full hull or waterline

so EDGRUNE ARII swings both ways interesting.

ok  enough of that

altough it is a matter of choice of course but i think waterline is yout best option.

they are flat so they stay nicely on the display shelf. the full hull need stands and are not as neat in that way. 

the undersides of most ships are really nothing special to look at, a rudder or two and a couple of props

Scottie wrote:

Can someone tell me who makes the full hull 1:700 scale ships and who makes the waterline ones?

Aside from the makers and notes about full hull vs waterline above the following manufacturers make 1/700 waterline kits in resin, metal or plastic:

Admiralty Models, Aoshima, B-Resina, Classic Warhips (now being re-cast by MidShip Models), Combrig, Delphis, Dragon (DML), Dream Festival Workshop, Fujimi, H-P, Hasegawa, HighMold, Iron Shipwright, Italeri, Jadar, JAG, Joe World, Kobu-Hiryu, Matchbox, Midship, Minihobby, Modelkrak, Niko, NNT, Regia Marina, Revell/Monogram, Samek (recently closed?), Seals, Skytrex, Skywave, Tamiya, Trumpeter, WaveLine, White Ensign, WSW, YS Masterpieces, Yumematu, Zvedzda.

Try saying that all in one sentence.... WS

A couple of other companies have made kits in this scale - or close to it - over the years.  Revell began releasing 1/720-scale ships in (according to Dr. Graham's excellent book) 1967.  (The difference between 1/700 and 1/720 is pretty small.)  Most of the kits in the Revell series don't get high marks from serious modelers, but their Enterprise (the nuclear version) is pretty highly regarded.  All those kits, if I'm not mistaken, come with separate (usually ill-fitting) components for the underwater hulls.

Italeri has also issued a series of ships in 1/720 scale.  The Italeri modern American aircraft carriers tend to be pretty basic, but not bad kits (nowhere near the sophistication of the recently-released Trumpeter ones - but a whole lot cheaper).  The Italeri German pocket battleships and H.M.S. Hood are, in my personal opinion, among the very best the plastic kit industry has to offer in the area of small-scale ship kits.  All the Italeri kits have optional underwater hull components.  The pocket battleship kits are particularly nifty in that regard.  The underwater hull is molded integrally with the above-water part, with the top and bottom halves connected by thin molding gates.  The modeler slices off the gates and either glues the underwater hull into position or discards it and adds the flat "bottom plate."  That arrangement results in a perfect fit between the top and bottom parts. 

The British company Matchbox also made a series of kits in 1/700 quite a few years ago; they've reappeared in Revell Germany boxes more recently.  Most of them were, to say the least, on the crude side, but Matchbox picked a few subjects (e.g., H.M.S. Exeter and a British fast minelayer) that the other manufacturers have missed.  If I remember correctly, all were strictly waterline models.

Then there's a small Japanese firm called Sealsmodel that makes a handful of 1/700 Japanese warships from the Russo-Japanese War.  They're strictly waterline kits - and excellent ones, if the subject matter appeals.  (Those wanting to represent both sides of that interesting conflict can find many of the Russian ships in the extensive range of the Russian manufacturer Combrig.  Combrig kits are resin, and strictly waterline - but their prices are, compared to those of most cottage-industry companies, extremely reasonable.)

I may have missed a few, but those are the ones that come to mind.

 

Waterline ships in 1:700 scale are generally made by the old Japanese ship model consortiuum of Tamiya, Hasegawa, Fujimi, and Aoshima.    Some of the more recent releases by the consortiuum allow both ways

Pitroad/Skywave was a latecomer to the consortiuum.   The kits which they developed on their own are generally waterline.    The kits they have developed in conjunction with Trumpeter are generally wholehull.

Trumpeter's kits are generally whole hull.   Early Trumpeter/MiniHobby Models hull bottoms are misshapen to go with a power-pod attachment for bathtub use

DML/Dragon are generally whole hull, except where they leased a mold from someone else.   Sometimes they would do a hull bottom to go with the leased kit, sometimes not.

ARII was similar.   They would swing both ways.   

CCLee included hull bottoms,  but they were mostly conjectural, their shapes bearing no resemblence to reality