What are the best detailed plastic models?

[Ray1981]

Hello all,

 

I started yesterday on my second project the HMS Bounty from Revell. I notced a couple of things on this model that aint realy realistic IMHO. Im not a very experienced builder and really new to this hobby. And I dont want to downgrade Revell with its quality in this thread but the kit contains a lot of plastic thats not part of the kit and needs to be sanded or cut away (thats not a big issue). But regarding detail when i look to the deck of the ship it shows me planks but there no slots between the planks rather its the opposite. I hope you guys understand what im talking about, I have attached a foto.

 

So my question is what is a good brand in plastic ship models. Ive seen on the market a couple of brands like Airfix, Heller, Revell etc. I was hoping poeple would like to tell me who is making really good and detailed plastic models?

 

Thanks in advance

 

Grtz Ray

[Richard Griffith]

Ray,

Producers of kits must balance commercial success with accuracy (amount of research and the detail in their dies).  In my experience, every kit needs bashing, that is upgrades, added detail, removal of inaccurate items.  

 

More to your question, Airfix makes very good kits as does Heller.  The Airfix 'Wasa' is very good (which I am building) and the Heller 'Soleil Royal' is also very good.  My research on the Soleil revealed a few errors which were easily fixed.  Revell and many others have very good kits but sometimes produces a poor model.  Again, do some research and modify the kit to your satisfaction.

 

Keep building and above all, have fun~!                       Duff 

[Ray1981]

Hey Duffer,

 

I hope you didnt read my thread as a complain it is not a complain something i noticed while making this boat. Because it is my second kit im building im trying to experiment with techniques and see how i could do certain things the best. I try to make the kit as real as I can do ans surely have fun.

 

I posted this question to see what others thik about kits and their quality, just curiosity. And find out what would be a nice kit to built in the future so thank you for your repsonse.

 

I saw here pictures on the forum from the Heller's Santa Maria which looks very nice. 

 

Regarding modifications you mentioned there is one thing i like to try out in this kit and that is making those nets which you see on the side of ship by myself I dont know the real name so I post a picture. 

 

Grtz Ray

[popeye2sea]

Those are the shrouds and ratlines.  The shrouds are the long lines that diverge at an angle, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom.  The horizontal cross parts are the ratlines.

 

There are several reasons that most modelers replace these kit parts.  The foremost being that they just look too fake.  The shrouds are too thin and the ratlines are too thick, and on the whole the geometry is too perfect.  Each ratline crosses completely straight and horizontal.

 

Another reason has to do with functionality.  The shrouds actually play a role in holding up the mast.  Of course you could just put the model together using the supplied shrouds, deadeyes and laniards, but if there is any shift fore and aft or side to side in the masts when you set up your other rigging it will pull these pre-made shrouds out of alignment and they will look warped.

 

You will be much better served by making these parts yourself and setting them up properly.  And you will have a much stronger rig because of it.

 

Regards,

[Ray1981]

Thanks popeye2sea, anyonehas some recourses on how to make this by yourself appearantly im not the only one who would like to do this.

[popeye2sea]

There are several resources available that show how to rig shrouds and deadeyes.  A small list of books is:

 

The Young Sea Officers Sheet Anchor, Darcy Lever

The Art of Rigging,  David Steel

The Elements and Practice of Rigging and Seamanship

The Rigging of Ships in the Days of the Spritsail Topmast,  R.C Anderson

Falconer's Dictionary of the Marine

 

These are the titles I go to most often.

 

Regards,

[mtaylor]

Ray,

 

To get you started, a very good resource is here on MSW:  http://modelshipworldforum.com/ship-modeling-articles-and-downloads.php

 

I did a quick search on very detailed build of the Vic.. http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/76-hms-victory-by-dafi-heller-plastic-to-victory-and-beyond/

 

If you click his log and the at upper right hand corner enter the word "shrouds"... you'll get some pages where he discusses these.  Then enter "ratlines" and you'll get his methods also.

 

Just about every log has something on shrouds and ratlines .. well.. at least the sailing ships do.   

[Ray1981]

thanks guys, im so happy i found this forum everybody is very helpfull and i really learn a lot!!!

 

[Thunder]

My advice would be to pick up the airfix Victory, Mayflower or Cutty sark and have a search for the guide books written by Noel C L Hackney that went with them. You then get a thorough guide to building with suggested modifications to improve. You also get full rigging plans and a method of completing the rigging for any ship going forward. If you get all three books then you get a guide for the three main era's of sail history. I still use these methods even with my wooden models.

 

My favourite model was Airfix's Bounty. Not because of itss accuracy but it provided the best basics for a real good kit bash.

 

I will try and get some photos on when I get home.

 

Thunder. 

 

 

Here are the Photographs, The victory is a kit I built 20 years ago using the book below:

 

 

 

Edited April 23, 2016 by Thunder

[Richard Williamson]

Zevezda model of the Black Swan has remarkable detail, lots of parts, and is a nice way to get on idea on how much is put into what these old sailing guys had to work with in order to get from point A to point B.  I'm pretty new at this but have done sailing most of my adult life.  I appreciate how these ships were actually built and what was created to make them work.  I would like to get another model and make it more realistic with weathering and have it look like a real working vessel.  I like the idea of something like the Santa Maria because it is a simpler model (not as many parts) and I can concentrate on making it appear mor real.  

