Cruel Seas - Looking at third party models (1) Bronekaters

I've been banging on about Bronekaters now for a couple of posts. Now the Warlord model is out it is possible to make a comparison with the others out there, in case people are interested in some variations.

I have touched on the Scotia,  Ros and GHQ models before here Bronekaters Shoot Out so I will try to avoid repeating myself too much and concentrate on comparisons with the new Warlord model.

So having said I was going to try to avoid repeating myself, the first thing to say is Warlord got the name of their model wrong, which I seem to keep saying. The model is a twin turreted Project 1124 NOT a Project 1125 as Warlord continue to insist. They also mix the stats of the two up in the game. I'm not sure why they keep repeating this mistake other than somewhere there is a guy sat in the corner of their Nottingham HQ with his fingers in his ears shouting "La la la la la I can't hear you!"

Back to the model. As far as I'm aware there are only two options for Project 1124s - Scotia Grendel and Warlord. The Scotia model has a resin hull and metal details, the Warlord one is all metal. Here they are after I painted them up - first pic has the Scotia Grendel model closest to the camera, second has Warlord.

Detail stuff first. I think on balance the Warlord model is slightly more accurate when compared to historical photos I can find as it has the prominent exhaust pipe running down the port side of the deck, and the slightly raised deck house behind the wheel house. Both of these are absent on the Scotia model, which has a blank area behind the wheelhouse and a pair of vertical exhausts \ vents at the rear. There is also more detail on the HMG turret with some ribbing on the guns. The Warlord model comes with a "spare" T28 (T35??) style turret. I cant find any pics of 1124s with mixed T34 & T28 turrets, so you really need to have 2, but as they models are sold in pairs this should allow you to make one with T28 turrets if you feel the need. There is also a bit more detail on the deck, and it is slightly less "fiddly" to put together. However the Warlord model has less sharp detail on the hull and wheelhouse in particular, and both mine had some major clean up issues with the metal hull warping and the bows in particular showed some damage where they had been snapped from the mould. The Scotia model hull is very crisp, where there is detail, it is sharper, a result no doubt of using resin. It has a more angular AA HMG turret which I think marks it as a later model.  I'm unsure if this may also account for the different exhaust details??

The Soviets produced at least 99 Project 1124s and throughout that production run details changed quite a bit, so I am happy with both models and would not be worried running them side by side. The Scotia model is £9, the Warlord one has just gone on sale in their store at £15 for a pair. There is no mention of data cards and wake markers, but these are easy to come by.

I have three Project 1124s now. I think I prefer the Scotia model aesthetically just because the resin hull has crisper detail, and cleaning up the metal bows on the Warlord one was a bit of a chore, but it is a VERY close call. If I were to want a fourth, I suspect it would be Scotia - particularly as I have seen pics of a 1124 with a midships 37mm AA behind the wheelhouse, so it would be easier to mount on the blank area with the Scotia model rather than trying to clear the area on the warlord one with a file. On the other hand if you were starting from scratch the Warlord one may make more sense.

Lastly a pic of the four different Bronekaters I've been looking at . Farthest away to nearest Heroics and Ros Project 1125, GHQ Project 1125, Warlord Project 1124 and Scotia Grendel Project 1124

Links
Warlord Games erroneously listed as Project 1125
Scotia Grendel
WarGamingmats  for the mat in the pics

Hope you found that interesting - if so why not click the follow button on the top right?

Next - G5 MTBs in comparison.