Besides the ship models ripped from WoW and made available on P
ack 3d Models, many WoW ships have been uploaded to
Sketchfab by the user maxromash who is probably one of the main Wargaming 3D modellers.
In the past, those models could be downloaded freely (I don't remember their licensing though). Now they are for preview only, but I have many of them on my HD already.
As already said by kapuhy WoW models are pretty well done. Though a bit too high poly for SH5 standards (but not so high that they game can't handle them anyway), they have the advantage to be optimized for videogame usage, so they have much of what would be needed to make a good SH5 unit (main hull textures in one file, AO maps, normal maps, crack lines modelled, etc.).
Using them in a SH5 mod might be tolerated though not fully legal, but for sure they will provide an excellent 3D template if we want to create our own version of the same ships, especially for those ships whose plans are not easily found.
Another excellent alternative are the models by the
Sketchfab user Thomas Beerens. They might not be as optimized for video-game usage as the WoW models, but they very well done and most of them are available for download under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licence. I have talked to the guy, and he has not problems with his models being used in free projects as far as he is credited for his work. We have never discussed the topic, but he might also accept his models being reworked a bit for game optimization, as far as the changes won't alter drastically his creations.