Friday, October 28, 2011

German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin now available in 1/4800

1/4800 Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Aircraft Carrier Graf Zeppelin (1942) x2
http://shpws.me/3pO8
Image courtesy of Shapeways


1/4800 UK.CV.Illustrious(1940) x4 + KM.CV.Graf Zeppelin(1942) x2
Image courtesy of Shapeways

Monday, October 24, 2011

WIP: Kriegsmarine's Graf Zeppelin aircraft carrier (1942) in 1/4800

For the next (interim) release before doing the Italian Navy (Regia Marina): Kriegsmarine (KM) CV Graf Zeppelin (1942) as she would've been completed.
Please take note I can offer this ship bundled with the UK CV Illustrious once it's done...

For further information, please visit the the following links:
Wikipedia Entry
Navypedia Entry
(Re)discovery of the ship's wreck site (via Spiegel Online, 2006)

Work-in-Progress as of October 27, 2011


Previous WIP pic:

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Aircraft carrier Illustrious now available (UK/Royal Navy, 1940)

Shapeways llink:
http://shpws.me/3p2o
EDIT: For those interested, I can offer these UK carriers combined with the next ship (KM Graf Zeppelin CV) as well, offering additional savings... though one has to wait another week or so until it is finished...



Image courtesy of Shapeways


One last ship (up next) before starting the Italian Navy: DKM Graf Zeppelin (Wiki link)

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Monday, October 10, 2011

Nothing to see here, just grinding away...

Yep, nothing much within the past few days, thought I'd take a short break while I search for references, buy/order some books, etc, to prepare for the Regia Marina (Italian Navy)...

In the meantime, had some requests and had the following available:

1/6000 (actually 1/6300) BB Alsace + Jean Bart hybrid BB/CV
*edited to allow for the smaller scale; i.e. if simply scaled: 0.3mm@1/4800 = 0.24mm@1/6000; which is below the printing limit and will have the model rejected.
shpws.me/3mPJ

1/3000 BB Richelieu(1943) + BB Jan Bart(1942)
scaled up 48FN01 by 160% + some edits
shpws.me/3mPK

After which, work has started/continued on the Royal Navy's Illustrious class aircraft carrier;
Nothing much to see: main hurdles are the (asymmetric) island superstructure and hull. Clicking on the image for a closer look, one could see an almost finished island superstructure (sans funnels, starboard catwalks, various wind deflectors and other details). Also added 'stubs' representing the pompom mounts around the structure and a rudimentary HA director tower (front of mainmast). Then it's onto the hull and it's numerous bilges/bulges.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Releases for Marine Nationale (French Navy) completing its 1st series...

Finally released the following ships:

FN.DD.LeHardi (1942) x6
http://shpws.me/3lPL

FN.SS.Redoutable(1931) x8
http://shpws.me/3m0H

FN.CV.Joffre(1940) x2
http://shpws.me/3lPE

FN.BC.Dunkerque(1940)+Strasbourg(1942)
http://shpws.me/3m0I

Dunkerques & Joffres (as suggested via the 1/ 4800th Naval Wargaming Yahoo Group)
http://shpws.me/3m0J

Cheers!

Monday, October 3, 2011

Preliminary Regia Marina (Italian Navy) List

...but before anything else; after finishing/release of the remaining Marine Nationale (French Navy) naval ships, the following will be done to supplement the detailed 1/4800 ships of the Royal Navy (UK) and Kriegsmarine (German Navy) by another company:

48UK01 Royal Navy Illustrious-class aircraft carrier (1940)
48KM01 Kriegsmarine aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin (1938)

Then onto the Regia Marina list; concentrating on their battles fought in the Mediterrean:

48IT01 Condittieri-class/series of light cruisers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condottieri_class_cruiser
References for Group 3 (Raimondo Montecuccoli and Muzio Attendolo) and 4 (Emanuele Filiberto Duca d'Aosta) is/are available from a popular company/site. The rest (1, 2 and 5), I'll have to check what I was able to collect...

48IT02 Soldati-class destroyers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldati_class_destroyer
The culmination of design that started from Maestrale-class destroyers; improved upon to become Oriani-class destroyers, and finally the Soldatis.

48IT03 Heavy cruisers classes of Zara and Trento (inc. Bolzano)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zara_class_cruiser_%28Italy%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trento_class_cruiser
Once I've obtained the necessary references (Warship Pictorial #23 IIRC), I'm set.
Something to dance with the French Suffrens and Duquesnes ;) (including a repeat of unique visual IDs of each sister ships in each class... uugh)

48IT04 The battleships of Vittorio Veneto class (also known as the Littorio class)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vittorio_Veneto_class_battleship
In comes the battleships: contemporary to the Richelieu-class of France's Marine Nationale, they were in service 1940 and at least one ship of the class was present in almost every major engagement.

48IT05 Submarines: candidate classes are both of the 600-series: Adua and Sirena
http://www.navypedia.org/ships/italy/it_ss_sirena.htm
http://www.navypedia.org/ships/italy/it_ss_adua.htm
Produced in numbers (20 and 12 respectively), these classes of medium submarines were present during the Axis Invasion of Crete.

48IT06 Aircraft carriers Aquila and Sparviero
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_aircraft_carrier_Aquila
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_aircraft_carrier_Sparviero
Conversions of ocean liners would have provided the Regia Marina with these carriers, if not for them being captured/scuttled/scrapped. Aquila's flightdeck reminds me of Graf Zeppelin's though...

48IT07 Conti de Cavour class battleship
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conte_di_Cavour_class_battleship
The two ships surviving WW1 (Conti de Cavour and Giulio Cesare) were reconstructed before WW2. No data gathered yet as to what had been done, but I'll get to cross the bridge.

48IT08 Frescia and Folgore class destroyers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freccia_class_destroyer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folgore_class_destroyer
Another destroyer class to even out the field vs. the French's Mogador/Fantasque/Le Hardi classes...

48IT09 Andrea Doria-class battleships
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_battleship_Andrea_Doria_%281913%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_battleship_Caio_Duilio
NavyField anyone?

48IT10 Vian-Bonfiglietti Project 1928 CVL + Battlecruiser Project 1930
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/bk/MuseoLaSpezia/Projected%20aircraft%20carrier%201928/index.html
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/bk/MuseoLaSpezia/RM%20Projected%20battlecruiser%201930/index.html
Rounding up the list to total 3 aircraft carriers and 8 capital ships

48IT11 Capitani Romani class light cruisers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitani_Romani_class_cruiser
The Capitani Romani class light cruisers were Italy's response to the Marine Nationale's Fantasques and Mogador class contre-torpilleurs (large destroyers/destroyer leaders), but was completed just before Italy's armistice in the 1943...

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Capping Marine Nationale's (French Navy) first wave release.

Those remaining for the first wave of 1/4800 French Navy ships (depending on the readers' monitor size/resolution, the thumbnails are intended to approximate model size in real life)
Click the images for close-ups:

Joffre-class aircraft carrier[1940] (2/pack)

LeHardi class destroyer[1942] (6/pack)

Size comparison between Le Hardi (bottom), Fantasque (middle) and Mogador (top)

Redoutable class submarine[1931] (8/pack)

Dunkerque class fast battleships/battlecruisers(top-bottom): 
Dunkerque[1940] and Strasbourg[1942] (as pack)

They'll be available some time this week. For those preferring to have items bundled together (a'la fleet packs), please don't hesitate to contact me via matt_atknsn [at] hotmail [dot] com.

Cheers!

P.S. Formal list of releases after the French Navy also to follow some time this week: aircraft carriers and the Regia Marina (Italian Navy)