No More Empty Seas

My favorite section of any forum is always the painting/modelling section. Unfortunately this one is naked so far! Hopefully if someone gets things started, other folks won't be bashful.

I'll start with the very little bit of ABDACOM stuff I've accumulated thusfar.

HNLMS De Ruyter:

Admiralen Class Destroyers



USS Marblehead



HMS Exeter



All are War at Sea sculpts, but I hope to be filling them out with a nicely sized Shapeways order after the first of the year. The Omaha in particular needs some baby ducks to follow it around.

edit: typo, updated image of Admiralens to reflect the third in the collection

I'm two days late for the Java Sea anniversary, but I've got some more additions for my ABDACOM lineup. Java, Tromp, a third Admiralen (added as an edit in the original post), a horde of Clemson/Wickes destroyers, and some really neat auxiliaries based on Clemson/Wickes hulls. The Admiralen was a War at Sea repaint, but the rest are Shapeways models in WSF from several designers. The auxiliaries were pretty neat. I had picked up the group principally for the Childs class, since our gracious host was kind enough to add it to the game . But the other two were pretty interesting in their own right, once I got to reading about them. Technically only the Childs is really ABDACOM in any sense, but I had taken a group shot, so that's just what it's going to be. In the rear of the image is a Child's class AVD in MS21(ish), a seaplane tender. Two of them were operating along with USS Langley and a converted sloop as the tenders for Patrol Wing 10, the PBY Catalina wing in the Asiatic area at the beginning of the war in the Pacific. In the middle is a minelayer conversion in MS 12 MOD (ish). All eight of the conversions that were still active were based out of Pearl Harbor, and were present during the attack. Front is an APD, or All-Purpose Destroyer. These had their torpedoes and 4"/50s stripped and the main guns replaced with 3" DP guns and additional light AA added, and they retained their ASW capabilities. They were used to ferry supplies and troops at night in much the same was as Japan did with it's Tokyo Express during Guadalcanal. At times they were used to insert teams of marines to make raids, and it's the marine teams that gave them the nickname "Green Dragons."

Really neat little ships with interesting histories. If you want to read more, check the links below.

destroyerhistory.org/flushdeck/avd/
destroyerhistory.org/flushdeck/dm/
destroyerhistory.org/flushdeck/apd_operations/

Clemson/Wickes Auxiliaries


Clemson/Wickes DD's


HNLMS Tromp


HNLMS Java

Looks excellent! Its a shame they removed those ships, graverobbing if you ask me.

It's a really sad situation. It's definitely a case of graverobbing, but it's also a theft of history and of opportunity for those that would dive the wrecks.