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General Ship Modeling
Discuss modeling techniques, experiences, and ship modeling in general.
Hosted by Jim Starkweather
Suggestions for first time ship builders.
garrybeebe
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Posted: Monday, January 31, 2005 - 03:55 AM UTC
For those wanting to get there kits and supplies for the Dreadnought campaign , and others. If you are new to warship modeling, maybe this is a good time to talk about warship kits and after market goodies. Mike , if you could chime in here with some input, it would be a great help.
For the first time Battleship builder, I would suggest starting off with a good quality kit! The time proven 1/350 Tamiya kits is a good place to start Great fit, good instructions, and very accurate. The same can be said about the Tamiya and Hasegawa 1/700 kits.
Photo etch sets? Pe realy makes a ship model stand out. But these kits that I have mentioned also build up great out of the box! And I would suggest for the first time ship builder a OOB build would be the way to go. This is entirely your option of course. But I think it best to consintrate on the basic ship modeling to start out. By all means, if you have expereance with aircraft or armor PE, you already know its function. 1/700 pe can be very daunting indeed!
But we are here to help out and to answer questions for the beginner!

Cheers mates!

Garry
modelguy2
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Joined: March 09, 2002
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Posted: Monday, January 31, 2005 - 06:31 AM UTC
I think you've just about covered it Garry. I'd just reiterate that they should build at a level they feel comfortable with. Welcome all treadheads and wing wipers! I'm better at answering specific modeling questions......Mike
Hoovie
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Posted: Monday, January 31, 2005 - 07:08 AM UTC
I would try 1/350 or I/400 at first??
Maybe easier?
The Heller Graff Spee?
Or a big tamiya BB there is tech for both
also Steve Nutall has brass barrels for both!!
HTH
Ron
Scunge
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Posted: Monday, January 31, 2005 - 08:21 AM UTC

Quoted Text

i would day for the very first time, a 1/700 Tamiya battleship model would be good. The 1/350 Fletcher (a USA destroyer) i also hear is good for starters, i have seen this kit, it's not a large one, and when u move on later to more 1/350 ships u already have one to scale with the others.


Yes, I built the fletcher, it is a good first ship becuase it has a decent number of parts to practice on and if you screw it up, it is not as expensive as a BB so its not as big a deal.
garrybeebe
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Posted: Monday, January 31, 2005 - 03:02 PM UTC
And some more on Battleship kits. Out of the injected plastic kits, Tamiya is the one that offer British subjects in 1/700 scale. Starting with there awesome HMS Hood, a great model! Then there KGV class , including the King GeorgeV and the Prince of Whales. They also have the HMS Rodney and Nelson. 1/700 US battleships are made by Hasegawa, the S. Dakota and the Alabama. Aoshima make the N. Carolina and Washington. Fujimi Makes the Iowa class of Battleships. Of course Tamiya has the IJN Jamato and Musashi, very good kits! They also have the German Battlecruisers The Sharnhorst and Genasinui(spelling!) both nice kits! Fujimi also have 2 of the pocket Battleships, The Lutzo and the Graf Spee.
Speaking of a Different scale, The Heller 1/400 scale kits offer a large scale kits of subjects that no other company makes. These kits are not of the Tamiya quality, But they build into a very nice model, I like them!
They make the French Battleship Richeliue, a beautiful ship! They also have the Bismarck, Tirpitz, King George V, Prince of Whales, Pocket Battleships Graf Spee, Admiral Scheer, and Lutzo. I'm running out of wind here! I hope this helps mates!

Cheers,

Garry
tom
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Posted: Monday, January 31, 2005 - 04:57 PM UTC
My real 1st 1/350 scale ship was the USS Enterprise it's big and has alot of history and could be a center peice of any model dio. And you can add alot of PE for it. I was thinking of building one for my nephew who is 6-7 one for his birthday. It was the best ship you can build and add as much detail or as little as you want and have a awsome learning experience I did my 1st one when I was 9 so it's not as bad as it seems it's only big and full of possiblities.

Happy Modeling
(++) 1:35
Scunge
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Posted: Monday, January 31, 2005 - 05:04 PM UTC
actually for my money the best first ship model to get is one of the 1/350 destroyers from Panda. They are very good models that are very clean and come together very well. In addition, they come with their own PE fret so they are good for people new to PE. At around $20, they are an excelent deal.
SteveNuttal
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Posted: Tuesday, February 01, 2005 - 12:46 AM UTC
I just did 46 RN Mk1 15" barrels for Jim B and 8 Tiger all in 1/700th; he's on a building binge
I do make 1/700th; but I don't push them hard; clipper makes 1/700th too; they are cheaper to be sure; but i did get the 1/700th KGV class to compare with mine; there was a few thing that did not impress me; there should be a muzzle flare on that class; it was not there; the bore was a simple center drilled hole; the taper was too big as was the muzzle diameter; and the hole behind the taper was too small; all done to speed production; the lengths and tapers were close to scale; and the final diameter was correct; i thought the finish was too high of a polish and the paint would not stick good (I like about a 1200 finish or even down to 900 on bigger barrels)
It all in you get what you pay for; some might feel my products are too expensive; i feel they are worth the time and effort i put into making the best most accurate barrel you can buy; and when you think of all your time put into a model warship to make it as realistic as possble the cost of the barrels is small; and remember a warship is all about its guns; otherwise there would be no point to the ship in the first place; if the guns like like sticks; the ship just will never look right
I get lots of orders were the builder just can not drill on center of the plastic kit part; after refilling several times they just give up; after wasting all kinds of time on this they order mine and fit them very quickly and as mine are dead on center and drilled scale the result is way better; i have drills now down to 0.009" which is eq to a 3" in 1/350th; and I'll be going smaller soon

