Panzerschiffe

[Soulmage]

Just got in an order from Panzerschiffe miniatures. (Despite the name, they're based in Ohio!)

I had ordered the Yamato, Missouri, and Bismarck, along with a couple destroyers just to check out the quality of the miniatures.

I must say, I'm very impressed! They are much better than I was expecting!

Now, let me qualify that a little according to what I was looking for.

Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to play this game nearly as often as I'd like. Not much interest in historical games with my current group. So I'm looking at mainly playing at conventions. With that in mind, what I wanted was some nice, table-top quality miniatures that could be touched up just a tad with a minimum of paint and look decent from 3' - 5' away.

That's exactly what I got. These are miniatures I will be comfortable allowing complete strangers to handle, as opposed to worrying about damage to the miniature or the paint job.

The shame of it is. . . my wife is a PHENOMENAL painter! She could make my ships look absolutely gorgeous! But I'm not going to ask her to. We play far too many miniatures games that require painting as it is and I don't want to add to her load for a game that won't get played a huge amount.

 

[Lord David the Denied]

Any chance of some photos of these models? Also, what scale are they?

 

[Agis]

Just got in an order from Panzerschiffe miniatures. (Despite the name, they're based in Ohio!)

I had ordered the Yamato, Missouri, and Bismarck, along with a couple destroyers just to check out the quality of the miniatures.

I must say, I'm very impressed! They are much better than I was expecting!

Now, let me qualify that a little according to what I was looking for.

Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to play this game nearly as often as I'd like. Not much interest in historical games with my current group. So I'm looking at mainly playing at conventions. With that in mind, what I wanted was some nice, table-top quality miniatures that could be touched up just a tad with a minimum of paint and look decent from 3' - 5' away.

That's exactly what I got. These are miniatures I will be comfortable allowing complete strangers to handle, as opposed to worrying about damage to the miniature or the paint job.

The shame of it is. . . my wife is a PHENOMENAL painter! She could make my ships look absolutely gorgeous! But I'm not going to ask her to. We play far too many miniatures games that require painting as it is and I don't want to add to her load for a game that won't get played a huge amount.

Pheww, I was honestly very disappointed by the minis. I ordered some Z-Plan KM ships and was horrified to see that all main turrets guns are casted on the mini. No lifeboats, no planes, no cranes - basically no detail at all.
For my taste very bad at 1/2400.

But - good if you like them. They are indeed a cheap alternative if you want to go for 1/2400, did not want to assemble the minis and just play with them. :wink:

 

[Soulmage]

They're 1/2400 scale.

I'm sure I'll post some photos eventually. A little busy for the next few days.

Yes, the ships come as 1 piece, no cranes etc. as you mention.

Personally, I'm just fine w/ that. VaS is somewhere around my 5th or 6th miniatures game. I'm not looking for diorama quality miniatures - especially with little bits that can get easily broken off - I'm just looking for some fairly decent looking ships to play with that will look like what they are when viewed from several feet away. IMO, they fit that bill well.

If you're seriously into the "hobby" side of the game, and plan to spend hours painting and basing your ships, then yes, I would encourage you to look elsewhere.

 

[Agis]

They're 1/2400 scale.
snip
Personally, I'm just fine w/ that. VaS is somewhere around my 5th or 6th miniatures game. I'm not looking for diorama quality miniatures - especially with little bits that can get easily broken off - I'm just looking for some fairly decent looking ships to play with that will look like what they are when viewed from several feet away. IMO, they fit that bill well.

If you're seriously into the "hobby" side of the game, and plan to spend hours painting and basing your ships, then yes, I would encourage you to look elsewhere.

Agreed to both points!

 

[BuShips]

The Panzerschiffe models aren't the best that's out there, to be sure. Their strength is low cost, and finding ships that others don't make due to their wide range of choices. I'd put GHQ at the top of the scale, and then C-in-C down from there (for US manufacturers in 1/2400). Another nice strength of Panzerschiffe is in convoy ships, with several sizes and types. They really helped fill out my convoy collection by giving it small medium and large sizes, some as cargo and some as troop transport varieties. C-in-C has an excellent fleet oiler that I'd recommend as well. Panzerschiffe has more choices than all others combined if you want to fill out the "almost-weres" 1920's buildup of massive warships that the 1922 Washington Treaty cancelled. I made up several of the masters many years ago that were used to cast up a few of these designs. You can improve the resin Panzerschiffe models by adding wire masts and cranes, which I think I did on a few when I finished mine up, but they are nowhere to be considered close to a GHQ pewter casting. In 1/2400 scale GHQ rules the waves, but be prepared to spend more treasure for them. Overall, I've picked my collection from many sources and am very glad there are as many choices as there are to pick from, and would not disagree with the other comments here as well. It's just a matter of what you are looking for, and then what you do with them once you have them.

