Two years ago I stepped down from years of playing "serious" historical simulations to try some miniature tabletop games, and I really enjoyed fantasy naval games but didn't quite cross into trying space games (maybe it was easier for me to accept playing with sailing ships crewed by elves before I could warm to the idea of playing with spaceships crewed by aliens). But then last summer I bought Batteship Galaxies and realized a space game could be fun to play and then after buying Dreadfleet I realized GW could make some cool naval models. So, I looked for information on the classic BFG and found a lot of PDF material and even some templates for folding and gluing together paper model ships!
I'm not ready to track down old BFG models on Ebay and build a proper collection... yet, but I'm interested in trying to play some games against knowledgable opponents so I can come to understand how the system works, and maybe get some new players interested in playing. I'm not looking for advice on technical issues so much as how to approach veteran BFG players. Specifically, I'm looking for some response to the question: how important is it to veteran players that I play with the "official" models as opposed to papercraft or scratchbuilt models?