[EJ_L]

I have built Revell's Constitution, the 1:96 scale, twice and I think the quality was excellent. I have pictures of it on here if you would like to see. Like all plastic kits there will always be some modifying that will need to be done and flashing that has to be cut away. This holds true whether it is a car, train or ship kit and is no different than wood really. I compare that kit to Heller's Victory, which can make a great ship ship but, I have had to do a lot more work making things look right and the instructions have been harder to follow than Constitution's were.  

 

Best advice I can give is do what you are doing and ask around to see what people think of any kit you may be looking at. Read the reviews and always ask yourself how much work are you willing to do outside of what the instructions say.

[Ulises Victoria]

Hello. In my plastic days I built about every sailing ship that was worth it. Revell's 1/96 Constitution I built twice. Heller's 1/100 Victory (regarded sometime as "the best plastic ship kit in the market") is still displayed in my living room. This kit was improved using Corel's 1/98 Victory parts, which I tried to build in the 80's and never got to finish. One little ship that was a real pleasure to build was IMAI/ERTL Golden Hind. Don't think this is in production anymore. I have under my desk Heller's 1/100 Soleil Royale. This is in my "will-I-ever-build-plastic-again" list.

In every one of these ships I substituted the plastic shrouds and ratlines with real thread and used cloth for the sails.

[Fright]

I agree with Modelerbob and with EJ_L on Revell kits (larger scale). My 1st build was 1:72 Revell's Gato submarine and I have started work on 1:96 scale USS Constitution for my 1st ship of sail. As mentioned, the Constitution has a lot of flash but is not that much trouble to work with. My model's hull and decks lined up nicely. I also looked at Zvevda Black Swan and heard their kits were good quality, but i got a great deal for around $60 for my Constitution and I was leary of spending more money on my first ship with rigging. Best of luck to you on your build and these forums have some fantastic people and advice to help you along. 

[JerseyCity Frankie]

Most of us view plastic kits as being crude in terms of quality. The company Heller makes some very good plastic sailing ship kits -I'm building their HMS Victory- but even these nicer kits have shortcomings. The nice thing about even a very poor plastic kit is that you can throw away everything but the hull and build your own version on top, using the hull as a foundation. You have saved a lot of time not having to build the hull from scratch and can go right into masting and rigging. Another nice thing about using a plastic kit is that you can decide for yourself at which points to step in a manufacture your own components. Most people are going to agree that the molded-in-one-piece shrouds and ratlines should be tossed no matter what else you plan on doing. Those things are always ugly simplistic and out of scale.

[Ron Marlett]

Hi Gritz Ray, in regards to making your own shrouds and ratlines, Harry Houdini in Australia offers several rigging tools on his website. https://houdinimodels.com/harp/

[NoelSmith]

Revell has used the same hull mouldings for different ships. An example being the Bounty hull for Beagle, the Kearsarge and Alabama kits and the Cutty Sark's hull for both the Thermopylae and Pedro Nunes. So do check these out if you want an accurate model. Possibly Heller might have done the some with some of their sailing ship kits. 

Airfix (bless them) have not been tempted to use such practices on their Classic Ships range and generally are quite good representations of the ships they have made kits for. Many have not been re released for many years, but the Victory, Cutty Sark, Vasa and Golden Hind appear to stay in their catalogue year on year.

Edited February 20 by NoelSmith

[GrandpaPhil]

In my personal opinion, Heller makes the best plastic sailing ships, although I have never built an Airfix plastic sailing ship, which seem to be well regarded.

Edited February 22 by GrandpaPhil

[NoelSmith]

The Great Western has reappeared for this year from Airfix.  They reissued it a few years back for an anniversary of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The irony is that this ship and the Great Eastern no longer exist but have had kits made by Airfix and Revell, but the Great Britain, preserved in Bristol never had a plastic kit made of it. As far as I am aware no wooden kits of any of Brunel's ships has ever been  made either.

Occre have recently been making kits of sail steam ships like the Endurance, so it would be interesting to see if any of Brunel's ships ever get model kits from them.

I suggested the CSS Alabama the well known Confederate Commerce Raider to Occre recently, and also to Airfix when I was the IPMS Scalemodelworld Show at Telford last year. I know that Bluejacket have released the Alabama, and is reputed to be the most accurate kit of the vessel, but a huge model at 1/96th scale like the big Revell one. I just wish that someone would do a kit at half that size. Big enough to super detail without dominating the house!

Edited February 24 by NoelSmith

[Thunder]

I have built, or have stored away ready, all of the Airfix kits but Endeavour. They all look great built. I was at the IPMS show in Telford UK where they exhibited the Great Western and was surprised how little care they had taken over it when compared to every other kit on show. My version is below