Second Challenge Entry - Ships!

It turns out that this challenge lark is actually hard work. Oh no not the fun bit of painting up my toys, no it's the bit about writing my entry on time!

Anyway now that it's published on the challenge blog I've reproduced my entry for the bonus round "Cold" below. Be prepared to learn a bit of history!

The Battle of the Denmark Strait was a World War two naval battle fought between Germany and Britain on 24 May 1941. There were six ships involved, both German ships, the battleship Bismarck and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen were attempting to break out of the confines of the Baltic sea into the Atlantic to raid allied convoys. Shadowing them were two cruisers, HMS Suffolk and Norfolk whilst the battlecruiser HMS Hood and newly commissioned battleship HMS Prince of Wales waited for the opportune moment to strike. However when the British ships finally did pounce HMS Hood, pride of the British fleet was catastrophically hit and sunk with the loss of 1415 lives,  only 3 of her crew surviving (Ted Briggs, Bob Tilburn and Bill Dundas).Due to gunnery malfunctions the Prince of Wales then broke off the engagement however they did cause some damage to the Bismarck that forced her to flee toward a friendly port (Brest). And so was set a race against time for the Royal Navy to avenge their loss and regain their reputation as masters off the seas!
"How is this related to the bonus round theme of Cold" I hear your all ask. Well the battle I describe took place in mid May in some of the worst sea conditions the crew of the aforementioned ships have ever experienced. All three survivors of HMS Hood came close to death from the icy sea (Ted Briggs spent three hours in the water and was near dead from hypothermia before being rescued by HMS Electra).

So I present to you the protagonists of the Battle of the Denmark Strait!


All six ships are 1/3000 from the Davco range stocked by Skytrex. They're pretty good on detail but are no match for the GHQ equivalents. However as I'm only dipping my toe in the naval wargame genre I'm quite happy with how they turned out! The battle ensigns are just laser prints of images sourced online, the ships themselves being based on lollipop sticks.