Following on from a couple of other posts on the forum, what is the consensus regarding substitution of ship types and how close do you want them to match?

Some obviously just require a flag change after being captured but what about other substitutions?

Without the larger range from the likes of Langton and waiting possibly years from Ares to obtain a ship you might want, What is your tolerance level?

Say if Ares does not make a particular ship, is it really ok if you want for example the US Essex to just take a similar gunned model (say a Concorde)
and reflag with an American one and maybe a paint touch up for variation?

Another example, to take a Hebe class French frigate and reflag as either the Spanish Amfritite 1796 or the British Blanche after its capture in 1805.

How close at this scale matters?

Then we come to the recent matter of size differences of the current Spanish release.

The bigger the ship the more the differences stand out. Should we grab other ships like a Royal Sovereign or Orient and reflag as Spanish for anything between the Rayo and Santa Ana? Is anyone going to count the gunports while you are gaming?

Should I concentrate my 3d printing efforts only on conversion pieces when I start, things like just a replacement stern rather than a whole hull. With the current hulls being a couple of mm shorter in width it makes a cut and replace a bit harder without filling and sculpting.

Same for a Bellona as a replacement Nepomuceno, where do you draw the line?

I have seven more ships coming which will bring me to around 55 in total and the whole reason I started was so I didn't have to paint the majority if I chose not to.

I could literally play from the box. With my 2400th scale ships substitutions were easier, all the navy packs you bought contained the same range of sculpted ships but you had to paint them all before you played (that was my line in the sand so to speak).

Should I just pick a range of ships and go generic like the smaller scale. The upcoming releases should fill some nice gaps (if they are to scale).
I can handle the base inserts and ship cards no problem for any ship I need.

What about other nations, Could I select from the current ranges for Russian or others and reflag/repaint? At the end of the day would you really care or notice?

If it wasn't for the painting side of it and the lack of time I have for it I'd be considering ditching the entire collection and switching to Langton.