"Cold Wars : GHQ or Langton?" Topic

Alright guys..in honor of Cold Wars (East) starting in a few days, I figured I'd re-ask a big argument. For my last post about the Swedish Napoleonic era fleets..I want to move down to 1/1200 scale. Without bias, would you recommend either GHQ Micronauts or Langton Miniatures?

Matter of taste. Both are good, both are accurate. However the sculpting styles are different. You need to decide which looks better to you. Some things to consider:

GHQ does not have Baltic nation ships. Langton does.

GHQ will be at Cold Wars. I don't think any vendor there will have Langtons.

Use both for more variety. Our group has both.

I have both. I like both. I do add some sheet styrene to the hulls of my GHQ ships so they have as much freeboard as the Langtons do, and also I have used Langton mast/sail sets on my GHQ.

I am a big fan of Langton. When I found them, I sold all my GHQ.

You certainly can't beat Langton for variety.

I'm another of those that likes GHQ hulls with Langton sail sets. And Langton laser-etched brass ratlines.

Here is a Langton Spaniard for contrast to the GHQ version posted on another thread.

I find that the casting allows a more muted 'realistic' painting style – well at least to my eyes.

It is very much of "you pays your money, you takes your choice". Given the time you need to dedicate to getting them painted up, go with the style you like !

Best wishes,

Mark Barker
The Inshore Squadron

Thanks for the input everyone! I already have some unpainted GHQ frigates, and a GHQ "L'Bucentaure", which are gorgeously made. Maybe if Brookhurst Hobbies or Waterloo Minis come to Cold Wars I'll pick up se Langton ships, and try to compare/make a mixed fleet.
But with the Langton models, pros/cons of either white metal sails or photo etched brass?
Thanks,
Jake

I'm a Langton fan myself, but my fleets are a mixture of Langton, GHQ and some Skytrex, usually with Langton masts. Stay away from Navwar, unless they have improved considerably since the early 1980s.
BWW

Another vote for Langton, the detailing is incredible and I've always had great service from them.

The brass etched sails are something else too; I made the switch and now have them on all my fleets (then again, I am a little obsessive about how they look).

I have all Langton's fleets. For the smaller fleets Langton has them. I would vote Langton for rat-lines, sails and masts. After seeing photos here and on line Hulls is up to you. I would still go for Langton's.
Be safe
Rory

I actually prefer GHQ. The casting quality is better and Langtons all sit too high in the water although this can be sorted out with a big file.

Langton masts are better detailed but massively over scale and they over power the models. Their bowsprits are especially heavy looking – this is the down side of producing small scale models in white metal. Details may or may not bother you. GHQ's cast sails look better than Langtons as they look more billowy. The issue with GHQ masts and sails is that there is a cast web between the masts and the sails that kind of spoils them. It would be great to see them remaster their masts and sails to solve this issue.

Brass sails look suitably fine but they don't look like real sails as they only ever seem to get bent in one direction. Real sails are cut to billow. I guess with a jewellers hammer and a round anvil these sails could be teased out to billow – might be fun trying depending on your point of view.

I'm not keen on any of the hugely over scale detail on the sails of all makes and have no idea who started that trend. In reality these reefing points are thin ropes and you wouldn't really see them. On the brass sails this is made worse in that they all have an odd thick edge or rim to them. This might have been done to prevent the etching acid from eating away the edge of what would be very thin brass. I've no idea but it looks odd.

In answer I'd mix and match, modify and adapt. However, if you can't be bothered to do that I'd probably go for a one stop shop and given the variety that Langton offer I'd go with them, even noting the above comments. Which ever you go for Langton offer a wide variety of sail settings.

Brass or white metal. I've got both in the fleet but when I'm painting I find white metal easier to handle with washes etc and they generally look more 'billowy'.

You can get the double curve by a gentle rolling motion to and fro with a pencil, the more you roll the more curve goes in.

As to the reef lines the reefing bands across the sails would definitely be visible, and how strong an effect you apply is again down to personal preference. This conservation sketch of Victory's foretopsail show the bands and the vertical striping effect of the bolts of cloth being stitched together. You can give a suggestion of these with blends of thinned sand/flesh/bone colour to give some variation to the overall blank canvas.

Mark Barker
The Inshore Squadron