Every campaign eventually hits open water. A kraken surfaces, the party commandeers a smuggler’s hull, or a chase turns into a broadside duel across the harbor, and suddenly you need a ship your players can actually stand on. The question stops being “is a pirate ship cool” (it is) and becomes “which one do I put on the table.”
I run a 3D-printing studio in Utah and I’m a DM and avid gamer, so I’ve printed, assembled, and sailed most of the options out there. This guide is the comparison I wish I’d had: what makes a pirate ship playable, how the two ships that matter differ, and how to pick between them.
A ship you only look at is terrain. A ship your players fight on is a set-piece. Three things separate them, all worth checking before you spend a dime.
Removable or open decks. This is the single most important feature. If the decks lift off or the hull is open-topped, you can place miniatures on every level: the hold, the main deck, the quarterdeck. A sealed model looks nice but does nothing during a boarding action.
True 28mm/32mm scale. The deck squares and railings have to fit standard heroic-scale figures so your existing minis stand naturally on board. A ship that’s a hair too small turns every fight into a balancing act.
Material and finish. Premium, durable PLA holds plank lines, rope, and wood grain that take paint beautifully. Ask whether it ships unpainted and primer-ready, or hand-painted and table-ready.
You don’t need a fleet. For nearly every 5e campaign, the decision comes down to two hulls at opposite ends of the spectrum: the caravel and the galleon. One is a fast raider, the other a floating fortress.
The caravel is the workhorse of a naval arc: small, quick, and open-decked. It’s the kind of ship a scrappy party can crew on its own. Our version, the Rum Razer caravel, has a fully playable open deck, eight cannons, and measures 15 inches long including the bowsprit, about 4 inches wide, and about 15 inches tall including the masts. That’s a fighting footprint: it fits a standard battlemat with room to maneuver and board. It’s the ship I hand new DMs first. It comes in two tiers:
One thing worth knowing before you order: the masts always ship unglued, on every tier, because a fully rigged hull would not fit in the box. Seating them takes a few minutes, and there’s a full caravel build video for it. If your campaign needs a ship the party can chase, board, and call home, the Rum Razer caravel is the pick.
When the story calls for a warship, whether that’s a navy flagship or the final battle at sea, you want the galleon. The Sailor’s Galleon is a 28mm multi-level naval warship with removable decks, gun ports, fully playable interior decks, and enough space to run a boarding action with a dozen figures on both sides at once.
It measures 27 inches long including the bowsprit, 7 inches wide, and 21 inches tall including the masts, with a top deck of roughly 17 by 6 inches. It fits a standard gaming table with room left for combat, but measure first: it is built to dominate the board. It comes in three commission tiers:
The Admiral’s Edition is not a stock item off a shelf: it’s hand-painted to your fleet colors, one commission at a time, which is why slots are limited. As with the caravel, the masts ship unglued no matter which tier you pick, and the galleon build video covers seating them. If you want a warship to build a story arc around, the Sailor’s Galleon is the hull.
Start with the story. Not what the party wants, but what the arc needs. A crew roaming the open seas hunting lost treasure needs a caravel: fast, personal, small enough that the crew is just them. A campaign building toward one enormous battle against a pirate lord deserves the galleon’s scale and drama.
Measure your table. This is the step people skip, and it causes regret in both directions. The galleon is a real commitment of table space and will dominate the board on purpose; the caravel sits comfortably on a dining table with room left for terrain. If your boarding actions rarely run past five or six figures a side, the caravel’s deck holds everyone. If you routinely run big set-pieces, the galleon gives every figure a square to stand on.
Be honest about your budget. The caravel starts at $59.99 and fits anywhere. The galleon runs from $119.99 as a kit to $469.99 hand-painted: a bigger commitment in both dollars and square feet, but nothing else on the table lands like it. When in doubt, start with the caravel. It’s the lower-risk buy and it earns its keep.
Half the joy of a ship is weathering it yourself: dry-brushed planks, salt-stained sails, and a hull that looks like it’s seen a hundred storms. Both hulls come as unassembled, primer-ready kits if that’s your speed, and I’ll walk through the weathered-wood recipe in an upcoming Oracle tutorial.
If you’d rather set sail this weekend, the painted options exist for exactly that reason, and they’re painted by hand in the studio. The Captain’s Colors caravel comes in our house weathering; the Admiral’s Edition galleon is painted to the fleet colors you pick.
And once the ship’s on the table, you’ll want to know how to run the fight. Our guide to ship-to-ship combat in D&D 5e, covering boarding actions, chases, and broadsides, is coming to the Oracle shortly.
What scale pirate ship do I need for D&D?
28mm/32mm heroic scale, so standard D&D and Pathfinder miniatures stand naturally on the deck. Both our ships are built to true 28mm, with deck spacing and railings sized for figures you already own.
What’s the difference between a caravel and a galleon?
A caravel is a small, fast, single-main-deck ship, ideal for a party that sails its own vessel with a handful of crew. A galleon is a large, multi-deck warship built for set-piece encounters. Caravel for mobility, galleon for spectacle.
How big are these pirate ships?
The Sailor’s Galleon is 27 inches long, 7 inches wide, and 21 inches tall, with a top deck of about 17 by 6 inches. The Rum Razer caravel is 15 inches long, about 4 inches wide, and about 15 inches tall. Both figures include the bowsprit and masts.
Are the pirate ships playable, or just display models?
Playable. Both have open or removable decks so you can place miniatures on every level and run boarding actions on the model itself, not around it.
How much does a 28mm pirate ship cost?
The Rum Razer caravel is $59.99 as an unassembled kit or $199.99 hand-painted. The Sailor’s Galleon is $119.99 as a kit, $229.99 assembled and ready to paint, or $469.99 as the custom-painted Admiral’s Edition. Confirm current pricing on the product page before buying.
Do the ships arrive fully assembled?
The assembled and painted tiers arrive built, with one exception that applies to every tier: the masts always ship unglued, because a fully rigged hull would not fit in the box. Seating them is a few minutes of work, and we have build videos for both hulls: the caravel build here and the galleon build here.
The right pirate ship isn’t necessarily the biggest one. It’s the one that fits your story, your table, and your budget. For most campaigns that’s the fast, open-decked caravel; when the plot demands a warship, the galleon delivers the set-piece. Both are printed and finished in-house in Utah, by someone who runs naval sessions with them.
Consult the Oracle, weigh anchor, and pick the ship your players will remember. Browse the Rum Razer caravel and the Sailor’s Galleon to set sail on your next campaign.
Every Kirtrite miniature, terrain piece, and accessory is 3D printed in-house in Utah — built to be played with, not just displayed.
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