From Sylvain: 1:2400 WWII Royal Navy for Mers-El-Kebir (24 points)

From Sylvain:

Above is what I have painted so far for the Royal Navy. Unfortunately, I will not be able to paint any more until the 23rd of March, so after the end of the challenge. I am seriously considering early retirement in order to be more competitive next year :-). 

This time, I am submitting HMS Valiant, HMS Hood, HMS Ark Royal, HMS Enterprise (a light cruiser) and 6 destroyers. The first two ships mentioned are from CinC, all the rest are from GHQ. HMS Hood is not in WW2 configuration, but only experts like PeterD can tell the difference. 

What do all these ships have in common? They fought at Mers-El-Kebir.  PeterD has in his collection the remaining ships present at the battle.  So it is now a matter of time before you read a battle report from Algeria in 1940. 

This close-up of HMS Ark Royal shows heavy weathering. When I asked PeterD what color he painted his own Royal Navy models, he mentioned that British ships were at sea most of the time and, therefore, battered by the elements. It's a little difficult to "scale down" rust at 1:2400, but I am quite pleased with the result. Liferafts were usually grey, but I cheated and used a dull orange to create some contrast. 

Here is HMS Hood, eternally associated to the hunt for the Bismark. But Hood also played an important role at Mers-El-Kebir. I used Hood to test colors for the Royal Navy and was not really satisfied with the result. But since it's a CinC model I got for cheap, I'll just keep it the way she is and will eventually buy the GHQ model. Sorry CinC, but the details on GHQ models are just too awesome. 

Best of luck to all the participants in the challenge!

Lovely work Sylvain! I"m really looking forward to you and Peter putting these through their paces at Mers-El-Kebir in the near future.

These ships from the Royal Navy will give Sylvain 24 well-earned points.