"Peter Pigs range 18?" Topic

Dose anyone game with Peter Pigs Range 18 1/450 ships. if so do you use them for large, small, or both types of engagements. is it worth it to get the guns and figs or are they too small to make a diff. I'm asking because I game with some 15mm figs and scratch build balsa wood and fome board ships and want to reduce scale but still be able to play ship vs ship type engagements.
thank you

Yep for both, they are not too large for fleet actions and I also intend to us them as a human fleet in the Uncharted Seas fantasy naval game. The extra figures and guns are nice but very expensive for what you get, for example you would need half a pack of crew to look good per ship…and they cost the same as normal figures despite weighing very little. I bought a pack and thats all I am getting.

desert war, don't know what part of the planet you call home but if the US of A check out Ross's, Michael's type stores for imported ships meant for mantle display. Take off their stands, Carefully chisel off their keel, and you have flat bottomed ship fully rigged and painted that work's great. The ones I have approximate 15 mm and for less than $20 USD you can't go wrong.

Good luck which ever way you jump.

Hi desert war, see some photos on my Blog: (Photos are clickable for a larger, macro view)

link

Paint up well, and look the part, if somewhat caricatured in style; figures are cast together in a block for a 'crowd' of men; probably worth getting a couple of packs, perhaps light or medium guns, and ship's crew, which also includes some helmsmen, there can, however, be some issues finding enough space to mount them on the decks of the smaller ships, though…

Hope this helps!

one more question, in some of the pictures of the large warship it looks like some of the gunports are open and some aren't but diff ones are open in diff picts. Is this an option when assembling the ships weather to open or close theh ports?

I have a pile (just picked up sixteen from various sources) and use them for all sorts of small craft battles, from pirate actions to 1776 and 1812 "Great Lakes" battles. I've recently started doing conversions, having tried unsuccessfully to get Martin to do a few more. I've converted some of the ships boats to gunbats (and used a few 1/300 examples from Irregular to make large gunboats), and made some nice fore-and-aft rigged schooners using some extra sails that Martin provided, as well as cutting away the lower fore sails of the standard schooner model for a different look. I've also made a half decent shore battery (again after unsuccessfully petitioning for Mr Pig to do one) using some of his spare guns and some spares from Toby Barrett's 1/600 ACW confederate battery. I'm wondering whether any of the models form the Skytrex 1/600 Lepanto range might be useable for 1/450 Barbary pirate galleys?

Hi desertwar, the aforementioned gunports are separate pieces which come in the gun packs.
All of the ship models are sculpted with ports in the closed position, and you merely stick these separate gunports, which feature the muzzle of a cannon and a raised hatch, on top. (As the hull is sometimes slightly curved, it is better to file down the sculpted-on closed port gently in order to ensure a good fit – oh, and add them before you start painting a vessel – too fiddly otherwise!)

This enables you to mix and match where you want to place your guns.

Unfortunatley, there are no 'open' gun ports through which you can poke one of the separate guns, as you will notice in the photos on my Blog, these have to be mounted somewhat awkwardly poking out on top of the ship's rail, so the muzzle/hatch combo is useful if you want cleaner lines.

Cheers, SteelonSand.

Thank you SteelonSand, I have ordered 1 of each warship I hope my subpar painting skills can do them justice. I can't wait to see more posts on yours. thanks for all your help

one more question. the gun packs say 8 guns. now is that 8 guns and some open gun ports. or 4 of each

Hi desert war, it's been a while since I bought from the range, and I can't lay my hand on the unpainted stuff at the moment amongst my huge 'mountain of lead'; however, If I recollect correctly, in a pack you receive eight guns as well as eight open ports to stick on.

I should say as well that the guns come with the crew cast-on in a 'crowd' around the gun, as if they are serving it – I think individual figures would be too hard to produce in this size, so that saves you some trouble-depending on the size of gun there are more crew figs per gun.

Your next question, of course, is the make-up of the deck crew pack, ( :-) but again, I can't quite remember how many little crowds of Pirates or Helmsmen you get in each, but I found a couple of packs more than adequate for seven or so ships.

Hope this helps!
Cheers, SteelonSand.