ive been asking q's and looking through build threads on the forum and im getting the genreal idea that the Richelieu doenst turn well, is this a major problem or is it just in comparison to other ships that do turn well, also with the painting of a ship, can you only paint the ship in the colours that the real ship had, becasue ive seen different colours and designs that the richelieu had for example ive seen one photo of the ship in a block camo type scheme and another thats more of two tone sheme where the middle 2 quaters of the ship are a darker gray, the reason im asking this is becasue the transport im building, i cant find any colour photos of it so is just a nice battleship gray ok?
Its a big long ship with one rudder, its not going to turn well, nature of the beast. I dont know of any clubs that regulate paint color, but most (not all) tend to go with traditional or somewhat scale paint jobs. However there has been atleast one bright pink boat with sparkles.....its not really reccomended unless you're a 10 year old girl and in that case it is what it is. Atleast you'll see it easily on the bottom.....
Since I battle a Richelieu extensively in MWC, I can probably give some fairly realiable answers. Heh. Compared to twin rudder ships, the Richelieu will never turn as well as they do. The closest I got was matching the turning on a Bismarck that wasn't set up quite right for turning. That doesn't mean it can't turn most of the time. Mine actually turns very well and was once called the best turning single rudder ship in Region 3. Side Note: It was NOT turning well at the Bruhaha ... I've already taken steps to fix that. Heh. Since it can't out turn twin rudder ships and it has the unusual forward guns setups, it must be battled diffrently than the standard battleship. I tend to run it like an oversized Cruiser if possible. Hang on the outside of the battle and use it's 24 second speed to come knifing in to try to catch another ship flatfooted in the water. Since it IS a big ship, it can usually take some punishment while dishing out dual sidemounts. The key is not to stop but keep moving ... once the Richelieu stops, it's fishbait for the quick turning ships. I've also developed a couple unique tactics to use against solo ships like a Bismark that helps negate thier turning while setting up my cannons for some sidemount loving. On color schemes, the Richelieu looked like it had three diffrent ones. The easiest is the simple all gray from the waterline up. The most complicated but appealing scheme is the two tone gray block which I WILL do someday (probably for a NATS). The third scheme and the one I use most often is that dark middle hull section with lighter gray at the bow and stern. With help from Mikey Deskin, we found and translated a French book that gave the names of the colors. Interestingly enough, that dark middle section that looks like dark gray in those black and white photos is actually a marine blue. Without a good color chip handy, I tried to pick out something close at Home Depot. It turned out pretty good, if a little distinctive. There has been times during a battle when I would hear a captain say soemthing like "Shoot the blue ship!". It has worked to my advantage before too, like during the '08 MWC Nats when an Axis captain shot at a Bismark that happened to have a blue paint scheme. Lastly, color schemes do not seem to be rigidly enforced in the MWC. We've seen all black ships ... pink ships ... white ships ... ships with sparkles ... red ships ... Well, you get the idea. Heh.
Mike, you should talk to Brian K about his ranging setup on his sidemounts.... might be a worthwhile refit for Richie.
There aren't any rules regarding color schem to be enforced. Of course for most people grey and rust red work pretty well. But you do get some interesting paint schemes from time to time.
cool, cheers guys for the info on that, so its not such a problem after all as long as you keep moving, interesting that there are no rules on paint, i could paint my transport ship with different colours on each side as an attempt to confuse the other captains, on opposite sides of the pond, or i could put racing stipes on it, that'll make it go faster.
Cant see them well in this pic but you get the idea. Plus its a decent pic of my VDT. www.portpolarbear.com/RESOURCES/NATS2008/nats015.html
haha, i wonder if you can get typr r stickers in 1/144 scale, although id go z tune, ill also make my prop chrome, rollin on my 1 inch rims yo! ah i love this forum always going off topic in the funniest ways
Do not dismiss the potential combat advantages of a well-done color scheme. Historical camouflage schemes were designed for a multitude of perposes, from disguising a ship's class or giving an incorrect speed estimate to total invisibility or even the illusion of extra escorts, sailing in formation. On the model pond, paint and color can be used to create a wide array of illusions to provide you that extra little combat advantage. Here's a few examples: 1) unarmed transport SS Silverfish. I painted this boat with a blue and green mottled pattern to disappear into the background waves of my local pond. This works pretty well, but the ship's wake gives away its general location. Since people can tell approximately where it is by looking at the wake, I have added another layer of protection: a brightly colored team flag, on the stern of my boat. This flag attracts the eye, so when people shoot at my ship, unless I'm very close to shore, they tend to aim at the flag instead of the center of my ship. Because of this, I take noticeably less damage in the front of my boat than I do in the stern, and it most likely (although I cannot prove it) decreases the overall number of hits I take. 2) monitor HMS Terror. Like many Big Gun vessels, this WWI monitor has rotating guns. To aid its skipper in seeing where his guns are pointing, the tips of the barrels are painted a bright orange. This is one of the simplest beneficial paint schemes I know of, but it does have noticeable benefits for her skipper when operating far from shore. 3) battleship USS Iowa. This particular ship and this particular skipper have been together for as long as I've been in the hobby. The skipper is very good, the ship is (usually) very reliable, and she always wears the same blue-and-grey paint scheme. This makes her very distinct and recognizable, since no other ships wear a similar pattern. As a result, challengers know right where to head, and mere mortals know where to avoid. So what's the point? Color schemes have fairly minor effects compared to quality pumps, batteries, and cannons, but they do undeniably have benefits. Don't neglect good ship design and basic maintenance in favor of a pretty paint job, but if everything else is working good, it is worth your while to put in that little extra effort. PS: There are quite a few more possible beneficial color schemes than the ones I mentioned here, including (classified information), (top secret), and (censored). Make sure you (insufficient security clearance) as much as possible in order to (removed by the Bureau of Public Information). PPS: yes, racing stripes really do make you go faster. It's a scientifically proven fact that racing stripes will add at least 5 knots to a stationary ship's apparent top speed.
ah that brightly coloured tip on the cannons is a great idea, i recon at this piont ill go for the block camo on my richelieu when i get around to building it, ill be able to blend in... like a ninja made out of lego
Best thing for merchant surviability is to make it look like all the other merchants. Merchants that stand out get sunk first.
so true, gray and red it is then, much simpler to paint as well i was thinink if you got say 3 or 4 merchants ships you could paint them to look like a battleship and sail them in a straight line, or paint it back to front to confuse people but it would only work once, and from one angle, from any other angle then side on they would just look like bits of broken ship floating around one other question with the Richelieu, on some of the photos ive got of the ship it shows it having some plane catapults on the rear, can these be armed like on aircraft cariers in the ausbg rules or is it just aircraft cariers that can be armed with planes?
ill paint my transport just gray and red nothing fancy, but with some teeth and eyes like on the A10 tankbuster warthogs, at least it can smile at the other ships when it goes down
