New to Modelling

Welcome Alvin.

Take what you read here with a dose of humor. We all tend to get carried away on technical stuff at the expense of the fun of modeling.

There's a number of articles about the basic tools needed that you can find by doing a search online.

An Xacto knife and a box of #11 blades, a piece of cutting mat and a set of those manicure sanding sticks that are sold at CVS. Plastic model glue and super glue. Tweezers, a box of single edge razor blades and a little round brush and a flat brush.

A good light and a set of magnifying glasses. I have an "optivisor' but drug store reading glasses work too. Go there and practice. If you have good eyesight, they really are a matter of how far you want the focal point to be beyond your nose. I like about a foot.

Ships are a great choice and they are relatively straightforward to paint. Since you are a steel navy fan, look at several build websites. Besides this one, I like modelwarships.

A rule of thumb for me is to invest about as much in books as I do in the model. There's a not so great tendency for some kit companies to just include way too many parts. I consider Dragon and Trumpeter guilty of that. Good models, but it just takes so long to build.

Look at Airfix, Revell and Academy as good kits to get you started.

Photoetch railings, radars, and other small details are almost a requirement for a good-looking finished package.    For a first ship kit -- don't do it.    If you feel that you must - don't go with a full meal deal.   Follow the KISS principle -- Keep It Simple Stupid!

Battleships have a lot of small & repetitive parts.  My advice is to start with a smaller destroyer-sized project.   You will see the end of your build rather than getting lost in the repetitive assembly.

Scale -- 1:700 is good for building a fleet where space is limited.   1:350 is a good trade-off for size vs detail.   Larger scales are one-off impact displays.   Techniques for 1:72 and larger ships and boats are more akin to armor than with the "conventional" ship model scales.   I recommend that you start in 1:350 scale and build a couple of kits before deciding on a larger or smaller scale.   In 1:350 the parts are manageable and you will learn skills and techniques which can then transfer to other scales.   

In that scale I recommend the Tamiya Fletcher or the Trumpeter England as first ships.   I add the Revell Emden/Dresden to the list for first ships with photoetched details.   I cannot recommend the Trump USS The Sullivans - Fletcher class destroyer as a novice kit.   There is just too much wrong with it.   I also cannot recommend the Dragon Benson/Livermores or Gearings.  They have too much small detail for a NOOB.

Welcome to ship modelling!

Of course, Fine Scale would like you to subscribe, so I'll say that they have good ship articles from time to time.

One free resource I would also recommend is one Mike Ashey, who has written for FSM before. His welcome page is here, and he has free PDFs of his past book, "Building & Detailing Scale Model Ships" that should prove useful.

There are *lots* of little tools you can get, but a good knife, glue, and desire to have fun with it are a great starting point.

first thing i did after buying some tools' glues paints etc was to geta couple of dirt cheap kits to practise on. dont jump straight in and make an expensive mess of the model of your dreams. my first try with photo etch ended up with more glue and finger skin stuck to the model than metal. 

I like what EdGrune said in recommending 1/350 scale to start, and one great kit is the Hobby Boss 1/350 scale Arizona. Decent price, and nice fit of the parts makes for a good build. A moderate parts count in a 21 inch long model will let you build straight from the box a nice ship indeed.

Yeah, I know guys, I got my plane tails blue instead of red, this has since been fixed, along with painting the turret tops red too.

Thanks alot for the reply guys! It got me all motivated and wanting to jump strait into modelling!

I am just making a full list of what tools I must get and the recommendations of which ships to start with.

I guess I should start with 1/350 fletcher class ships and then moving onto the battleship class? And as for painting shall i start with paint and brush or buy an airbrush and use that instead or use both?

I saw start with a destroyer, and then move on to whatever interested you. There are also cruisers, which are in between battleships and destroyers in size, and aircraft carriers, which have just about as much repetition as battleships in both AA guns and aircraft!

The trick, I find, is to find subjects that interest you and then wade in. Scratch building extra details or fixes aren't that difficult if you believe it.... if you think something will be difficult, you usually wind up making it more difficult than it needs to be. Actually, making something more difficult than it needs to be is pretty much a constant of model building

Me, I've found that history is one thing that attracts me to a subject.... building helps me imagine what being on the deck might have been like. Some guys like camouflage, others just want anything with guns. Find your interest and much fun will follow!

I guess its just a matter of what I like and just start with it. But start off with something less complicated?

