New to ship modelling? But what do you build first?

[JMW]

Hi.

 

apologies for joining this conversation late, but I thought I would add my two pennies worth.

 

I started HMS Pickle around 2008 but couldn't get my head around how to fair the bulkheads and it ended up in a box where it remains until today. 

 

A few months ago I thought I'd have another go, older, wiser etc. So I got Vanguard's HMS Sherbourne. I'm now a couple of evenings away from completing the rigging and I am so happy with the finished result and already looking forward to rescuing Pickle from her poor box and giving her another go.  My Sherbourne isn't perfect, not by a long way, but as I don't plan on entering any competitions, doing macro photography or hosting any model shipwright conventions I'm more than satisfied with her, warts and all. If anything, the faults that I have left and not fixed will, I know, serve as inspiration to me to do better next time. 

 

Anyway, great starter kit, can't recommend it highly enough. 

 

[Thunder]

Hi,

 

I was lucky in that there was a specialist model shop just for wooden model kits in my area. I was given advice and went with Corel's Resolution. At that time Caldercraft had not done many kits and choice was limited. Even so he had about every kit that was available other than the ones he would not sell due to poor quality.

 

I then decided to buy a 'cheap' kit to practice on. I made the mistake of getting Racehorse for this. It is a poor kit in most ways, materials quality, historical accuracy, instructions are all very poor. However, i persevered and loved it. Because I had done upgrades of masts and yards and rigging i completely scratch built these which made it a much better finished model.

 

I then did another small kit, Caldercraft's Chatham. This had great materials and again really enjoyed. Built Resolution and was also great but again masting and rigging in kit was poor, materials very good as are drawings.

 

Then thought wanted a kit with excellent instructions, chose Pickle, I did not enjoy, as instructions so detailed just followed them, which was fine till discovered errors.

 

Long winded but basically it is choice. No point choosing a model as suitable for a beginner if of no interest and if good with hands may well do a great job with a more advanced kit.