"28MM scale ships. What do you look for?" Topic

Hi!

My name is Brian Carnes. I created the 15MM beer and pretzels age of sail game, Sailpower. ( sailpowergame.com )

I have been asked with a fair amount of regularity to create ships in 28mm scale for golden age pirates.

My first ship in this scale is the great sloop, representing the most common ship of pirates in the golden age. see sailpowergame.com/miniatures.htm , scroll to bottom to designs under development to see pics.

anyway, on to the questions.

what 28MM ships do you buy now?

what price range are these ships for a small/medium/large?

what materials are the ships you are buying made of? (resin versus high density yellow foam)

what do you think of the great sloop?

Should we cast this in high density foam (lower price, lighter weight) or resin (higher price, higher weight, more durable)?

Would there be interest in a 20 gun galley frigate, or a bomb ketch in this scale?

what other ship types should we consider doing in this scale?

what in you opionion has been covered well enough, and should be avoided?

I appreciate any feedback you folks can provide.

--Brian

Sloops and Brigs, plus a large heavely armed "pirate hunter" ship. Most pirates uses small lightly armed fast ships, so everyone will want that. But for those who want to recreate the Hollywood Pirate movies, you got to have a large heavly armed pirate ship. The large pirate ship can then have most of the guns removed and then double for a fat merchent prize then two.

Definitely the higher durability model.

As mentioned above, sloops and brigs, and up to a frigate in size, since Black Bart and others captured and used those.

Ideally, I like them to look like a real ship, when possible.

This are nice looking vessels:

link

Another option I would like to see are a sloop (9 gun vessel) for Blackbeard's last battle, and a pair of smaller, civilian-sized sloops with only a couple of swivel guns each, for his pursuers. This would permit the ability to re-fight his last battle.

On pricing, I guess that depends upon the cost of resin. You obviously need to make a profit, but lower costs will result in more sales.

Providing a number of options/accessories in one box might help to increase your profit, and lower costs for the customers. Individually priced items would be a good idea too, for those on a budget, e.g. give the option of buying the ships with masts, guns, and other accessories together, or separately. Provide a discount for combined pack pricing.

Being able to buy a pair, or set of vessels at once, for a discount, and to do battle against one another, would be a nice option, e.g. the Blackbeard set suggested above.

Pinnace

How about some kits for those who want to finish their own models? How about a discount on larger purchases? A good ketch and a prize ship to capture are options.

Junk, turtle ship, yawl, galliot, cog… Any ship can work. Remember the curse of 28mm, other than sheer size, is the smegging bases!
Plus the great sloop, IMO, is overarmed. If the hull can take all those guns, you will struggle to fit enough crew for them on the deck. Each gun needs around seven crew. More typically the larger sloops could have up to 8 guns lashed to the deck, and carry up to 160 pirates. But all those guns at about 65'? That's like making a toyota troop carrier my choice of post-apocalypse ride so I think I have enough seats to carry crew for 6 50 cal mgs plus the driver, or having a tank somewhat bigger than life so I stick 20 manually-controlled sub-turrets onto it, or sticking 50 AAM hardpoints under the wings of a heavy bomber thinking it's going to hold its own against fighters long enough to use them all.
A schooner will work for me too, and perhaps seven-barreled guns….

Chironex,

The great sloop is armed correctly for it's size, perhaps even a little underarmed. The sloop providence (American revolution) was about this size and not only carried this amount of cannons but many light rail swivel mounted cannon as well.

Remember that these are 4 pounder cannon. They can be easily run by a crew of 4. I made sure in designing the deck to leave plenty of room for figures. this is the prime reason I chose a open deck as opposed to a qaurterdeck design, it makes it easier to add figures. I will try and post some pics soon with figs on the deck.

Aggie21

I currently do 15mm ships as kits, and my distributor offers quanity and club/HMGS discounts.

when I do 28MM it will be as a kit, the only question is whether to follow the trend of low cost high denisty foam hulls, or the higher cost all resin hulls. Or even offer both.

schogun,

by pinnace are you refering to a small boat, or to the 30 to 50 foot decked over single mast shallow draft ship with a single cannon on the nose used by pirates.

I really appreciate all the comments! keep em comming!

According to one online source you are right: the great sloop could carry another two guns in addition to what you have. I checked the book and it seems I was reading the wrong entry…..Must have been thinking of the schooner, 8 guns, four swivel guns. Typical pirate sloops could have 6-12 guns. RN warships were often like this too, the greatest successes recorded against pirates were achieved in sloops of 12 guns.
Other options to consider:
galley
galleass
hoy
cromster
brig
A barque would have been too slow for piracy, but a good model to have for a target…

How about a wider variety of smaller boats so I can use the single guns I keep finding that I can't arm larger ships with as they don't match any others?

The ship does look great. I would prefer resin as opposed to the foam.

I've had some old MiniFig 25mm ships made out of high density yellow foam that have lasted me for years and they didn't cost an arm and a leg. The Pirate market is big now so I'd keep your vessels in the small to medium range (maybe one large vessel). I'd also keep the number of guns carried on the low side even though this may not be historically correct, it allows more crew for boarding and shore raids, which were typical pirate tactics. I agree with chironex about the smaller boats with single guns, this is another characteristic of pirates, but can also be used by major powers of the time. I think your great sloop looks great, nice detail, but if I was a pirate I don't think I'd attack that…to many guns for my crew!!

I like the 28mm sloop on your site, & would like to get one & perhaps a 28mm model of Interceptor. I would definitely buy a 28mm Bomb Ketch! I would be ok with either foam or resin, and would be looking for something (detail wise) along the lines of this:
picture
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just for fun, here's my 28mm 32 gun frigate. looks good, but is a pain to transport:
picture
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I would like a XVII century frigate in 28mm for buccaneer's age wargame.

…frigate with a lot of decorations on the stern.

Resin! I second RBatVB. Keep the number of guns carried on the low side even though this may not be historically correct, so we have more space for a lot of miniatures.