I would like some advice on painting should i use airbush or paint brush

Even if you airbrush, you'll need to do a little bit of brush painting for touch up and detail pieces.

An Airbrush is a larger investment in money, but can pay off in time.  I find it much faster to airbrush large areas and frankly more fun because of that. But, you need to play around with things like air pressure and mixing ratio. I usually mix about 50-50 (paint/thinner) and fiddle with the air pressure a bit, but you can actually vary technique and use the same air pressure all around if you understand the paint.

One more thing, I wrote this article a bit back, hopefully it'll be a bit helpful as well.

Alvinhy

Thanks alot for the reply guys! It got me all motivated and wanting to jump strait into modelling!

I am just making a full list of what tools I must get and the recommendations of which ships to start with.

I guess I should start with 1/350 fletcher class ships and then moving onto the battleship class? And as for painting shall i start with paint and brush or buy an airbrush and use that instead or use both?

I made a simple list of what I have to get before modelling..

Anyone can comment on this list and add anything or anything that is not needed?

Xacto Knife #11 Blades
Sprue Cutters
Glass Cutting Mat
Welding Cement - Plastistruct
Testors Liquid Cement
Wet/Dry Sanding Pads
Sanding Sticks
Badger 150 Air Brush

Your cutting mat is one of those self healing deals with the grid on it. Only need a small one, but take care not to get paint and glue on it and it'll last a while.

CA (cyanoacrylate) "super glue" the gel kind.

I personally like the Badger Patriot. And you'll need a compressor. This is a kind of "what I want for Christmas" (besides our Saviors birth of course) deal as it's expensive. I can tell you where to get them 40% off tho if you PM me.

Magnifying glasses.

One distinction I'd like to make... Bondoman mentioned the self-healing cutting matts; these are good as a general work surface. The glass cutting BOARD that I have is useful for the things I outlined in the article and more, but be aware that it wil lbe a little harder on knife blades. So I use the board wen cutting tape or PE, and a matt for general cutting, although to be honest I generally snip with some flush-cutters ("hobby snips," what have you) and clean up with a sanding stick  or knife held free-hand, so I don't use the matt much.

I'm also not a big fan of CA glue for anything other than filling and polishing. As a structural glue it works well enough, but it will weaken over time and become brittle. It works by creating a vacuum, and once that vacuum starts to leak and let air in it gets weak, which can cause a joint to pop. It takes about 5-10 years, depending, which might not be a big deal if you plan on tearing through things and only keeping them for short periods of time, but I like to build with an eye on keeping it around for a while.

But that's largely a matter of personal preference.

sorry for the mini thread hijack but you advise against using ca but didnt give him an alternative adhesive. what do you suggest using for photoetch etc where white glue or clearcoat will not be strong enough

jh

On alternate glues, do not discount the value of modge-podge, the craft glue which  is functionally a white--ambroid IIRC--but "stickier" for photoetch and the like.

Further, another kit-type recommendation is submarines, particularly the modern SSN & SSBN.  These are deceptively simple, but allow for developing skills in finicky hull alignments, patience in gluing, and seam filling and sanding.

The WWII boats also allow for a good deal of learning how to weather, too.

talentless

sorry for the mini thread hijack but you advise against using ca but didnt give him an alternative adhesive. what do you suggest using for photoetch etc where white glue or clearcoat will not be strong enough

It's not a hijack at all....

PE assemblies can be soldered - takes practice, like anything, but it leads to a much stronger joint. To join them to deck or for railings, I and others have had good luck with "Gator's Grip Glue" (not to be confused with Gorilla glue).

excellent, i hate using ca for titchy stuff (ham fisted ) I have ordered some. thanks for your help do you know if this stuff is safe for clear parts?

Many thanks for the gators grip idea, i was finding it impossible to assemble the top studio brakes with ca, now its a doddle (sort of). magic

tsf2001 by omgpainful, on Flickr

Everyone has given you great advice so far, I have always used Badger airbrushes without problem, But don't jump in straight away, practice your techniques with brush first. For cutting I rarely use my self healing mat but tend to use an old offcut of formica work surface, it's a little more forgiving on blades. Be prepared to use a lot of blades per model though. One good bit of advice is to gently wash all the sprues with a mild detergent and an old toothbrush before you start and try and keep your hands clean. There is nothing worse than leaving fingerprints on nicely painted work. Have fun mate, that's what it's all about!!

How are you getting on with your build?