Model Ship Beginner

Panther88 wrote:

Would it be wiser to start with a Tamiya 1/350 battleship kit for a beginner then it would a Trumpeter kit?  What Tamiya kit would be a good start?

I really don't think that a battleship kit is a good way to start in 1/350. I would recommend instead the Tamiya Fletcher to "get your feet wet" so to speak. It happens to be a pretty good model to start with and the construction of it will give you a feel for the techniques to complete a larger more complex project. You can also buy brass detail sets for a reasonable price if you wish to add that level of detail to your first project.

I am not new to modelling, I have modelled aircraft and armour for over 20 years, worked with PE etc.  My local hobby store has all the Tamiya 1/350 battleships on for $79.00/each.

Panther88 wrote:

I am not new to modelling, I have modelled aircraft and armour for over 20 years, worked with PE etc.  My local hobby store has all the Tamiya 1/350 battleships on for $79.00/each.

Well, in that case, the Tamiya Missouri or King George V are good kits. The Trumpeter Hood is better. There are some issues with the Trumpeter North Carolina with regard to corrections for accuracy purposes that have been raised in other forums, can't say for myself what they are. The Missouri and KGV have been around for years and lots of detail and enhancement parts are available. It really depends on how deep you want to get into it. The Trumpeter kits give you the option of easy waterline display which I like but some prefer the full hull. At least you won't have to cut the bottom off of the Hood if you want waterline. I have the Hood and it is a beautiful kit. I also have the Missouri, New Jersey, King George V, Prince of Wales, Yamato, Musashi, Bismarck and Tirpitz. Looking at them all together I won't hesitate to say that the Trumpeter Hood is better than all of the Tamiya kits. If, however, you have access only to the Tamiya kits then Missouri or KGV/POW are the best of the lot. I am not thrilled with the Bismarck/Tirpitz kits, however, White Ensign Models makes detail and supplement sets that make these models into truly great displays. Lots of new detail sets have been released for all of these models with enhancements to just about every aspect of them. A fat wallet gets you some truly fantastic brass.

Panther88 wrote:

Would it be wiser to start with a Tamiya 1/350 battleship kit for a beginner then it would a Trumpeter kit?  What Tamiya kit would be a good start?

In addition to Dreadnought's recommendation of the Tam Fletcher, let me add the USS England by Trumpeter.   Like the Fletcher this is a smaller (less expensive) kit.  It is well engineered and there are aftermarket PE sets available for it.   I cannot recommend the Trump The Sullivans to a novice shipbuilder.  It has some "issues".

Panther88 wrote:

I am not new to modelling, I have modelled aircraft and armour for over 20 years, worked with PE etc.  My local hobby store has all the Tamiya 1/350 battleships on for $79.00/each.

I would still recommend a simpler kit to learn some of the techniques involved in ship modeling which are different from the other genre's of the hobby.   You may be adept at folding a brass cockpit where the final result is a box an inch long by a half-inch wide -- now reduce that to a box which is a quarter-inch long and an eighth wide -- as in a depth charge thrower rack.    

Then too there is the OMG factor.   If you have built any link-by-link tracked armor you may be well aware of the feeling of what have I gotten myself into, when you open the box and see hundreds of small parts.   A battleship can have hundreds of small parts, many of them different - in subtle ways. Even more so is the photoetch involved.   A simpler kit such as a destroyer or escort will still have small parts, but fewer of them.    I've seen modelers, hit by the OMG factor who put the model away and open it every year to look at the parts and wonder what might have been.   Eventually the kit is sold (at a loss). 

Finally there is the cost.   The Tam battleship kits cost 80 bucks, plus another 40 to 80 bucks for the brass ... Soon you are into it for a hundred - hundred and a quarter  (or more).    You don't want to screw up the expensive kit.    A learner kit is 30 bucks plus another 30 for the PE.   You are only in half as deep.   It doesn't hurt as bad when you screw up.   --- And you will screw up,  I still do and I've been building as long as you have.    You can still do the Tam battleship -- just after you have learned some of our special techniques.   Oh, and welcome to the dark side.

I agree, start smaller - that way when you screw up, and you WILL screw up, you won't also have to deal with that numbing, "OMG, I spent how much $$$$$ on this thing?" feeling.

As for scale, though, I wish I had started out with 1/350 just to learn how to not screw up as much ... but living in a small apartment, 1/700 seemed like the only viable option.

