Russian! Pick any two you fancy.

Neil Patterson said...

Well I'm honored....

If it's "Western" I think "HMS/USS Frankenstein" (or is it Frankensteen?)

If it's "Eastern" how about the "Kitschbashchutzpah"?

Neil

Paul Foster said...

USS Nautigirl or if Eastern Nautigirlz.

Good show!

Uncle Brian said...

How about "USS Ronald Lee Emery" for one of the smaller DD/DE types, and for one of the bigger CL types "USS Shippensburg"?

Wg Cdr Luddite said...

I would argue the toss on the missiles; I reckon they are MIM-23 Hawks.

I claim a consolation prize.

My ship will be named USS Dick Emery(ooh-you are awful!).

Martin Rapier said...

Gosh, I won! Fujimi was a complete guess... OK, we'll have:

USS Walter White
HMS Surprise