"Scale Question" Topic

I just picked up Naval Thunder and am curious as to what scale more seasoned naval gamers than me would recommend for it. I plan to focus my modest collection on the Guadalcanal engagements so from what I can tell it will be predominately cruisers and destroyers. I'm trying to keep costs down, too, since this is a side project for me. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Have a look at these:
panzerschiffe.com
Some people like them as they are one piece resin castings and nothing can break off like with the GHQ multi-piece CL, CA and BB models. The GHQ DD models are single piece models and the detail is excellent. The Panzerschiffe models are very affordable.

I'm a 1/6000 guy but if I had it to do over, I'd seriously look at 1/4800. I converted from 1/3000 primarily for the range/scale relative look on your average 4'x6' table (or even 5'x10'). The 1/2400 GHQ, CinC, WTJ stuff is gorgeous but a bit big for my taste on a mere 4x6. Navwar/Davco-Skytrex, WTJ is pretty darn good in 1/3000 and very complete.

A lot depends on your cost and visual preferences. Smaller is usually cheaper (1/4800 does require a lot of Shapeway$$$$). Range on the table versus scale is a matter of preference. 1/2400 has great detail but 1/3000 is close.

Note: Warlord is coming out soon with a whole new WW2 naval game called Victory at Sea with models in 1/1800. FWIW the starter set is cruiser/destroyer USN versus IJN in the Pacific.

Destroyers, in 1/6000th scale, are just too small.

1/4800th – 1/3000th are decent options, as is 1/2400th.

If you want mainly DDs with a few cruisers, then I'd go with the larger scale.

If a mix, you'll need to choose.

1/2400th is in my opinion, more popular and prevalent than a lot of the other scales, for naval gaming. Of course, others may disagree.

1/3000th is more of a UK/European scale.

Warlord is coming out soon with a whole new WW2 naval game called Victory at Sea with models in 1/1800

A new version, not a new game.

Panzerschiffes WW 2 ships are 1/2400 scale. BTW, Dave Dougherty of Panzerschiffes was always great to deal with. Also, the ships come in a basic light grey resin and don't need assembly so you can start playing with them right out of the box-I've still got a few German DDs I've had and used for over 40 years and haven't yet got around to painting them-camo on destroyers in 1/2400 scale is a bit finicky.

I've been using Panzerschiffes since the mid 1970s and they are, as Coop said, affordable and robust-they can be broken but it takes some effort to do so.

Inasmuch as I bought most of mine 15-40 years ago my impression of pricing might be out of date, but my impression at the time was that Panzerschiffes capital ships-cruisers and larger-vary from cheaper to quite a bit cheaper than their competitors. For smaller ships, DDs, DEs and the like, the price advantage is either not so great or disappears.

As I say, I did my comparison shopping a long time ago and the price relationship between Panzerschiffes and other 1/2400 scale ships may have changed since then. I'd recommend if price might be an issue for you that you compare prices for large (BBs, CAs & CLs) AND smaller ships (DDs & DEs) to see if buying from one or another manufacturer would save you a significant amount of money. I never directly compared Panzerschiffes with other manufacturer's ships, so I don't know if there might be compatibility issues-in theory all 1/2400 scale ships should scale out the same but I don't know for a fact that this is the case-and think some of the smaller details on the Panzerschiffes, like guns, are a bit overscale to make the resin from which they are cast a bit less likely to break.

Thank you very much for the quick replies, gentlemen! I feel like I now have a much better sense of which way to go.

I use 1/1200 but it is an old collection and as I'm not starting out it is great. Today I would look 👀 at the 1/2400 scales and smaller.

I'm using 1/2400 and we play Naval Thunder. The scale has a lot of ships as others said. We do BB on down and the scale keeps DDs from looking like little ants.

(from the pre-exiting scale thread…)

In defense of 20th century 1/6000 naval …

1/6000 DDs are not too small if you get closer to the table. For a small battle or night battle, you can even sit on a chair next to the table. You can fight such a battle on a card table, which BTW is equivalent to a 7-foot-square table in 1/2400.

In general, the smaller the scale, the more viewing options you have. If you want to see the models better, get closer. If you want to see the entire table, back off.

WRT detail, on average Figurehead 1/6000 has about the same detail as Navwar/Davco 1/3000 of twice the size. Yes, GHQ and CinC 1/2400 ships are more detailed than 1/6000, but then you have the table space issue.

They also cost less than larger scales.

Finally, note that carrier deck art is available for 1/6000: link