What Am I Hungry For?
For starters a slightly larger scale for ships than 1/350. It's good, But still requires some skills to make it a quality model. Why do I say this ? Well, those who like civilian ships have had the " Titanic" shoved in our faces for years now, and all sizes to boot!
There are other ships out there for the building. But because they comprise a small market, civilian vessels fall in two categories, famous liners that tragically sank or were sunk and cargo types that were known after the war and those that are too large for a mantel-piece.
Revell had the Tanker, Freighter and the S.S. United States. for American ships. Then the navy versions of the A.P.A. and A.K.A.(Same ships, different uses). There were also the Oriana(P.and O.)and The Brazil/Argentina?(a Moore-Mc Cormack vessel).
Then some of our other companies of foreign talent do more modern stuff in 1/400 or such and they are ships that most of us have never seen. What about the smaller more well known Liners. The Carpathia.The Andrea Doria and others who either were involved in a Historical Situation or just had an unremarkable life? but were well remembered anyway.
Even on the West coast there notable ships. Yes, small older liners for instance like the Quadruplets of Matson navigation(The Hawaiian ships) Those would be the Matsonia, Lurline and Monterey and the Mariposa. They built a history of cruising from the mainland to Hawaii. Where's the models of them? The Triangle cruise was well known even by Easterners that wanted to go to Hawaii. You could go from L.A. To San Francisco to Honolulu and back to L.A.
Yet, I have never seen a model of any of them even though they were well known. This is almost as bad as the lack of models of anything that sailed the Great Lakes.There were Passenger boats and Freighters and everything in between. American vessels of any type have been forgotten in the sands of time as unprofitable, like no model of the Wolverine for instance, Historic right? Well there ya go! See, Profit has denied even the most interested of us the model of ships here we grew up with. Oh sure now there's expensive resin or 3-D models of some in 1/700 or 1/350 but there's nothing else anywhere. UNLESS you build paper. Why. There's a selection in paper that would Knock yer socks off!!
Yup, Liners in 1/200, Freighters to numerous to mention and many well known and not so well known Warships of most of the nations we've heard of. Many in 1/200, 1/250, 1/350 and other more popular scales to boot. Now, paper is a little more aggravating BUT, You have so many to choose from . Yes some are full hull, most are not. I guess they figure if you've seen one there's nothing new there. There are full hull paper ships in 1/200 even. Even the specialized region of sail there are full Hull Models.
I brought this all up Because of the boredom of so much shelf and add space given to the Titanic! What about the two famous ships that mixed it up of of New York Harbor?
Yup, the Andrea Doria and the Stockholm? History, one sunk, Lives los,t lives saved. Is there any models of them in Plastic, Nope!(What, no model of the pride of the Italian Line in Plastic? Shameful! ) Now, in paper, Both in the same kit, Same scale too! Surprising how much smaller the Stockholm actually was!
I wonder quite often Why thre so many dramatic, interesting and just downright plain floaty thingies there are in paper. From the simple Dory all the way up to a 1/200 scale M.V.Bremen ( M.V. Stands for Diesel powered ships,.i.e.Motor Vessel) But in plastic they either flood us with Titanics and Aircraft carriers or nothing worth having.
I can Build a Nuke sub out of P.V.C., Who needs the expensive plastic poor representations of Boomers and Attack boats. What, maybe 24 parts? And poorly detailed anyway? But there are some in paper that even have periscope arrays. Now a curios thing as well. The models of yachts are either monsters in size or price. Or Poorly fitting poorly designed minions that many folks have never seen. Two Former Lindberg models come to mind, A certain Owens and a certain Century model . My gosh My cereal box models of the same boats may be small but they are sure a lot better looking and molded than these two!
Okay, now I got that off my Chest "Model-On"!!