Wanting to tryout naval wargame rules without a large expense, we turned to simple 2D print outs from the web.
As you can see – nothing special, but they worked! Looking at keeping the cost low, I came across War Artisan’s Workshop. It is stunning. So we made three models of a 64 gun ship to try them out. Please note that the picture below is not a good representation of what his ships normally look like! We wanted something robust and quick to get into action the next day. Instead of wire, we used toothpicks, and we weren’t concerned so much about making the ships look tiddly.
We were hooked. The games were fun, and we have grand dreams of combining naval and land warfare for a Napoleonic campaign. Seeing that my lead pile had shrunk a bit, I decided to add to it and bought some metal 1:1200 ships. The scale allowed for a bit more room compared to the War Artisan ships. So I searched around and saw many expensive miniature warship manufacturers. I then came across Warrior Miniatures. They are a small company in Scotland who pride themselves on the pricing of their products. There are no pictures of their Napoleonic ships on their site (or weren’t when I was ordering), but other reviews showed them. I was a little worried about some of the pictures, as it seemed like there were some problems with a few of the moulds. Nevertheless, I decided to give them a shot and put an order in for 13 French and British warships and 2 merchant ships. The warships were mostly frigates, brigs, and schooners, but some larger vessels as well to round things out. The total cost with shipping was just over 40 pounds. Now, living on the Far Side of The World, shipping can be expensive, but when you factor it in to the cost per miniature Warrior is still far and away the least expensive 1:1200 manufacturer I’ve seen.
A few emails to arrange payment later (they do not use PayPal), and then my order was dispatched. I have had orders from the UK be delayed, (up to 3 months once for a Warbases order – though it was Canada customs and definitely not their fault) and wasn’t expecting the ships overly soon, but 3 weeks later they landed on my doorstep.
As you can see, there’s a lot of ship for the money.
The detail is quite good. I am not an expert on warship models, but I am happy to have this on my table.
The port side of the 2nd Rate sculpt needed some cleaning, but is not a lost cause by any stretch of the imagination.
The smaller ships are well detailed and seem to scale nicely against their heavier sisters.
The sails come with some fine details and some more obvious. I am going to be careful priming the sails so I do not obscure the finer details. I can imagine that it is a trade off between realistic and visible detail for the sculptors, but I have no misgivings about these as nothing seems exaggerated or out of place.
As you can see from the picture above, the ships scale nicely and are supplied with some nice paper flags and pennants. You can immediately tell a ship of the line from a 5th or 6th Rate, and the smaller combatants look quite fragile, which, to an extent, they were. I included the other 2nd Rate to the right so you can see the models as they come. There was really limited damage due to shipping, which was nice to see.
Overall, I’m very happy with Warrior Miniatures. They are friendly and prompt, and exceptionally well priced. Their product seems to be excellent for a wargamer’s table. I know that there are those in the community who love modeling every ratline and ensure that the anchors are properly catted, but much of my life I have lived with the various details of seamanship being of prime importance, so in my hobby time I’m not fussing about that. I’m hoping to paint these up and throw them into battle and pretend I’m Nelson, Cochrane, and Pellew all in one. Mind you, I’m supposed to be the French… In any event, I’m going to paint some of these up over the coming weeks and I’ll report back with either an After Action Review or a specific post on how I find them on the table.
BT