Modern Naval Gaming Project

Hello! This is going to be something of a long-delayed introduction to a project that I discussed on Episode 54 of the MBS Podcast. Since about 2019 I’ve been working on collecting and painting a modern naval force to use with such games as Rory Crabb’s Naval Command. In this post, I’m going to talk about what I’ve collected so far, why I’ve selected the scales and models that I have, and what some of my future plans are. This post is intended to be the first in a series, an I hope to use future installments to further discuss scale selection, model procurement, lessons learned, and such.

Ship Scale

Due to several factors, I’ve settled upon 1/2400 scale for my ships. The first factor to consider is availability; when I was looking around the internet, I was able to find most if not all of the major ship designs I was looking for in 1/2400. Other scales I looked at, including 1/3000, 1/4800, and 1/6000, all seemed to have significant holes in the available order of battle. In addition, 1/2400 seemed to offer a nice balance between keeping the overall size of the miniature down, while still allowing a very nice level of detail. And finally, I must admit that I’m very much a big fan of GHQ’s WWI, WWII, and Modern-era naval miniatures in this scale!

Aircraft Scale

This is an area where I’m still a bit undecided. I’ve recently procured some 1/600 scale Pico-armor aircraft, and they have a nice size and level of detail. However, all of the aircraft I’ve procured thus far have been “tactical” aircraft; ie, fighters and small drones. Model size might be an issue when we start talking about things like a P-8 Poseidon. Thank’s to James O’keefe’s great post here on the blog, I’ve also been turned on to the possibility of using 1/1200 scale aircraft, which would solve that problem with the larger aircraft overtaking the ships in terms of physical size and table presence.

Project Thus Far

My collection and painting efforts have mostly been focused on US Navy ships. I’ve now got a sizeable force put together, including 1 CVN, 1 LHD, 1 CG, 1 Zumwalt-class DDG, 4 Arleigh Burke-class DDGs (2 Flight Is and 2 Flight IIAs), 4 LCS (2 of each type), and a T-AKE replenishment ship. In addition to that, I’ve also collected small Russian, Chinese, and Iranian forces, focused on a handful of smaller surface combatants for each. These are mostly to act as opposition forces for the basic scenarios I’ve been starting out with. Here is a picture gallery of what I’ve gotten done so far:

Future Plans and Next Steps

Overall, there are several further objectives I’d like to move towards with this project:

• A sizeable number of merchant ships of various types (about a dozen or so)
• A collection of modern-era terrain pieces, including oil rigs, islands, buoys, coastal defense radars, coastal missile launchers, etc.
• Expanded surface/sub-surface/air forces for China and Russia
• A variety of military aircraft models (vice 2D counters) for the major powers

My immediate next steps are to start working on my aircraft collection and the merchant ships. My goal is to have some of each done by the end of 2021!

Until next time…