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Thinking about getting into Ship Modeling


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I am thinking of getting into ship modeling, what scale has the best selection of vessels? I usually build 1/72 scale aircraft, so variety is my incentive to build. Maybe one day I'll build a ship in 1/72 like I've seen done with some carriers.

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That would depend on what you are interested in, WWII, modern, sailing, civilian. I think the most popular are 1/700th and 1/350th. I have ships in both scales as well as a couple off scales. I used to build Revell's 1/96th scale ships, things like the Constitution, Cutty Sark, Alabama and the others when they came out as well as some of the others like the Charles W. Morgan and Mayflower. Now I have ships in the other two scales for when I'm ready to go back to ships.

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This is a basic, basic primer:

For twentieth-century navies (mainly, but not exclusively World War II) American plastic model companies made a lot of box-scale kits over the decades that are alive and well in various forms, from new re-boxings to cheaply available older kits on Ebay. Many are available at very low cost. As expected with their age, these kits can range in poor to fairly good quality, with vague detailing, molded on, clumsy-looking railing, and even some shape problems that had to do with their heritage as essentially assemble-yourself-toys. Many can be made into excellent models, however, and so these old kits should not be dismissed. Examples might include Revell's Gato-class submarine, frequently sold as the Lionfish, to Revell's U.S.S. Saratoga, which has been sold over the decades as sister ships. I have (the parts, anyway) of a build of this kit my father did back in the early 1960s, complete with F7Us and A-3 skywarriors. I plan to get a Saratoga kit to replace some of the ship's parts, and rebuild the thing as an early-1960s Ranger.

Other companies produced different scales or box-scale kits as well. Airfix appears to have settled on 1/600 scale decades ago, a scale I think is functional and sensible, but they may have deviated from this since. Some Japanese kit makers made kits in 1/500 scale, or even other scales, early on. Naturally, as early kits they will be simplified as to detail.

The Japanese kit makers decided long ago that 1/700 scale was an excellent scale for mass producing the Imperial Japanese navy for their home-crowd modelers. These can make impressive models, but are small enough to compliment Japan's real estate market (small apartments or flats). In classic Japanese industrial fashion, the companies appeared to have collaborated to produce each ship without competing, and in more recent decades, have even shared sprues of common shipboard hardware, cross-company. Early kits were pretty simple, but later kits have more and better detail. In the last several decades, they've begun producing models of U.S., British, and German warships, too. Trumpeter and other non-Japanese companies have recently gotten in on the act as well. My personal experience with these kits is that they can be rewarding to build, but are a lot of meticulous jeweler's work, and in dollar-per-hour, bigger kits are a better deal in terms of the satisfaction of seeing a finished model on the shelf. I have a bunch, and periodically build them, but generally still do so because of their (relatively) low cost. In recent years, they, too, have experienced price inflation, but this corresponds with much greater quality: the latest are amazingly detailed.

1/350th scale may also have come from Japan, but has become a standard, too. These kits are much more expensive, but correspondingly more detailed and impressive, particularly among non-modelers.

For all these scales there is some aftermarket photoetch, and for the latter two scales there is plenty. Obviously, this raises the cost of your build significantly. Increasingly kits come with sets, as with Dragon's latest Arleigh Burke-class boxings, for example.

You can find unique stuff, especially in small craft, that are larger scales. If 1/72nd is your game, check out Revell's classic PT boat kit. Old, but builds a very nice model, as my father has recently demonstrated. Along the same lines, Tamiya's 1/35th scale PBR (Patrol Boat, River), a vietnam-era riverine/littoral combat craft, is a really fun kit to build (and weather!). Get a dose of Apocalypse Now for inspiration. There's also the broad range of very small wargaming miniatures, about which I know almost nothing.

Sailing Ship kits are available, basically, in wood and plastic. Wooden kits are extraordinarily expensive, but probably should take you a long time to build, so maybe it's worth it to you. The classic plastic kits by makers such as Revell, Airfix, and even some Japanese makers, (and mentioned above by Ikar) may be looked down upon by the dedicated tall-ship kit builders, but again, my father has demonstrated to me that these can be made into stunning models, especially if you learn some techniques for making plastic really look like wood in scale. Indeed, I almost think that with plastic kits there's better opportunity to make a realistic-looking scale model, versus the classic "museum ship model" look that is akin to fine furniture, rather than historic replica. My opinion only, however, for what little that's worth.

Several sites are available to get you started. Check out modelwarships.com and steel navy

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I'm like you in that I do mostly 1:48 aircraft, but...I've done a couple of ships.

At one point I was collecting US Class leaders i.e. the first ship of every class of each type of ship. This amounted to about a dozen carriers and eventually 15 battleships. All in 1:700 or 1:720. That was a lot of plastic on the shelf not getting built so I sold it.

Now I limit myself to just the availble 1:72/1:76 boats and that is still a pretty big stash running from little LCVPs up to the Revel Flower class corvette and US. Fleet Submarine. All with enough detail to be seen with out aproaching detail fanatisizm.

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