Need an intermediate level ship to build

Personally I like many of Dragon and Tamiya's offerings.

Dragon's 1/700 Essex class kits (there are a few) are nice, as well as their BB-38 Pennsylvania kit.

 

Tamiya has nice everything, my favorite being the Iowa class battleships in 1/700 scale.

 

If youu got room and $$$ go for the big scale stuff. Tamiya's CVN-65 Enterprise is awesome while I hear Trumperter's North Carolina is nice too. 

Idc23,

Welcome.

I'd recommend something less involved than a carrier, or a battleship, for your first model of a vessel.

So many ship modeler first timers try a "whole hog" model, get discouraged and never try another.

Try a 1/700th scale waterline destroyer. You'll avoid some of the tougher things that ships have, such as getting boot top stripes correctly aligned, difficulties mounting the hulls on a stand, etc.

A small waterline model can look just fine mounted on a smooth black base and you can save trying to model water for another project. A modern US destroyer is very easy to research with plenty of photos available on the navy.mil web site and many other sites too. You can save a little money, not having to buy books of WW 2 ships, etc.

You'll still have plenty of challenge if you want to try photo etched detail parts, trying to reach a "scale" paint color for such a small model and more.

You'll have plenty of kits to choose from that can give you some good experience with a ship. Then after trying that, you can go for a more complicated type of ship for another shot.

Have fun.

Mike

Well done thank you both very much.

I built a Revell Wasp class LHD assault carrier a few years ago for a co-worker who had been on one of the other ships in the class. I hadn't built a ship in years either, and I found it to be a pretty straight forward build, nothing to make me pull my hair out.

There was enough on the deck to be interesting but not overwhelming (I think it comes with some Harriers, Ospreys and maybe some SH-60s but not sure about the helos, also some deck equipment, maybe some aircraft tugs, like I said its been a few years). It was about the length of a shoe, which I found a nice size to deal with. Being a modern ship there wasn't a ton of tiny guns to attach (or lose). I don't think I paid much more than $20 for it.

There are also a few after market bits available for it so if you decide you want to get more involved that is an option. My one complaint was no CH-46s, but they are available from one of the aftermarket companies.

1dc23 wrote:

Hi all. I have built two ship models in the past. They never turned out well as I always had a lack of patience to get them done correctly. It is about six years later and I have just completed two model cars with great success and now I am hooked on modeling. I have always had a love for ships and how much detail could be placed into them. Now that I have the patience and the drive to complete these beauties I am greatly wanting to give it another go. I need an intermediate level ship model to build that provides a nice amount of accurate detailing as to give me some amount of a challenge. Any ideas? All information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you again.

The concept of an intermediate ships model is somewhat flexible. Making a model intermediate or difficult is sometimes a product of what you want to put into it rather than the initial complexity of the kit. In order to give yourself different levels of challenge without risking a lot of dollars on a kit or getting into massive or tiny sizes I would suggest the purchase of one of these kits along with their associated brass detail sets: Trumpeter England, Dragon Buchanan or Tamiya Fletcher. They are all 1/350 scale which is a nice size to work with for a destroyer sized vessel, not too big or too small. The detail sets will allow you to go as far as your skill sets will allow and information for finishing them correctly is widely available. WS

I'll second the Tamiya Fletcher. It has plenty of detail and goes together very smoothly. You can add photoetch for a really nice version or just out of the box.

How do you all feel about revells u boats?

1dc23 wrote:

How do you all feel about revells u boats?

Unless you are talking about the Revell of Germany 1/72 scale U-Boat or the Gato Class kit then I would say no. The 1/72 scale kits are nice but by the time you are done detailing them with aftermarket parts you will be looking at a big expenditure, not to mention a garage to keep them in. They are really BIG. WS

Thanks for all of your helpful information.

subfixer wrote:

I'll second the Tamiya Fletcher. It has plenty of detail and goes together very smoothly. You can add photoetch for a really nice version or just out of the box.

I'll add the same about the 1/350 Trumpeter USS England.