1/1200 Napoleonic ships

[Terrible Tim]

Does anyone game with 1/1200 Napoleonic ships? I have a few questions:

What brand of ships do you buy? (Lanton, GHQ)

What size ship bases do you use? And what material?

What rules do you use? (Trafalgar)

Could you please post some ship pics please. 

Thanks,
TT.

[Aaron]

I have a mid-sized force of Langton ships (@30 painted, but only partially rigged). Mine are mainly a mix of French and British Napoleonics with two US frigates and a Spaniard or two mixed in. I have one or two from other manufacturers, but once you see a Langton model you will never be satisfied with anything else!

I tried making a few bases from plasticard textured with spackling compound and one with wet tissue. They look surprisingly good after painting, but I took to buying the resin bases Langton sells as a time saver. I can't remember the exact sizes, but they go with his rules Signal Close Action.

Which are what I will use if I ever get around to it! I initially bought the fast play version and they read very well. I actually played one small game with them and they were fun and felt "right". I then bought the full-blown version of the rules and to be honest they made my head hurt a bit. If you want to get into every fiddly detail and cover every possible eventuality, these are for you! To be fair, a lot of stuff covered will rarely come up in a game and they do cover fun things like landing parties and shore batteries. Plus, I am a bit thick!

regardless of the rules you settle on, Langton's painting and rigging guide is essential! Looking at a rigged model it seems daunting, but he covers it in such detail that it is very manageable even for me!

I am in no way affiliated with Mr. Langton, just a very happy customer!
http://www.rodlangton.com

[Mad Doc Morris]

Langton's ships are very impressive. Although I have to admit I've not seen any other company's models for this subject in person. Aaron's suggestion for Langton's rigging guide is strongly seconded! Could be quite a challenge to get it right.
Recently, with Rob Broom's announcement of the upcoming Trafalgar rules, Magister Militum announced their own range of ship models on TMP. But now the only ships on their site are the GHQ ones.

Personally, I'm planning to give this whole naval affair a try by playing it as a board game first. I'll use "Wooden Ships & Iron Men" as it's not overly complicated, but captures the right flair. However, in combination with 1:1200 models there's need for a bigger board with hexagons on it - which is available as a gaming mat.

[Terrible Tim]

Thanks for the replies. I currently have 14 ships of various types (Cutters up to 1st Rates), mainly British. I bought the ships 12+ years ago and originally planned to use them for a 3D version of Wooden Ships and Iron Men (great game).  I must admit that I have only glued some of them together in those 12 years  ….. With the announcement of Trafalgar, I have decided to finish the project and add a few more ships. Langton ships do look great, so I will buy some and the painting guide as well. I will also try their bases - Mark Latham mentioned them on the LOTOW yahoo group recently.

TT.

p.s Do you guys have any pictures of your ships?

[Aaron]

I keep meaning to photograph mine, but never actually do it! 

This forum http://foro.spacegame.es/index.php?board=27.0 has some great shots of Langton and other stuff as well as some "how to"s. It is in Spanish, but some of the members are very fluent in English and are very friendly. The pictures (in the "fotos de barcas" thread) speak for themselves of course!

[Terrible Tim]

Thanks for the Spanish site. Great ships, I wish I could read Spanish....

TT.

[Aaron]

If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask. As I said they are a very friendly bunch. If you want to captain a virtual ship they also have an excellent free online multiplayer battle game at www.velmad.com.