"US Fleets, 1812 onwards" Topic

What models should I use for a US fleet in 1/3000? I know they lacked any ships of the line for the War of 1812, but would British, French or other ships be best for their fleet 1812-30?

For the Great Lakes battles, I'd check out the War Artisan site – he has free rules, and sells paper 1/300th scale ship kits, which look superb. He even offers a free vessel for you to print out, assemble, and test out, to see how you like it.

Can't do much better than that.

For larger, ocean-going vessels (Brigs, Ship-Sloops, and Frigates), I'd at least recommend looking at the Valiant Miniatures line of 1/2000th scale vessels. They are still quite small at that scale, look good without rigging (should you not want to add that), and are reasonably priced.

I'm no expert on ship design from the period, but since many nations captured vessels from others, and/or copied their designs, you can probably go with any that are the right size, or have the correct number of guns, and I doubt people will notice, or complain.

Here's the link:
warartisan.com

The American ships of the line were following alot of the patterns set by the large American Frigates. So basicaly the were larger than the same class as other Navies and carried more guns.

A good book on the subject is The American Sailing Navy by Howard Chapelle.

Here's the link to the Valiant Enterprises page of ships:

veltd.net/fighting.htm

They've just added a new, 54 gun vessel as well, which might work for an American super frigate.

Many other vessels too, categorized just by the class and number of guns, not nationality.

If you go to their main page, and select the Build your Own Fleet option, the unit pricing is much better, e.g. almost 50% off of the retail price, which is a bargain.

Valiant is adding a single masted topsail sloop, a small schooner and a small brig to their line to make it easier to do 1812 on the Great Lakes. Adding in a few Figurehead 1/2400 scale ships as gunboats covers just about everything.

Hallmark makes Napoleonic ships in 1/2400th scale, including one called "American Super Frigate."

link

The Valiants are nice ships, with a few exceptions (their 100 gun ships are tubs).

I've never seen the Hallmarks, but I had a bunch of Valiants until I switched to 1/1200th scale Langtons. I realize its a bigger scale than you wanted but Langton does make models for Constitution, Congress and Essex, as well as many of the Great Lakes ships. The downside is that the Langton ships are much more expensive, and you really do need at least rudimentary rigging.

rodlangton.com

I may consider a limited move into 1/2400 to get some of the theatres I want a bit more accurately, so thanks to you all for your 1/2400 suggestions, but does anyone have any ideas for ersatz 1/3000 US ships?