"1/600th - 1/700th Cargo Ships and Tankers?" Topic

There's been a bit of discussion of late, as well as postings about using 1/700th models for naval wargaming.

Of course, this has rekindled my interest in doing some convoy battles using 1/600th – 1/700th models too – WWII in the North Atlantic, primarily, though of course other theaters could be fun and interesting too – Atlantic Seaboard, Convoys to Murmansk, British Coastal Convoys, and convoys in the Med. for both the Germans and British.

Early War, Eastern US Seaboard would be ideal for those engagements before the convoy system was fully instituted, as well as for some smaller convoys during the war.

Skytrex, now sold by H&R has a nice range of Coastal Forces vessels, subs, and some smaller merchants and tankers. Alas, I'm interested in some larger cargo vessels for the North Atlantic, but really can't afford the 10,000 ton vessels, especially in quantity, so am looking for ideas for creating/fielding some suitable vessels on the cheap.

I plan to use some of the larger vessels sold by H&R for smaller vessels in the convoys, but could use some 6,000 – 8,000 ton ones too.

I don't have a 3-D printer, or easy access to one, so it seems to me that making some out of balsa, or better yet, bass wood is probably a good idea (perhaps even regular wood cut to shape for the hulls, since I imagine basswood in any size and quantity is probably pretty expensive now too). Another option would be plastic-card, or cardboard stock, though not sure the latter would stand up to the rigors of combat on the tabletop for more than a sortie or two.

I suppose, if I come up with a decent design or two – one to two merchants, and perhaps your run of the mill tanker, I could also seal them, and cast them in resin.

Any other ideas?

Last time I checked, decades ago, a 1/700th Liberty Ship ran about $30 USD+, which is also right out as far as budgeting goes.

I won't be doing a full, 1:1 ratio convoy, but was thinking perhaps 12 – 20 merchants protected by 2 – 3 (4?) escorts would be a decent sized force, for a small convoy, and/or one at about 1 model for every 3 real vessels in it (historical scenarios), so just a portion of a convoy.

Any other ideas I haven't thought of, or sources for affordable cargo ships and tankers in either 1/600th or 1/700th scale (thinking primarily 1/600th to match the other vessels, though of course larger ones in 1/700th scale will work too)?

Well, if you can scratch-build something close to what you need (but without any undercuts, though you could get away with shallow ones for details) you could make a "one sided" mold of it with silicon caulk, then make plaster casts galore (cheapest material to use, plus you could customize each ship by adding other details or even carve parts away, if desired.)
Since these would be 'waterline' models, the bottom of the ship's mold would be where you pour the plaster in. You could even convert failures in sinking ships… ;-)
Just an idea…

Have you thought of scratch-building in cardboard? There are several sites that sell downloadable models. It should be possible to find some generic merchant ships and reduce/enlarge to your favoured scale. For wargaming you would not need a great deal of detail.

I got some 3-d printed T-2 tankers from Sea Dog Game studios. They were scaled down to 1/600 and 35 bucks each. Check their FB page as they have several merchies, a kick ass MUTSUKI class destroyer, and the merchant cruiser KOMET, and they'll scale them down from 1/300.

Thanks for the suggestions.

$35 USD for a single model is too rich for me, especially given how many I'd like to have, or need – probably at least two tankers, if not more.

Will probably need to scratch-build one or more, and then perhaps, if possible, try casting some up.

Lengths aren't too bad, e.g. 9" – 10" each for the cargo ships and tanker(s), and only about 1" – 1.5" wide in 1/600th scale.

I even looked at 1/1200th scale, but minis for that are pushing $20 USD a pop for merchants, especially if/when you add in taxes and shipping for those too.

1/2400th or smaller would be the way to go, but less impressive on the tabletop, especially if you only have just a few U-Boats and Escorts on the water.

I'm going with the Skytrex merchants but I've also been eyeing 1/700 freighters. Perhaps you can get lucky with models being dumped on ebay or estate sales? There should be some cheaper ones floating around that don't have all the new tooling and PE involved. For 1/600-700 you should be able to get a rough hull outline and do it in balsa or pink foam and styrene or wood for the details. Someday I plan on making a 32mm "scale" freighter so I was looking up plans as the way to go and scratchbuild. You have to do some googling but there are some free plan sites, or just line drawings, that should get you in the ballpark. For larger scale the fittings are available but unless you find a sprue of a 1/700 ship it could be fiddly. I know there are people on ebay that do sell sprues from model kits (got a PZIV sprue once) so those might be an option. There are some paper models but most of those are scaled or not of your era. I'm sure some are out there and there are poeple who make them for battling in ponds, just have to scale it down (that's one of the links I have below).

I found this but don't know the scale and the site goes to some weird off-white font when I search around.

link
link

link
link

vintagemodelplans.com
freeshipplans.com

The 1/1250 lead ships from the traditional "nice" manufacturers are definitely costly. Trying to make a collection of those will cost you an extra mortgage. Or two.

The Figurehead Coastal Forces collection includes cargo vessels for more reasonable prices, and DDs and DEs to escort them.

There are quite a few 1/1250 merchant vessels on Shapeways. Many are quite expensive, but some can be had for reasonable prices in the multi-unit prints like these from Decapod:
link

Nobody has mentioned PT Dockyard yet. Their focus is coastal forces, but there might be some merchant ships in the line of miniatures.

Looking at the PT Dockyards site, they have a separate listing for 1/600 merchant ships starting at 250 tons going up to 1200 tons. The 1200 ton ship costs $10. USD

Thanks for the suggestions.

Looking primarily for 6,000 – 7,000+ tons for merchants, and probably some T2 tankers.

Alas, the Figurehead merchants are very nice, but about $20 USD a pop for the larger ones, which is pretty expensive for such small minis.

An alternative would be to make paper silhouette standups of the ships. That's pretty much what a U-boat crew would see in a night surface action anyways… ;-)

There was a company that made top-down views of ships that you could print, cut, and glue to your own ship hull base. I've seen them in a game, don't own any.

If you can find top-down views you could print and glue them. They'd have to be scaled for your use. Looking quickly for 1940 ships doesn't show many in color but I found this link that might have something you can work with. They're non-combatants so not sure how much work you want to put in them. If I needed a bunch I'd probably print and glue and paint when able.

link

I'll have to see.

Thanks for the paper ship suggestions, and others.

I do have a scroll saw, so can use that if I need to make a bunch quickly. Basic hulls should be pretty easy to do, and deck structures shouldn't be too much more difficult.

I have produced a single RFA for the Falklands Conflict back in the day, from basswood or balsa, so it shouldn't be too hard to make some passable targets.

The escorts, subs, and aircraft will really be the stars of the show anyway.