The nice thing about ship modeling (OK, I admit it, I'm weird) is the delayed gratification factor - a ship doesn't really start looking like a ship until you're almost done with it, because a ship model is basically a collection of sub-assemblies that end up perched on top of a hull. I was well into the home stretch of my rebuild of the USS Enterprise to her 2006 configuration before I started to get that, "Yeah, now we're getting close!" feeling. I was building it for a friend whose daughter, a brand new ensign, was shipped right out on a six-month deployment that ends next week. When I took it over to her yesterday and started pointing things out to her (she knows nothing about ships, the Navy, etc.) she just sat there, slowly stroking the side of the hull with one finger, then started to cry, saying for the first time she understood what her daughter was doing and why. That made it all worth it.
 

Thanks for all the advice.  I went to my local hobby shop today and talked to the owner, he agreed with the points you have all made. Unfortunately he did not have the kits in stock you guys mentioned.  So I ended up with the Hasegawa 1/350 Yukikaze, it comes with PE and everything I need but paint.

 The only other source of info I require is the sequence to building a ship and the colors and weathering.  For instance the majority of the ship (minus the decking) is a grey color (most ships) once you spray the grey how do you weather?...dry brush?...pastels?

 The other issue is the decking, spray the deck parts first (color, I am use to Model Master line) then attach the decking to the hull, but what if you have gaps and need to fill and sand....other option bruch paint?...is there more brush paiting in ship building?

 Really appreciate all your help/tips/advice.

Panther88 wrote:

Thanks for all the advice.  I went to my local hobby shop today and talked to the owner, he agreed with the points you have all made. Unfortunately he did not have the kits in stock you guys mentioned.  So I ended up with the Hasegawa 1/350 Yukikaze, it comes with PE and everything I need but paint.  The only other source of info I require is the sequence to building a ship and the colors and weathering.  For instance the majority of the ship (minus the decking) is a grey color (most ships) once you spray the grey how do you weather?...dry brush?...pastels?  The other issue is the decking, spray the deck parts first (color, I am use to Model Master line) then attach the decking to the hull, but what if you have gaps and need to fill and sand....other option bruch paint?...is there more brush paiting in ship building?  Really appreciate all your help/tips/advice.

Yukikaze is a very nice kit, (forgot about that one!) and you have lucked out to a certain extent with paint difficulty. Your Yukikaze should be a more or less monochrome scheme. There were several shades of gray used by the IJN depending upon where the ship was built or refitted last. These are available from White Ensign Models and you may still be able to order some directly from Testors in the Model Master Acrylic line. The painting technique will vary from ship to ship but on that one you will probably be able to assemble all the major superstructure elements and spray with an airbrush. You will find that you must employ all your paint techniques when building ships, many times on the same model. Dry fitting, just like with armor models is essential to find areas where gaps may occur. Most ship guys I know will assemble the hull and deck, work on any imperfections then mask off the deck and spray the hull and vice versa for the deck, if the deck is a different color from the hull which it usually is. The whole weathering thing with ships is complicated. Depending upon the time chosen to model the subject in question you will find the ship was essentially immaculate or at other times and places the paint was well worn and weathered. Research is the key here. Just remember your subject matter here is MUCH smaller than 1/35. It's good to have some 1/350 "people" in sight when working on a ship so that you keep the proper perspective. Also remember that when you look at your ship it will be from a distance of 350 to 700 feet so keep in mind what can be seen at that distance. (in 1/350 12 inches is 350 feet, anybody that sticks their head closer than 12 inches from MY ship model is sucking around for a head wound). A good idea for how a worn ship looks is to go to somewhere like NavSource and check out the color photos of modern ships. The color photos there will show you some of the way that the sea and paint intereact without having to interpret black and white photos or adjust for some of the weird effects of the old style color films. I have a great photo of a modern US ship that looks pretty ragged as my desktop background and it helps to remind me of what to look for. Although I must confess that I really don't like to look at weathered ship models, preferring them to have that pristine, fresh out of the yard look.

You can get the Tamiya ships from an online dealer at least $25 dollars cheaper ( or more if its the Enterprise) than in the hobby store.  I don't see how anyone that buys lots of kits can buy them at the store for ridiculous markups to full retail, and the IPMS discount at my LHS is a joke.  I still save at least $20 a kit online. At the end of the year that is a trip somewhere nice.