I am interested in building a tall sailing ship for diaplay at my house. Thinking about the classic USS Constitution, Cutty Sark in plastic or a wood model. Orginal owner of my house built and sailed ships on Lake Ontario in early 1830's. Size should be limited to 24-36" in length.

I like the idea of iron clads, but SWMBO and controls the display space sort of frowns on this idea. Don't know why?

Since, this would be a first rigging should be simple, but elegant model.
I have seen shadow box displays of a tall ship crossection.

Any Ideas or suggestions also sites or dealers would help

Hi Jim, and Welcome to Model Shipwrights, mate!

OK,
This is a subject that is near and dear to me, my friend, as the stately old vessels of oars and wind are my most favorite projects, for sure!

BUT, your line stating this being your first rigging, well, concerns me, mate. . .IMHO, stay away from the wooden kits for a first build of this type, just for the fact that these kits do require a much different aproach to building than the plastic versions. . .start small, Jim, and grow with your new found hobby of the shipwright!

There are many quite convincing looking subjects in plastic, mate, Revell of Germany has some beauties, as well as Zvezda models, just to name a few. Best thing to do is to look around the online hobby shops for a kit in the beginning skill level, and jump in! We're here to help all along the way, and we all love to talk about ships and modeling! Take a look around the different manufacturers, and see what you can find!
Cheers,
~Gunny

Ahoy Jim and welcome to Model Shipwrights.
Have you looked at the ship kits at Model Expo? They have some great wooden kits for beginners.
Model Expo

Please keep us posted on your project.

Kenny

Sailing ships, there are a lot of ways you can go. Several fine plastic kits out there as well as wooden ones. Rigging, well not too many are simple. You could get one of the smaller "Old Ironside kits out of plastic by Revell, looking for the one piece ratlines and such. The larger kits tend to be more complex and have you runnng thread through little blocks and such. The wooden kits are very difficult and very expensive runnng btwn $300 - 600. There is an alternative, buy an already built wooden one. They come to you full rigged, and ready to set up in your space. There are three companies I know of that do business on Ebay. You can usually pick them up for around $150 - 200 plus about 60 -90 shipping depending who and what you order. just go to the hobbies/toys then model kits section and type in the name of a famous tall ship like Victory or Constitution. Also wade through the ones up for bid and go check out buyers stores, this will give you a few of the larger companies which hav other interesting ships for sale in some really big and nice medium sizes. YOu might be happier as making one of these things is quite challenging and frustrating and in all honesty, the prices on those already built ones far outweigh the pain in the butt these kits are to build and they look 10 times better.