Project Jutland - WTJ and the Grand Fleet Review

British Big Guns Complete

HMS Canada at full speed in the twilight

Welcome back ye followers of Project Jutland, last week saw me finish off the last nine of the British Battlecruisers and Dreadnoughts for the game, 24 of the main battle line, the 4 15" Fast Battleships and the 9 Battlecruisers all done ! An ongoing 6 mm WW2 game has been hogging the table for a couple of weeks delaying the photo session.

The final batch consisted of those 4 Fast Battleships, HMS Canada, 3 Iron Dukes and a rogue HMS Indefatigable, who somehow got missed on the first pass.

The final 9 British heavies

What was slightly different with this batch was that all but one (Canada) was from the US company WTJ, very different to the classic cast metal kits GHQ provide, they are effectively printed (the lovely owner of the company did explain exactly how they were made but my eyes glazed over !).

The above photo gives you an idea of what they look like when they arrive at your door. No fiddly build stage just straight glued to their base. I give them a bit of a scrub in soapy water before priming them but I have never had any problems with paint lift and importantly no breakages of guns barrels etc. If you haven't already seen WTJs stuff I did a review and comparison blog post HERE.

15" guns, fast speed, good armour, shame about the ammo

I have included a bit of a comparison photo between Royal Oak which is from GHQ and Valiant which is from WTJ, both great models, more detail especially on the deck with GHQ plus the ability to rotate the turrets. WTJ wins hands down on price though and they really don't look out of place next to each other, some of the other manufacturers in this period and scale have very little detail and to me are just recognition models.

The Iron Dukes all WTJ

Here we have the Indefatigable from WTJ next to her sister New Zealand who is a GHQ model. The comparison is the same as the 15" ships above, less detail on the WTJ but still a very acceptable model.

The last ship of the batch is this beauty from GHQ, I really like the way this ship has turned out, can't put my finger on why I just like it.

Grand Fleet Review

KGV leads the line.

So there you have the meat of The Grand Fleet, Armoured Cruisers and Light Forces to complete but this is the fighting end done. For scale the table is 12 x 6 and as you can see with bases touching the battle line only just fits.

Project Jutland is on a slight hold at the moment, my German pre Dreadnoughts have arrived as have a batch of light stuff from GHQ however 6 of the remaining German Big Guns were out of stock so I will have to wait until they arrive. I was going to crack on with the light stuff but realised I had run out of bases, more have been ordered from ERM but I will have to wait as Tony is having a well deserved week off.

With all the Jutland excitement I have neglected our WW2 Baltic Campaign so I will get back to that this week.

Useful Links

Guide to Painting and Basing the Ships
Project Jutland - Dreadnought Wonderland
Project Jutland - Rule Britannia