Warlord Games - Black Seas. Model Review

So this is just a review of the models at this stage. I've had a glance at the rules and am suitably excited to try them out but really wanted to put some thoughts on the models down in writing.

I have always been keen on Age of Sail wargaming for as long as I can remember and fell in love with the wonderful Langton Miniatures 1/1200 scale ships ages ago. I picked a decent collection of them and thought they were by far and away the finest models in that scale.  However having spent hours footering around (Scottish for fiddling) trying to rig the things and swearing loudly at no-one in particular, I begin to think: "Wouldn't it be nice of someone did these ships in a slightly larger scale and at an affordable price".

So you can imagine I was quite excited when I read that Warlord had decided to do this era in 1/700 using predominantly plastic models. Anyway, when I saw what was promised for  Black Seas I duly bit the bullet and went in all guns blazing and ordered the Platinum Package with the idea of paying for it by selling off my 1200 scale Langton Fleets to cover the cost.  I've also started reading all of the Aubrey / Maturin novels by Patrick O'Brien again to get into the period.  If you haven't read these, you don't know what your missing. They are by far and away the best books on the period. 

So I ordered the goods in advance of release and had an email from DHL to say they had shipped from the UK on 4 October.  Now here's the really impressive bit -  I live in New Zealand so I am well used to stuff I order talking weeks to arrive. So I was stunned to see them arrive here on 8 October. That's 4 days from the UK to my front door in Wellington!  Beat that for delivery!  Unfortunately I got stung for $155 in import duty (Thanks NZ Customs  😟).

Now I had already had a taster of the models when I picked up the October edition of WI  where there was a freeby of either 2 Brigs or a Frigate.  So I assembled painted and rigged the little Brigs and was really impressed. The kits are really well sculpted, nicely detailed and go together quickly. 

The only downside ! found was with the downloadable sail sheet. It's too big when printed off at 1-1 so I had to scale it down to around 85% to get the sails to fit the model.  Rigging the little things was also significantly easier than my experiences with the Langton Models and I am pretty pleased with the finished article.

So last night I abandoned wife and  grandchild and got stuck into unpacking the box of goodies that had arrived so quickly from UK.

So Initial Thoughts:

1. The models are better than I had hoped for. The Frigates and 3rd Rates are stunning pieces of work and are enhanced by the inclusion of custom stern fittings and figureheads for 6 different historical French and British ships. (3 Frigates and 3 3rd Rates). In saying that there's nothing wrong with the default plastic fittings that come with the basic kits either but being able to make them into historical ships is an added bonus.

French Frigate L'Hermione

Generic Plastic Frigate

French 3rd rate Bucentaure

Stern view of Bucentaure

2. The 1st rates look incredible and are enormous in comparison with the 1200 scale stuff.  My initial thought on seeing the price of them was "That's expensive" but having seen the size and detail of the work that's gone into them, I'd be happy to pay for more, and certainly will be.  The hulls are cast in resin and seem to be nice and sharp with a minimal amount of flash.. Fittings are all cast in metal. there is some flash there but nothing to write home about.  Just be careful when handling the masts, they are very long and easily get bent out of shape.  I'll build the Victory this weekend and put some shots up online when she's ship shape.

I added a bit of ballast to the bottom of each of the kits in the shape of a lump of blue tack to give them a bit of weight but it's not essential.

So overall I would give the models 2 big thumbs up. If you're hanging off on buying them and concerned about the quality then don't be, they look fantastic.

Coming soon apparently are the Spanish including Santisima Trinidad (136 gun 4 decker)  which must be bloody enormous if L'Orient and Victory are anything to go by!  I'll definitely be back for more and already thinking that putting on Trafalgar as a demo game next year would be great fun.



Ray