Age of Sail Model Ships

 Various Figures for Age of Sail Wargaming

I have various figures for my Age of Sail Wargames.  Some of them are cheap and cheerful, others are expensive works of art.  I have reviewed them for anyone wanting to know what they are like.

Navwar

Navwar 110, 74 and 38 mounted on card bases

Navwar was started in the 1970's to provide affordable ship models for war gamers and that’s exactly what they do. For the price of one of the more expensive manufacturers models you can have 3 or 4 of these.  The ships are cast in a soft white metal and are supplied as a complete kit. Hull, Masts with sails, Bowsprit sail, Driver and ships boats.  They paint up fairly easily and can be rigged enough to look the part.

Website

http://www.navwar.co.uk/

Scale

1/1200

Hulls

These come as a 1 piece casting with holes drilled for the masts to sit in.  They tend to be on the small side, especially in height.

Masts & Sails

The sail set provided is Easy Sail with courses furled and each mast and sails are cast in one piece. The Driver sail has to be glued on to the Mizzen mast and the sail has to be glued on to the bowsprit.  The masts are usually quite thin and can bend.

On the larger ships there is room between the sails to thread rigging lines through, but on the smaller ones you will need to drill a hole for them.

Detail

The castings are reasonably flash free and have sufficient detail to allow a reasonable paint job. 

Bases, Shrouds/Ratlines, Flags and Pennants

There are no bases, shrouds/ratlines or flags/pennants supplied with the kits so you will need to source these elsewhere.

GHQ Micronauts

The ships are cast in a soft white metal and are supplied as a kit. Hull and masts with sails.  These are more expensive than the Navwar ships but the detail on them is far superiour.  These kits glue together easily but again the masts are a little thin and prone to bending. There are gaps between the sails to allow for rigging. They paint up very easily and can be rigged more than the Navwar ships without much trouble.

Website

http://ghqmodels.com/

Scale

1/1200

Hulls

One piece castings with more detail than on Navwar ships.

Masts & Sails

The sail set provided is a choice between Easy Sail with Courses Furled and Full Sail.  You chose the kit with the sail setting you want.

Detail

The detail on these castings is much better than the Navwar models and there is a lot more detail on the sails.

Bases, Shrouds/Ratlines, Flags & Pennants

They are supplied without bases, shrouds/ratlines or flags/pennants.

Langton Miniatures

Langton 100, 74 and 64 gun ships on Clear Acetate bases.

These ships are cast in a soft white metal and supplied as a kit. However, unlike Navwar and GHQ these ships can be bought in multiple forms.  You choose your hull, sail set, shrouds/ratlines, flags and a base.  There are boxed sets of multiple ships available that come complete with all the parts required.

Website

http://www.rodlangton.com/

Scale

1/1200

Hulls

Hulls of the larger ships are cast in two pieces.  The stern galleries glue onto the rest of the hull.  They are very detailed and larger that both the Navwar and GHQ ships.  They are also supplied with gun ports closed or open.

Masts & Sails

Masts and sails are supplied in various sail sets.  You can also buy them as cast white metal, or brass etched sails on white metal masts.  These need to be cut out, rounded and glued onto the masts individually.  I would reccoment the cast white metal sail sets for a beginner.  The masts are thicker than the Navwar or GHQ ships and much less prone to bending.

In the picture above, the 100 gun ship has the brass etched sails whilst the other two have the cast white metal ones.

Detail

The detail on the Langton kits is superb. They are slightly larger than Navwar and GHQ so the detailing shows up much better.  They are fairly easy to assemble, paint and rig.

Bases, Shrouds/Ratlines, Flags & Pennants

These are all available and are ordered as part of the ship.  The ratlines are brass etched and have to be cut out and painted prior to attaching to the ships.  They cover the masts from the hull past the Fighting Tops to the next cross yard.

Warlord Games

Warlord Games 100, generic 74 and generic Frigate

 

Generic 3rd rate sprue

 

Generic Frigate Sprue

 

Generic Brig Sprue (2 brigs per sprue)

Replacement Hulls to convert Generic 3rd Rates to Small 3rd Rates.

Also, Ship Card, Wake Marker, Sails and Ratlines pack

These are plastic, white metal and Resin ships created for their wargame Black Seas.  They are 1/700th scale so almost twice the size of the Navwar, GHQ and Langton Ships. They are supplied as kits.  There are plastic sprues for the 3rd Rates, Frigates and Brigs.  The larger ships come with a resin hull and usually white metal masts.  The special ships usually have metal decks or resin hulls to replace those supplied on the sprues.

Website

https://store.warlordgames.com/collections/black-seas

Scale

1/700

Hulls

Hulls are supplied as the main hull, the stern galleries and the bow/figurhead.  You get three of each stern and bow with the sprues and the special ones are white metal and the sterns usually have the ship name on.  The plastic hulls from the sprues are supplied in three pieces that need assembling and the bow and stern adding.  The resin hulls only need the bow and stern adding.

One of the big problems here is that they supply a generic 74.  As yet they do not supply an 80 or a correct sized 64.  The 64's they do supply seem to be the same size as their 74 model, but with less guns on deck; they should be slightly smaller.  Also, whilst they do supply a razee'd 64 frigate, the HMS Indefatigable ship in their Royal Navy Fleet box seems to be a standard frigate, not a razee'd 64.

Masts & Sails

Masts are supplied on the sprues and the sails are punched out of a printed card and added to the masts. Special ships have white metal masts but still have the card sails.  The plastic masts are thin and can bend easily when rigging which may result in slack threads.  They are also not very deep around the fighting tops so fixing the ratlines on can be tricky. The white metal masts have decent fighting tops and are much easier to fix the ratlines on. They do supply a small bobbin with nylon or rayon thread on for rigging.  I find this hard to use as if you let go of it, it springs back into a coil.  I use a cotton thread.

Detail

The detail on these ships is very good, even the plastic ones.  The plastic ships have small holes cast in the sides to allow rigging to be fixed.  However the white metal and resin hulls will need these holes drilling.

Bases, Shrouds/Ratlines, Flags & Pennants

Warlord do sell sea bases for the ships but they are not supplied with the kits.  The kits come complete with printed acetate ratlines that need to be cut out and added to the ships.  These only cover the lower part of each mast from the deck to the fighting tops.  Each kit comes with a sheet of flags and pennants.

The Royal Navy flags do not include a Blue Ensign and the sheet states that the Red ensign is for merchantmen.  Whilst a lot of merchants flew this flag, Royal Navy ships in the Red squadron or unattached Frigates also flew this ensign.  It wasn't till 1864 that the Royal Navy switched to the White Ensign, the Merchant Navy the Red and the Royal Naval Reserve got the Blue.

The Ensign and Pennant a ship flew should be the same colour, that of their Admiral,  apart from some unattached frigates that flew a Red Ensign and a multicolour pennant.

Westwind productions

Westwind Forged in Battle Ships

These are white metal ships cast in two pieces, a ship and a base.  They are no longer on the Westwind Productions website.

Website

https://www.westwindproductions.co.uk/

Scale

1/3000

Ships

These are a 1-piece casting of a ship that includes the Hull, Masts & Sails, Flags and Ratlines.  The base is cast separately and the ships have to lugs on their bottoms to locate them onto the bases.

Detail

Despite being so small there is sufficient detail on these ships to allow them to be painted and recognisable.