I recently built my first model, a 1/700 battleship Missouri made by tamiya, and i had a blast doing it. My hobby shop guy said that some model companies aren't worth buying. My conundrum is that i enjoy reading about, and probably building, ships that aren't "mainstream." (i.e. bismark, missouri, yamato, etc.) It seems that the big companies only make these and I was wondering if anyone out there could recommend some smaller makers that make a few lesser known ships. I'm not loaded with cash, but would like a quality product. Thanks for your time.

Many of the mainstream kits can be altered to represent other ships of the same class, just takes a little scratch building on your part. If you want ships that aren't main stream try out some of the resin kits...... Battle fleet models have some great kits. Just start googleing and you'll come up with many choices.

What you have to do is research. Find out what ships intrigue you, then go out and try to go find them. Tamiya, Hasegawa, Fujimi, Aoshima, Testors, Revell, and Dragon just to name a few make excellent kits of 700 scale/ 720 ships. There are a few others and the expensive resin manufacturers. In 700 scale you can find a lot of variations and retrofit versions as well as several Pre dreadnaughts through WW1 WW2 and beyond. Just find what you like.


The resin kits will set you back quite a bit and if you have only built one kit I would avaoid those for a few years until you've gotten a few mmore levels of skills built up. You might want to build the Alabama in 700 there are all sorts of crusiers and Aircraft carriers. Build some of the basic kits first, then maybe drift over to the more expensive high grade and then get into photo extched accessories You can get pretty good deals on ebay looking in the military model section. Just type in the name of the ship and viola, if it is in kit form, it will more than likely show up and you can pick your price.

There is a wealth of information here, so don't hesitate to ask. Most of us have bult the kit or know which ones to recommend if you find a couple of varities.
PS Building the famous ones is just as fun they are beautiful kits and ships.

you also looking outside the "ww2" box? Dragon makes some premium kits of various modern vessels, many of them quite nice and include small PE frets. You can pick them up on sale at various online stores for 12-20 USD. For some lesser known military vessels of WW2, try Mirage... 1/400 scale, very decent builds (couple have been built by Jay and posted as WIPs on this forum), and very cheap. you find them on the monthly Squadron sales, less than 10$. Finally, you have the never ending "Waterline" series, both old and new kit offerings, most can be found new or on Ebay for less than 10$.

And welcome to the Forums!

WHAT!!! Outside the WW2 box. Can't believe I read that, I'm going to believe I didn't read that.

Welcome to Modelshipwrigts, Brian!

A new ship modeler, ah yes, the beauty of it all...

Brian, I'll echo what our shipmates have said, do some simple research, check out the readily available kits, and build your modeling skill and prowess...along the way, you will begin to find out about all of the available kits in both plastic and resin, the manufacturers, the ins and outs....and you have also come upon one of the best teaching tools in the hobby, our website here at KitMaker, as there is a HUGE amount of knowledge available at your fingertips 24/7, mate...take some time. look around in all of our areas here, we're a friendly bunch of salts with one major thing in common...the love of ship modeling!

Cheers,
~Gunny

I've only been on this site today and I'm blown away. The reviews, photos, and forums are awsome. I think I've found my site when it comes to modeling. Thanks for a great site!

hello Brian,
Welcome to MSW,there are alot of great Guys and Gals here and some of the best ship modelers i have ever seen.
per your question,try Pacific Front web site.they have a lot of great models that are not mainstream.i have been looking at some of the WW1 Austro-Hungarian ships there for the WW1 Campaign.and the prices seem reasonable to me.they have both plastic and resin ships.
hope this helps.
cheers,
Bruce

Nice to hear, Brian, thank you!

Now, please take some time to familiarize yourself with the site, Brian...we're lucky to have a unique, very dynamic software package here at KitMaker, and many of our features, reviews, News stories, photo galleries, etc, etc, are linked together by subject/category for a fantastic reference tool, as well having a good bunch of modelers in the forum daily, some with master abilities within the hobby. all ready, willing, and able to lend a hand when needed... and remember, there's no stupid questions, especially when you're starting out...

And, also take a look at our "Group Build" page, to see if there is a campaign running/forming, as these are a great learning tool as well, as each campaign follows each builders entry in the forums, discussing progress, problems, etc...and the more guys involved with the campaigns, the more activity within the entire site broadens, as well as good friendships made along the way!

Cheers,
~Gunny

Ahoy Brian! Welcome aboard!

I am a 1/700 man myself. In this scale you will find most of the manufacturers have very nice offerings. The great thing about this scale is that the kit manufacturers market there own upgrade sets when it comes to weapons and other deck details at a reasonable price.

Kenny