Hello everyone! I've been building models for a few years now but I've only built aircraft and armor, never ships (however I find ships fascinating, as evidenced by the fact that I would like to join the Navy). My first build ever was the Mighty Mo' with my dad, but it seemed to me like it was just gluing a bunch of stuff onto a hull. No big details, nothing flashy...just a boat. If I may ask a few questions now:

1. Why do you build ships in general?

2. What do you look for in a kit? In other words, why do you choose to build the particular ships that you build?

3. What kit (brand and subject) would you recommend for a curious and first-time shipbuilder?

Thank you all for your responses and happy building!

Good question's Robby.

1. Why ships, because I am facinated by ships, Naval History and bascially anything to do with the sea. From the point of view of building, I get, for me the worst job, major painting - Hull & maindeck out of the way first, and loads of detail work, my favourite bits, all the way through.

2. Choice of what I build is mostly down to subject, my main area of interest is the Royal Navy, so I have to take what I can get really. Where I do have a choice, basic accuracy is more important than detail.

3. That is a tricky one, what scale? 1/350th is my bag. I would start with a Destroyer or similar size. For a simple start Trumpeter USS England a Destroyer escort. would be good choice. If from your expereience with armour / Aircraft you like etch and lots of small bits, any one of the Dragon Buchanons or Z39. somebody else can maybe answer for 1/700th, as I am not up to date with the latest & best in that scale.

Hope you a very enjoyable venture into ship modelling

Si

I build ships becasue they are beautiful. There is a certain majesty to them. I prefer the battleships. Which MIghty Mo did you build? Sounds like th ancient revell kit. Try it again doing the Tamiya 1/350 version with a Gold Medal Models PE set.

I build tanks and airplanes as well. But to me, the ship is specail. I can knock a plane or a tank out in 2 weeks. A smaller ship (DD or CA) in 3 to 4 but a battleship or a carrier takes 2 months minimum. So to me, more bang for my buck.

Steve-- Yeah, I looked at some pictures of the Revell kit and I recognize the stand they provided. I definitely know what you mean about the majesty of a ship...I can't wait until I can actually spend my time living on them!

I build ships because I hate Dragon magic tracks
Try something in a big scale with plenty of detail and compare it to an armor build.
cheers,
Julian

I build ships because I am a big fan of the Navy. To me nothing says power like a Carrier Strike Group parked off ones shores. I became a fan of the Navy the first time I saw the movie, "In Harms Way." (I know not the best war movie, but I love it anyway.) I also ended up joining the Navy as well.

For a new ship builder I agree start out with a 1/350 destroyer or cruiser. I choose a subject based on my historical favorites. My favorite Navy is the DKM. The ships were so nice yet totally misused.

I like to build ships (although I seem to acquire more than build...Sorry Skipper) because one, I am about as land-locked as you can get in the middle of Kansas, two, because of this, I am fascinated by them. Part of my bucket list is to see an honest to God ocean going ship up close and for real.

Personally, I build ships largely because I have been fascinated by naval vessels since I was a kid. One of the posters above mentioned the move "In Harms Way", and I think I was also influenced by that as a kid. Telling my age here - I saw it first in its original theatrical release many years ago. I'm also very interested in military history and particularly naval military history. Finally, I think they are just simply beautiful. That may be a strange way to describe a weapon of destruction, but I do see the beauty in them.

As to why I pick a particular kit, there are several reasons. First, is it a subject I'm interested in. I build primarily U.S.N. ships of the World War II era, all the way from P.T. Boats to Battleships and Aircraft Carriers. Often the history of a ship draws me, such as Dragon's U.S.S. Laffey or Revell's old P.T. 109. Or, because I've seen it or been on it. I'm currently working on Trumpeter's U.S.S. North Carolina which I have visited and toured several times. Or, I may just like the look of the ship, a good example being some of the IJN destroyers. I also look at the quality of the kit, accuracy and quality of the molding, etc.. I also take into consideration the after market available to bring her up to the standard of accuracy and detail I want in the end result. I want the results of what can often be months of work for me to be something that reasonably closely represents what it is supposed to be, has enough detail to be a little on the impressive side and generally just look good. I display my best efforts in my office so I want them to be something that I would be proud for people to see and know I built.

As to what kit I would suggest to a first time ship builder, that depends. What are you interested in? How small are you comfortable working with and by the same token, how much room do you have to display your work? My general first kit suggestion is Tamiya's U.S.S. Fletcher in 1/350. In part, that's because in middle age I can't handle anything smaller than 1/350, so that's my scale. Second, it is a reasonably accurate and nicely detailed kit that pretty well does represent the Fletcher. It can be built into a very nice model straight out of the box and if you want to try detailing, there is some nice PE available for it which you can use as much or as little of as you like and are comfortable with. Finally, it isn't an overwhelming kit. The parts count isn't extremely high and it is a pretty straight forward kit to build. It doesn't have any real vices, like poor fit of major parts. By the same token, it isn't as precise as the new tool Dragon kits, which I think, and this is highly personal, are so highly detailed and have such high parts counts as to overwhelm a first time modeler. But I think the main thing is to find a kit that first interests you, then read some reviews of it, just use Google, and make sure it is reasonably accurate and not a pig to put together, then go for it. And above all, have fun!

All IMHO,

Bob

Why ships... I like the look of them, especially WWII with all the guns and AA guns. The more the merrier, that's why I really like US Battleships. I'm also fascinated by Aircraft Carriers. One Nimitz class carrier carries twice the amount of planes that the current Swiss Airforce has!

How do I choose: By subject. Usually US Navy WWII. I prefer 1/350 scale but they use too much space, so I will try out 1/700 after my current build.

What to recommend... I'd probably recommend a 1/350 scale destroyer. I would definitely recommend PE, ships are just not the same without railings...

Cheers!
Stefan