Best ship kit for beginner

Any of the old Revell model ship kits are good.

A great simple ship kit to try for under $10 are Revell Germany's 1/350 Type VIIC and VIID U-Boats. Very well detailed, low parts count, simple construction, well engineered, and they do not take up much space.

An old classic you may want to look at if you are set on Revell is their classic box scale USS Arizona. it has held up well over the years. Several of their other box scale kits such as Bismark, King George V, Sharnhorst, are not bad either for oldies. They are all pretty much in the 1/500 scle range and offer a good compromise in size and detail.

Academy does some new tooled 1/350 kits that are pretty sweet. I built their Graf Spee recently and loved it. I have their 1/350 Oliver Hazard Perry FFG and HMS Warspite kits in my stash. All three are a bit pricier than the Revell kits, starting in the $40 range and up, but are good value for the money. I need to get their newly released USS Indianapolis.

If I had to to this again I would do 1/700 waterline just for the ability to stuff 4 in the same space occupied by a 1/350.

Pick a 1/700 you like and have at it.

Revell has been in business for well over fifty years, and most of the ship kits it's issued since the beginning are still on the market - frequently dressed up with new boxes and fancy advertising.  Like any other company, Revell's quality has varied tremendously over that long period.  Revell's very first ship kit, an Iowa-class battleship on 1/535 scale, originally released in 1954, is still to be found on hobby shop shelves; I wouldn't recommend it to anybody (except perhaps someone interested in the history of plastic kits).  Some of the Revell kits from the late fifties and the sixties represented the state of the art when they were originally released, and still can respond to tender loving care to produce nice models, but there are lots of better choices out there.

The best Revell ship kits are the recent ones from Revell Germany.  (You can usually tell they're German by looking at the boxes carefully.)  The 1/350 Bismarck is generally regarded as the best version of that ship on that scale, and the 1/144 Fletcher is in a class by itself - as are the 1/350, 1/144, and 1/72 U-boats.  The 1/350 U-boat would be a fine first subject.

You might want to ask on the Forum about a specific kit.  It's a safe bet that somebody here has built it.

Thanks all for your suggestions !

I'll consider them the next time I go to my favorite LHS (which could be very soon).

One question though : what about the Revell ship kits ?

They are quite cheap, and they have a nice selection. Are they any good ?

I read that some of them were made in the late 50's (at the time my own father was a kid !) Are they worth the admission price or I should invest a little more for another kit ?

Accuracy is not as much an issue for me as ease of building and that the ship looks good when done

Tamiya's 1/700 Fletcher may be an option for you. It has a small parts count and there is a load of aftermarket accy's available depending on just how detailed you want to go. It also builds very nicely out of the box. Everyone has their own personal order of assembly and painting and doing a couple of small builds like this will let you sort out what is best for you.

I'd recommend a 1:350 destroyer.  The parts are not super small and the kits are not an overwhelming parts count- a good way to start.  1:700 kits tend to have tiny parts, and heavy cruisers and battleships tend to have many hundreds of parts.  A larger scale PT or other patrol or fast boat is another thought.

Boy if there was a 1/700 SMS Gneisenau...

Trump Baltimore or San Francisco are good choices.

Also their Arizona is great in that scale, or their Graf Spee.

If I had to do it all over again (i.e. if I were in your shoes...) 1/700 is a good scale.

The Airfix 1/600 Repulse and King George V look great,right out of the box.