First time boat building

[PariahKing]

So this is my first time wanting to build a boat of any size, my main goal is to build a Carrack type ship like in the anime One Piece (there main ship Thousand Sunnys) but talking with some other people that have said that I’ve basically chosen one of the hardest ships to do for a first timer. So if there are anybody out there that can point me in the direction of a simple but fun to do ship that will be great, something that can help me level up (as it were) to get to the level of a Carrack type ship.

 

thanks in advance 😁

[ccoyle]

This is an interesting challenge you have set before yourself. Your anime carrack obviously has a lot of fanciful details that would not be found on a real carrack, so building a model from any of the existing carrack kits would be both difficult for a beginner and perhaps not much of an aid toward achieving your ultimate goal. A ship like this will need to be a scratch-build, so perhaps you should start with some thought about what type of medium do you think you'd be most comfortable working with, i.e. wood, card stock, or plastic. You could then start with some simple kits in that medium to gain basic modeling skills which you could later apply to your scratch build. Other than your anime ship, what kinds of boats/ships do you think you might be interested in building?

[PariahKing]

I’ve never done anything like this in boats or ships, I just want to start at something simple first then go onto bigger and better ships and boats.

 

thanks for the advice
hopefully I can find something to my range 

[ccoyle]

Most model kit manufacturers (plastic or wood) or publishers (paper or card stock) offer at least a few kits that are geared toward beginning modelers. There are even free examples of such models in card stock, which you can learn more about in our card modeling tutorial in the card modeling section. Wood kits for beginners tend to be smallcraft such rowboats or daysailers; these can often be built into quite attractive models. If you use the search feature to look for "Midwest Products", you will find many examples of such kits. Midwest no longer makes boat kits, but they are still common on eBay, and other manufacturers offer similar options.

[CPDDET]

Welcome to the best site on the web for model shipbuilding.

 

I'll chime in on the scale of the model you choose. I'm on my first build, Bluenose, which is a 1:64th scale. That means 1 inch on the real ship equals 1/64 inch on the model, or 1 foot on the real ship equals 3/16th of an inch on the model. 

 

At this scale, details become very small and can be difficult to produce. I would advise a larger scale model for your first build.

 

Check around this site for more information on kits, card builds, scratch builds. 

[mtaylor]

Welcome to MSW, Pariahking.    You might have a look at this topic as it has a lot of useful information.    Also, have a look here:  https://thenrg.org/resource/articles as there's good articles on what to expect, tools to get you started and also don't ever buy, etc.

 

 

[CRob]

On 8/13/2020 at 9:16 AM, PariahKing said:

I’ve never done anything like this in boats or ships, I just want to start at something simple

I'm looking at starting with Dumas 1007 Junior sailboat just to get familiar with gluing and positioning things.