I still have my battleship Missouri model, built in the early fifties. It was RC capable- I intend to mount RC gear in it but never getaroundtoit. It is the only remnant of my youthful building. I did pick up a Sterling Revenue cutter kit at a garage sale, and it is partially done. Sterling was a low cost alternative for shelf scale models- the hulls were balsa and the fittings were pretty cheap, but hey, you could get a lot of experience building them. And, I only lived a few miles from A. J. Fisher, Royal Oak, who was a prime mail order supplier of really great fittings in the day, so my Dad would drive me there to pick up stuff. With decent fittings the results looked pretty good.