On another note; all my aluminum barrels are off my site; this is not to say i will not do them for a special build in say 1/96th; but for now they are not regular offerings; 1/96th smaller guns are still there in brass; the alum cuttings just creates way too many problems with the cnc lathe and my workspace
My new 4 Axis mill/drill is now commisioned; as I get time to play with this machine new very detailed barrels and other stuff will be released like the new hex detail on the muzzle of my 1/48th scale Bofor
MartinJQuinn
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Joined: January 19, 2005
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Posted: Tuesday, February 01, 2005 - 05:45 AM UTC

Quoted Text

And some more on Battleship kits. Out of the injected plastic kits, Tamiya is the one that offer British subjects in 1/700 scale. Starting with there awesome HMS Hood, a great model! Then there KGV class , including the King GeorgeV and the Prince of Whales. They also have the HMS Rodney and Nelson. 1/700 US battleships are made by Hasegawa, the S. Dakota and the Alabama. Aoshima make the N. Carolina and Washington. Fujimi Makes the Iowa class of Battleships. Of course Tamiya has the IJN Jamato and Musashi, very good kits! They also have the German Battlecruisers The Sharnhorst and Genasinui(spelling!) both nice kits! Fujimi also have 2 of the pocket Battleships, The Lutzo and the Graf Spee.
Speaking of a Different scale, The Heller 1/400 scale kits offer a large scale kits of subjects that no other company makes. These kits are not of the Tamiya quality, But they build into a very nice model, I like them!
They make the French Battleship Richeliue, a beautiful ship! They also have the Bismarck, Tirpitz, King George V, Prince of Whales, Pocket Battleships Graf Spee, Admiral Scheer, and Lutzo. I'm running out of wind here! I hope this helps mates!

Cheers,

Garry


Tamiya, IMO, makes the best US/Allied/German Battlecruisers in 1/700 scale. They are much better than Hasegawa or Fujimi. The Aoshima US BB's are toys - stay away from them. The new Trumpeter Bismark is very, very nice. The Tirpitz is supposed to have some problems, but since I just finished the Tamiya kit last year, I wasn't paying attention to what those were.

For Japanese BB's, I just finished the Tamiya Musashi, and as Garry said, it's a superb kit - highly recommended!

If you are building your first battleship, I recommend you stick to 700th scale (and then to injection molded kits), or else you may get a bit overwhelmed. A good first out of the box BB would be the Tamiya Missouri. If you want a modern BB, Tamiya is releasing a 1980's version of the New Jersey.



blaster76
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Posted: Tuesday, February 01, 2005 - 06:34 AM UTC
I'm still cracking up over this, but Garry....it is Prince of WALES....not Whales..... As we are doing a submarine campaign at the moment can those that build lots of that type of vessel chime in. I believe there are several good ones that are around 144 scale. I don't know, I am building the 72nd scale U-Boat whcih if I had gone straight out of he box would have been a straight forward easy kit. For you battleship campaigners I would strongly recommend one of the Tamiya 350 scale BB's. I have built all of them and they are all straight forward. I have used PE and if you never used it before in all honesty this is the place to start as most of it is straight forward. I don't use but maybe 2/3 of the PE set...the rails and replacement cranes being primary. These big ships when finished look absolutly magnificent too. A great show piece....you don't have to tell them how easy it was either
garrybeebe
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Posted: Tuesday, February 01, 2005 - 12:34 PM UTC

Quoted Text

I'm still cracking up over this, but Garry....it is Prince of WALES....not Whales..... As we are doing a submarine campaign at the moment can those that build lots of that type of vessel chime in. I believe there are several good ones that are around 144 scale. I don't know, I am building the 72nd scale U-Boat whcih if I had gone straight out of he box would have been a straight forward easy kit. For you battleship campaigners I would strongly recommend one of the Tamiya 350 scale BB's. I have built all of them and they are all straight forward. I have used PE and if you never used it before in all honesty this is the place to start as most of it is straight forward. I don't use but maybe 2/3 of the PE set...the rails and replacement cranes being primary. These big ships when finished look absolutly magnificent too. A great show piece....you don't have to tell them how easy it was either


Go back to bed Steve! :-) :-) :-) :-)
LOL, I know, I have made that mistake before. Must have been thinking of Moby Dick.

Garry
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