 

[Reaverman]

They're 1/2400 scale.
snip
Personally, I'm just fine w/ that. VaS is somewhere around my 5th or 6th miniatures game. I'm not looking for diorama quality miniatures - especially with little bits that can get easily broken off - I'm just looking for some fairly decent looking ships to play with that will look like what they are when viewed from several feet away. IMO, they fit that bill well.

If you're seriously into the "hobby" side of the game, and plan to spend hours painting and basing your ships, then yes, I would encourage you to look elsewhere.

Agreed to both points!

Well I am happy enough for GHQ minis, they suit me fine

 

[Captain_Nemo]

Thank you Soulmage! I posted a question about this company a week or so back but no had the info then. These are exactly what I am looking for also.

Thanks again for the review.

 

[Agis]

I picture says more then ....
:wink:
P-Kreuzer below of Panzerschiffe:

See how I detailed the kit here http://www.agisn.de/html/hyperdetailing.html...

 

[Lord David the Denied]

What is that? :?

 

[Soulmage]

Very sharp! Although with that amount of work, you're definitely better off sticking to the fancier stuff! Good job though!!!

 

[Agis]

What is that? :?

It's a P Cruiser (Z-Plan fast Graf Spee design).
See my website update...

 

[BuShips]

What is that? :?

It's a P Cruiser (Z-Plan fast Graf Spee design).
See my website update...

It's a very nice job you've done, Agis. It's only appropriate that the company that made that was called "Panzerschiffe" :wink: . As to comments that Agis should really spend less effort and get models like that from a "better" company, they probably didn't consider that some of the models desired are not offered by all companies :idea: . It's quite possible that Panzerschiffe may be the only company to offer a P-Cruiser in 1/2400 scale. That's what I had mentioned a bit earlier, in that Panzerschiffe basically invented 1/2400 scale (he claims that on his site) and has a wide chioce of ships to pick from. My collection is built using maybe as many as five sources for the models (myself being one of them). I suppose Agis could have scratch-built the entire ship too, from what I've seen from his link :wink: .

 

[Soulmage]

Huh. I guess I hadn't thought about that.

I also guess that's one more point in Panzerschiffe's favor for those of us who are very casual about it.

I get the impression that the players in this game are going to come from two main camps.

1. The folks who are already into historical naval gaming, and possibly other genere's of historical wargames as well.

2. The people who mainly play sci-fi or fantasy wargames, but thought that this game looked like fun.

I'm definitely in the 2nd group. I've always had a love of ships though, from ancients, to age of sail, through the end of the battleship era. But I've never really indulged that interest in miniatures gaming before. So I'm really looking forward to this rulebook coming out!!

 

[BuShips]

Huh. I guess I hadn't thought about that.

I also guess that's one more point in Panzerschiffe's favor for those of us who are very casual about it.

I get the impression that the players in this game are going to come from two main camps.

1. The folks who are already into historical naval gaming, and possibly other genere's of historical wargames as well.

2. The people who mainly play sci-fi or fantasy wargames, but thought that this game looked like fun.

I'm definitely in the 2nd group. I've always had a love of ships though, from ancients, to age of sail, through the end of the battleship era. But I've never really indulged that interest in miniatures gaming before. So I'm really looking forward to this rulebook coming out!!

Soulmage, I'm very happy that there are as many companies as there have been for gamers to choose from. It's a bit of give and take as to the detail on the Panzerschiffes line of minis, due to being made of gravity-cast resin. For example, the owner (David) had to fill-in my ship's mainmasts on a master I sent him like 20 years ago and thus reduce the end look due to a one-piece mold not being able to handle the hollowed-area inside of a tri-pole. If it had been spin-cast in metal, it would have been better, but then would have been more like GHQ or C-in-C, and cost more. It is a sliding scale, but Agis has shown us there are things that can be done to improve a more "basic" relief model to upgrade it to an improved model. I'd call it a "refit" in naval parlance :wink: .