Visiting the German Navy Museum...

A awesome week of holiday is coming to its end. It had special moments with my family and extraordinary day trips with wonderful Mrs Monty and our two girls. But one of the highlights was without any doubt our trip to the German Navy Museum in Wilhelmshaven which we took yesterday. Its most exciting exhibit is the destroyer Mölders (D 186) that has an interesting circular route which is leading the visitors to more or less all different parts of the ship.

Of course this was our venue:

Bridge, superstructure and bow gun turret. A gentle 127mm artillery piece inside.

Launch installation for anti-aircraft missiles as well as anti-ship missiles (Harpoon).

The combat information center.

The radio room.

Besides the Mölders there are two other ships which can be visited inside and outside. One is the minehunter Weilheim from which I didn't take photos because it was raining temporarily and later I forgot to. The other one is type 205 submarine U 10 which was on duty from 1967 until 1993:

U 10

Besides those there are a couple of other ships which cannot be entered and a lot of other items belonging to German Navy warships. Most of the from more or less modern ships from after WW2:

Twin mounted 40mm L/70 Breda 1958/II AA gun used on different frigate, destroyer and replenishment ship classes

RBU-6000 depth*charge launcher used by the Sowjet Navy and GDR Volksmarine

100mm L/50 gun turret used on Köln class frigates and Hamburg class destroyers

Type 131.423 small torpedo-speedboat on duty from 1976 until 1989

Besides those exhibits there's memorial for the soldiers of the 2nd 'Matrosendivision' (Seamen's Division) on the area of the Navy Museum. It was built even before WW1 on another place but was transferred to this new site in 1960. It bears the names of seamen who lost their lives on duty on several ocasions between 1878 and 1911:

Inside the museum's building there's a permanent exhibition covering the history of the German Navy from the 1600s until WW2. Unfortunately space is very limited there and the history of Germany's navy isn't by far as excessive as that of other Nation it's a rather small collection. The exhibits are nice never the less but not too numerous:

Großadmiral Alfred von Tirpitz - Father of Imperial Germany's armament

Uniform of a general-adjutant to Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Very nice are the model ships that are exhibited everywhere. They are all 1:100 scale which is around 15mm wargaming scale. On the one hand that gives an excellent size comparison and on the other hand it made me think of 15mm land sea scenarios with those models...

Heavy cruiser Scharnhorst, 1907 - 1914

Battleship Bismarck, 1940 - 1941

Really large models there...

U 139 'Kapitänleutnant Schwieger', 1918

Currently there's a special exhibition about SMS Emden which is well known for its heroic landing party which was lost on the Cocos Islands while the ship itself was sunk in a naval battle by HMAS Sydney on 9th November 1914. However those men made there way back home with simplest means and against all odds.

1:100 scale model

Replica of SMS Emden's bell. The original is in the Australian War Museum in Canbarra.

This was only a small selection of the interesting things the museum has to offer. To my mind 11.50€ is a rather fair admission fee. For navy enthusiasts it's a place to visit without any doubt but even more peaceful minds will find something worth visiting. This time wonderful Mrs Monty wished to go there and give good old Mölders a closer look.

Anyway tomorrow I'll head home with a couple of bees in the bonnet. After this day in Wilhelmshaven the idea of 1/1200 naval battles is floating around my head. Maybe this becomes the next side side side project...

On holiday !

Meanwhile nearly half the year has passed and thus it's time for our annual family holiday. For the last year before Viktoria enters school we're able to set our holiday outside school holidays which makes booking easier as well as cheaper.

Anyway this granted us a couple of days by the sea and since we're enjoying the questionable luxury of free Wi-Fi access I'm able to give some proves of life:

Viktoria and me inspecting the beach... No invasion this time.  ;-)

Because with every bag dear Mrs Monty packed 'for the kids' the trunk of our car seemed to downsize I decided to travel light. So I didn't take paint and brushes along but a small case with a couple of Perry plastics, a hobby knife and such stuff. Maybe I'll find the time to prepare those chaps to represent some of the heroes of Waterloo.

