Review of Tumbling Dice 1/4800 Napoleonic Ships

By Mike Crane
Tumbling Dice UK has a line of small, metal Napoleonic Wars sailing ships that lend
themselves very well to the solo wargamers table. Although 1/4800 is a nice scale for
wargaming larger modern ships, I have never seen sailing ships this small before. In this
scale it is feasible to place all of the ships engaged in the Battle of Trafalgar on a large
gaming table or to play a brief encounter between a few ships on the kitchen table. In
the photos, the ships are placed on 2 squares with a regular six-sided die and a dime
behind them to show their relative size.
How hard is it to paint these ships? If we are talking wargamer quality as opposed to
collector quality, it really isnt as hard as it might seem. The ships are too small to show
much detail and the ships in the photographs were all painted up in an afternoon.

The first photograph shows two ships of the line (a three-decker and a two-decker) and a
frigate. The second picture shows three smaller boats (a cutter, a sloop, and a brig), and
the last shows three wrecked vessels. All of the fighting ships necessary to build a fleet

are available from Tumbling Dice. The packets containing the ships are labeled as
follows:
48N1 3x 3-deckers
48N2.3x 2-deckers (The 2-deckers are of two types, larger and smallerprobably
80s and 56s.)
48N3.3x frigates
48N4 unrated 2 each of sloop, brig and cutter
48N8 wrecks and sinking ships

In the UK the price is 2 a packet; no U.S. dollar price is provided, but the postage and
handling costs must be considered. The value of the British pound vs. the U.S. dollar
changes constantly, but I figure a ball-park estimate would make the pound worth about
$1.65. Pay Pal is accepted. Tumbling Dice also does larger battle packs which are more
expensive. The Squadron pack contains 8 packets and is 14. The larger Battle of
Trafalgar pack is 54.
The website address is: http://www.tumblingdiceuk.com/ . You can find the listing of
the 1/4800 Napoleonic Naval ships in the Tumbling Dice internet catalog by clicking on
the picture of the sailing ship on the home page and then scrolling down the page that

pops up. There is also an email address and a postal address for those who wish to make
further inquiries.
The ship silhouettes are historically accurate. The sculptural detail is good, though it
may be lacking a bit because the scale is so small. However, there is more detail present
than I can paint without a magnifying glass. Using differently-sized bases will make
instant identification of the larger types possible. Or, bases with ID's can be employed.
The mold quality is very good considering the smallness of the scale. The sturdiness of
the models is excellent. The ships are molded in one piece. Since the sails, rigging, etc.
do not have to be glued on, the ships are very robust and allow carefree wargaming.
Overall, in spite of their smallness, I rate the ships as being very good for solo gaming.