The PT Dockyard Sale

I haven't bought any new stuff for my WWII or modern coastal fleets in a while.  I get a lot of my toys from PT Dockyard in New York.  Dave Gregory's business fills a nice little niche in the hobby, offering vessels from WWI, WII and the modern era.  He specializes in coastal vessels for the "narrow seas" but also has his Shangri-la line of 1/1200 ships of might-have-beens, including a what if modernization of the armored cruiser Seattle that is quite spiff. Gregory is a super vendor, one you can always feel safe doing business with.  The models aren't always a snap to assemble, but they are quite nice.

PT Dockyard vessels from the med.  An Italian torpedo boat leads escorts into battle with British and Americans on the narrow seas.

Sometimes it gets quiet around PT Dockyard, and I get a little e-mail from Dave announcing new releases or some short term deal.  He sent off an e-mail last week announcing a 15% off sale.  Good deal, and last night I took advantage of it.  I ordered three Fairmile B MGB's and a re-released model of an American motor gunboat on a subchaser hull.  It keeps alive my commitment to some day doing the Raid on St. Nazaire and adds a valuable little piece to my American coastal fleet.

PT Dockyard goodies arrive!!

As I explained last week, I took advantage of the PT Dockyard Black Friday sale to order some new goodies. Among the arrivals was the Littoral Combat Ship LCS-1 Freedom. It is intended to provide support for coastal operations. Unfortunately the navy never reached a consensus on design, and the cost for the two completed LCS designs were ridiculously over budget. So much so, that the Littoral Combat Ship was cited by John McCain as an armed services boondoggle in the second presidential debate.

The model is pretty cool. It's huge compared to my other modern vessels, and comes with a helicopter in both stowed and flying mode.

I also ordered and received two of the new, but small Iranian vessels, and a pair of Fairmile B's. I've included a picture of the Freedom at its launching in 2006, as well as a size comparison shot of Freedom with an Iranian missile boat.

One more quick item. I received notice yesterday that the Puyallup Wargamers, a group of Warhammer Ancient Battles enthusiasts are now being chronicled by a blog. The blog is kept by Dean Hachimantaro and is simply entitled WAB Corner. If you are interested in WAB, the Puyallup Wargamers are very active, and are quite prolific. They have armies for the Dark Ages (using the Shield Wall supplement,) the Punic Wars, Samurai, and they are working on Hundred Years War armies, all well painted in 25mm. If WAB is your thing, I encourage you to keep tuned into WAB Corner. It is linked in my Blogs of Note.