German East Asia Squadron

I keep thinking about some sort of solo campaign using the Berthier Campaign Manager (now on version 8.0) and it seems to me that a fairly simple naval campaign would be ideal.  In fact I've long thought about the adventures of the Emden and/or von Spee's German East Asia Squadron early in WW1.

SMS Emden

These are some shots of my 1/3000 scale East Asia Squadron that (so far) have only seen action once.

SMS Gneisenau

The models are by Navwar and they are based on card with textured woodflex on them.  I painted the ships before mounting them

SMS Scharnhorst

Waves generally run parallel to each other (perpendicular to wind direction) so that was the first level of texturing.  This was followed by creating the bow wave and the 'residual bow waves' down each side of the ship and finally the wake.

SMS Dresden

I then painted the bases in "silk-matt" (i.e. slightly glossy) Revell acrylic "Lufthansa-Blau", which is actually quite a deep blue colour. When I painted them I had not long come back from a long sojourn in the South Atlantic and a week at sea certainly gives you an idea of what colour the open ocean can be.

SMS Nurnberg

The bases were then given quite a heavy dry brush using matt Revell acrylic Seegrün.

SMS Leipzig

Finally, the bases were finished off with some dry brushing with basic white to pick out the wave tops, the bow wave and the wake.

Now to come up with a campaign.  As I said I was thinking to start with the Emden's course to and through the Indian Ocean, with the merchantmen she hunted and forces hunting her programmed in to Berthier.  On the other hand, it could be run from the Allied side with the movements of the Emden programmed and everyone else looking for her.  Battles will be fought with General Quarters 2, when the time comes.  Needs a bit of preparation I think and I'll post about that when it looks like I'll be up and running.