Identifying WWII Ships - Now With Pictures!

[Ahistorian]

Hello Everyone,

I am about to come into quite a large collection of small-scale WW2 ships in a trade. Is there a good way to ID them quickly and accurately? My knowledge of the period is not deep enough to know all the ins and outs of turrets & such like off by heart.

Thanks,
M

[carlos marighela]

Yes get yourself a copy of Janes.

[warlord frod]

Try Ship bucket http://shipbucket.com/index.php Click on real designs and the country then you'll find scale drawings of just about every ship every built. Look it up by name class or year.

[Ahistorian]

I will see if I can find a copy of their World War Two compendium. But that only takes care of accuracy, no? Won't I have to go through the whole book trying to find out what is what by matching models to photos?

It looks like some of the ships have tags on the backs of their bases - "CA I 4", that sort of thing. Are they historical identifiers, or just made up by whichever player owned them last?

EDIT: Looks like Bezzo broached my first point for me!

@ warlord frod: Thanks, an impressive resource - though it still suffers from the same problem as Jane's - namely my inability to use it super-quickly! 

[Ahistorian]

I was vaguely aware of the abbreviations for different classes - where could I find a list of ship designations? My google-fu has already F.U. over this whole affair...

I will be very upset if it turns out to be the Chicago. I have been promised that it is a WW2 box of ships.

[Westfalia Chris]

I was vaguely aware of the abbreviations for different classes - where could I find a list of ship designations? My google-fu has already F.U. over this whole affair...

Wikipedia's got a list, and at first glance, it seems to be correct, overall:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hull_classification_symbol

[Ahistorian]

Brilliant, thank you!

[fastolfrus]

Put out an appeal to David Manley - he'll probably recognise half of them straight off. Not sure if he's on here, but if not he used to have a blog that had contact details, and he's a friendly helpful sort of chap.

[Ahistorian]

I may do that - it depends how useful the information on the models' existing bases is. Ooh, it's like Christmas Eve! 

[Only Warlock]

Do you know the manufacturer? If so, most have images of the minis you can match up.

[Ahistorian]

Sadly, there was a misunderstanding with the original trade, so the ships should be joining their Dark Age brethren on Tuesday.

And sadder still, I don't know the manufacturer, so it could potentially be very awkward to ID them all...

[Ahistorian]

Wilco 

[Ahistorian]

Well, the ships have arrived! It turns out that I have quite a varied mix of ships. I do love a good trade - it feels great to clear out the unused gubbins for bright shiny new toys.

One box contains 48 ships, all with British names underneath the bases, but which appear to be WWI-era vessels, a suspicion confirmed by the fact that among the 47 named vessels is the "Iron Duke". Luckily, several of them, like the Warspite & Arethusa, can be used in the later period too, so it's not a total loss. What am I saying!? It's no kind of loss at all, just a gentle introduction into the WWI period too!

The second box, the one with the aforementioned ship IDs, contains a rather large Japanese fleet (almost all named on the underside of the bases), and a set of green-and-bone vessels which I have no real clue about. The Japanese include: 9 carriers, 5 large capital ships, 16 cruisers, 19 aircraft stands and 50-60 destroyers, mostly unbased. There were also another 6 major vessels without bases.

They will all be getting touched up & re-based with a more cohesive colour scheme and clearer ship markings to aid speedy ID for me and my friends. I also have some ships for the Mediterranean turning up soon courtesy of another trade.

So, the pictures of the known fleets:

The might of Imperial Japan!


Hosts of Zeroes!


The pride of (ye olde) Britain!


And finally, as per Bezzo's suggestion, does anyone know what these ships are?

The green-and-bone fleet



Could these Japanese destroyers pass as US or British vessels?


The unbased Japanese and the un-named British vessel

[Ahistorian]

It is, isn't it - and hand-delivered in exchange for hand-painted Space Marines. I hope people see now why I didn't want to flick through Jane's for each of this 120+ ships!

Any clue on what those green ships are? I suspect they're American because the big battleship looks like the Iowa-class, but I'm not sure - I said the same thing about one of the unbased Japanese ships.

[Ahistorian]

@Bezzo: Sadly not, no. These are the true mysteries of my new 1/3000th collection.

However, I just finished my first game & playtest for my homebrewed WWII quick-play naval rules! In a battle lasting just under an hour, two early-war fleets clashed on the open sea. They consisted of:

Japanese: 3 battleships, 4 cruisers, 11 destroyers (with torpedoes). They had four admirals in their force.
British: 5 battleships, 4 cruisers, 6 destroyers (CA & DD with torpedoes). They had three admirals in their force.

The British negated the Japanese gunnery advantage with a cunning use of smoke, before unleashing a whirlwind of shells and torpedoes at close range. When the Japanese morale finally hit rock bottom, the butcher's bill was:

Japanese: 7 destroyers, 2 cruisers and a battleship destroyed; 2 destroyers, 2 cruisers & 1 battleship damaged.
British: 2 destroyers & 1 battleship destroyed; 1 battleship & 3 cruisers crippled.

The British lost 1 admiral to the Japanese's two - the annihilation of a flagship in the final turn is what broke their morale, taking them from shaky to fleeing in one fell swoop. In terms of lost tonnage however, it was a pretty even match - except in destroyers, where the Japanese really took a pounding.

I have another game booked in with a friend for tonight, so time will tell which empire triumphs in the end.