Beginner military vessel?

[Dollburger]

Model ships have fascinated me for a while now, and I’d like to try building one for display. The catch is I honestly don’t see myself building multiple ships, and because of this I’d like to build a small sloop or similar and I’m wondering if the Model Shipways Dapper Tom Baltimore clipper might be ok for a newbie? I haven’t built wood models before, but I have built plenty of plastic. I build/paint Warhammer 40k if you’re familiar with that.

 

Does anyone have experience with the Dapper Tom? Would there be any others in the beginner range that still have cannons? 
 

Thank you!

[ccoyle]

Take Model Shipways with a grain of salt. I would not consider Dapper Tom a beginner model -- it is more of an intermediate project. Plus, it is in 1/76 scale, which is borderline fiddly for a beginner. If you absolutely have to have guns and think you may only do one model (don't sell yourself short -- you might get hooked), I'd look for a cutter or brig such as Alert or Speedy from Vanguard Models, or Polotsk or Phoenix from Master Korabel. The latter two kits are 1/72 scale, but the design is well thought out and the planking is pre-spiled (spiling is a huge challenge for beginners), so the small scale is offset somewhat. The VM kits are 1/64 scale.

 

If you are patient, there are additional small warship models coming on the market soon from some good companies, e.g. Ontario from Marisstella and Flirt from VM.

[Dollburger]

Thanks for the suggestions! With Vanguard - do you know what the difference is between versions? It looks like they have multiples available for each ship. 

[VTHokiEE]

With the alert some of the parts were slightly redesigned and the wood changed to pear wood. For the speedy I believe it is mainly wood types for the exterior planking (the laser deck for the speedy was also updated between version 1 and 2).

 

Edit - I’m currently building the Alert and it is a very nicely designed kit.