Review | Warlord Games Black Seas USS Constitution

The one that started it all. Old Ironsides herself. Yes, I finally got around to the USS Constitution, my favorite ship in history, and fiction for that matter. This particular rendition is a resin and metal model from Warlord Games Black Seas. Let's see how the model holds up. 

As models go, I would firmly place it in the "it's fine" category. I consider the Black Seas line to be "heroic" naval scale, as they exaggerate details like the figureheads and stern boards so that they're readable at a distance for gaming purposes. I actually really like this, but I think on this model the bow is a little too chunky. It looks overly large and unbalances the model. In a way it makes the front of the ship look like it's 1/600 scale while the stern half is in 1/700. The cannons on deck are quite fat and stout, which, sure, they can pass as carronades. However, when I look at the USS President, she has proportional cannons to her size. My last gripe are the windows on the sides of the hull. There's no framing, so I had to paint very thin lines to give the illusion of window panes. All this gives me the impression that the Constitution is an older sculpt, where Warlord was still learning how to work in this theme, at this scale, in resin, as the plastic models are totally fine. 

The stern though, *chef's kiss*. The detail is sharp and very readable. Nice and proportional. There's even framing for the windows! Ironically, the model comes packaged with a stern davit that covers up all of that lovely detail, which I couldn't abide. So I stole the quarter davits that come with the USS United States model and chucked them onto the Constitution, which I think looks better anyways. Plus, it helps draw the eyes away from the hack job I did with the windows. 

The paint colors are my standard US Navy colors, which are based off the real life ship anyways, so we've come full circle. The chunky prow actually comes into its own here. The iconic look of the ship would have been lost here if it was any smaller, as they would have had to be painted as solid white lines, much like on the USS President model, instead of white/black/white. With the larger size, that detail could be sculpted in, which makes painting that look much, much easier. 

I made one small adjustment for variety's sake. The gunport lids on the real ship are black, but that would have been boring black on black. Looking at some paintings, I did find that her gunport lids at some point were painted red, so I went with that look. Other than that, her look is close enough unless you want to get pedantic. Which I don't. I'm not sticking this in a museum somewhere. 

I did keep the metal masts around this time. Mostly out of a sense of laziness. Once all of the rigging and sails are in place it's fairly sturdy. That bowsprit was quite annoying though, I had to bend it back into place multiple times and adjust the rigging again and again. Ah well. Even if I did make masts from scratch I would have kept the bowsprit, so in the end I'm glad I was lazy. 

Issues aside, I'm happy with the model. It matches the design philosophy of my other ships, which wouldn't be the case with a 3D printed model. Besides, from a distance it does look really good, which is the point at the end of the day. 

-The Space Dinosaur