Thomo's Hole

I mentioned before that I was looking at doing something modern in naval warfare and in 1/3000th in particular. Regular readers will recall also the saga of actually having to send a letter to order vessels from Navwar ((yes Dorothy, there is still a post office and you still can order things by mail, snail mail)) . The vessels had arrived in good order and this week was the first chance I’ve had to really start working with them.

The first step was out to the Internet and find out some details on the vessels that I have purchased. While looking for information and pictures of the vessels I discovered the crests to some of the ships. This inspired a change to the way I label vessels so after sticking the vessels to a 3mm thick base with some magnetic tape underneath, I labelled the vessels as can be seen above and to the left. I will also talk about the basing material later as it is new to me.

Next will be the painting process. For that I will be undercoating the vessels in white, washing in black ink then starting to paint with a heavy dry-brush in an Indian Navy grey after the sea base is finished underneath.

What colour that grey will be will be decided on the weekend when I visit Changi Naval Base here as there are two Indian ships visiting Singapore at the moment. The are INS Satpura (F48) and the Kora class Corvette (P62) INS Kirch. Vessels of both of these classes can be seen in the second row in the picture to the right so this will be one of the few chances I’ve ever had to see the 1:1 scale item that I will be painting later.

Interestingly, also visiting at the current time or back in home port are RSS Valiant (Victory Class corvette P91), RSS Bedok mine countermeasure boat (M105), RSS Formidable (F68) and RSS Tenacious (F71), both Formidable (La Fayette) Class frigates. Also present is Ladroite, the French experimental OPV, the Royal Thai Navy HTMS Rattanakosin (F441), HMAS Bathurst, and USS Freedom, the first Littoral Combat Ship of the US Navy.

Also present are the Malaysian frigate KD Lekiu frigate (30), the Indonesian KCR 40 class patrol craft KRI Kujang [642] and Diponegoro Class Corvette KRI Frans Kaisiepo [368].

Looks like an interesting day for a navy buff coming up!