Although the weather was rather tough today I'm looking forward to the next days. Although Anna's ill with a cough again this time off should help me get away from all the worries and recharge the batteries. At special request of dear Mrs Monty we'll visit the German Navy museum in Wilhelmshaven again and will take the chance to visit the destroyer Mölders and a couple of other vessels again. However I'll try to get some other news shared later this week.

Long time... No see... Back to business and AWI.

With horror and regret I realised that my last sign of life was a month ago. Honestly I have no excuse for that other than ongoing problem with finding hobby time. Some pleasant and unpleasant incidents ate up my time and my time to prepare and write articles for this humble blog was even shorter than my painting time.

Anyway this weekend I how much I missed the connection to the bloggosphere and that I should wade into blogging again as soon as possible.

Thus let me start with the command figures I previewed lately:

Those two figures are part of an older Wargames Foundry set from their wonderful AWI range (here). Actually those men are meant to Cornwallis and Clinton but for me they'll serve as more or less versatile generals as divisional HQ for our AWI games. Both are splendid sculpts by Alan Perry with characterful faces and awesome details. Although he made those pieces of art a couple of years ago they are still splendid and stand every comparison to his latest work. In comparison to the newer ranges (e. g. the Perry Miniatures AWI range or Front Rank) the figures especially the horses are notably smaller. For me that is no problem as long as I don't have them side by side on one and the same vignette or unit.

The chickens and the circular base are by Warbases. They are from Diane's and Martin's expanding range of animals and serve very well to make such vignettes more vivid and less monotonous.

I hope you like my first presentation after this rather long absence. Although my family and me are on holiday next week I'll prepare a some material I collected during the last weeks to stay present.

Painting Table Saturday - AWI Officers progress

Actually we're preparing to have some friends with us later but while Mrs Monty and the girls are out to do some last food shopping I found the time to post a short notice from the workbench. During the last week time was tight as usual but I proceeded to paint the AWI officers and the driver I started lasst week:

As you see they are not finished yet but on a good way. Next they'll get dark blue lapels, golden lacing and some more highlights on the shirts, trousers and maybe on the jackets. Not to forget the boots but the most time consuming part - namely the faces - is done. Again I used the six colour Wargames Foundry paint set and I'm really glad with the colour gradations.

The grim fellow on the right will need some more work. Although I did the best I can with the face he needs highlights for all parts of his garment. Fascinating that all three miniatures were sculpted by the Perrys. Especially the face of the middle figure which shall represent General Clinton is superb while the driver is very slight in details...

Simultaneously I washed the horses with Armypainter Wash "Strong Tone" but I didn't take pictures of this sparsely interesting step.

Anyway I hope to find some time to finish the boys next week and maybe even the horses.

Enjoy your weekend !

For Sale: Dark Elves (1)

Finally it's time for spring cleaning and thus I sorted out some old miniatures from my Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40K days to cede them. Of course I would appreciate to give them to a good new home so let me offer them here at first:

The whole bunch.

After all it's a set of two units of crossbowmen and two repeater bolt throwers. I bought them a couple of years ago so probably the plastic models are from one of the last editions. They are painted with Citadel colours by humble me.

Here are some detail pictures:

Crewman of one of the bolt throwers

One of the crossbow units: 12 men incl. full command.

Details of them. 

The second unit: 10 crossbowmen

To buy those chaps in their new incarnation would mean to spent £77. Unpainted of course. Since they are rather well painted and ready to use I'm asking for about £125 (+ p&p) or near offer.

So if you like the models and want to place a reasonable offer then please email to :

montys[dot]caravan[at]googlemail[dot]com

International shipping is no problem. It should be between 9 € and 16 € worldwide, uninsured. As insured parcel more expensive of course.