Ten kits. Where to start.

[Mark m]

I am a fairly new ship builder, having completed the Model Shipways Dory and working on the Norwegian Pram.  Next up is the Muscongus Bay Lobster Smack.

 

I have recently acquired a number of kits in a package deal, and am trying to decide the order in which to build them.

 

Any opinions on the relative difficulty of these kits:

Occre Essex

Model Shipways Armed Virginia Sloop

Model Shipways Glad Tidings
Model Shipways Flying Fish
Model Shipways Ben Latham
Model Shipways Emma Berry
Model Shipways Bedford Whaleboat
Model Shipways Fair American
Model Shipways Niagara
Model Shipways Sultana (old, solid hull)

 

 

[Leo Mayoral]

Hi Mark,

 

I'm also in the middle of building the Norwegian Pram.  I'm up to the point of working on the masts.  If you want to see how the Pinky Schooner is built, I encourage you to look at a you tube video by Olha Batchvarov.  It is absolutely an amazing log which captures beautiful detail of the work.  In my view the challenge in the Flying Fish is the rigging.  For the Ben Latham the challenge for me would be getting the hull and keel faired just right though the rigging is moderately challenging.  The Emma Berry seems to be a natural progression from the Norwegian Pram as it has a little more rigging.The Bedfpord Whaleboat is all about precision and detail as there is not much to the model and the pride comes from scale accuracy and detail in the painting.  Wow!  The Fair American has a lot of intricate rigging.  Let's hope the rigging plans are accurate, otherwise you'll end up doing some research.  My chyallenge on the Niagra would be getting the masts raked properly and setting the bowsprit and marlin strikers well placed for all the rigging.  My first ship was a solid hull model.  I spent a lot of time on fairing and shaping the hull.  The rigging was also challenging.  Though not too complicated, it gave me some experience on getting the rigging done.  I'd suggest getting some books on model ship rigging.

 

I guess, if I had to offer a suggestion, build up your modeling tools before you tackle the models beyond the Emma Berry.  For this I would suggest looking a few of Olha's you tube videos.  She has one on tools and one on glues that are very informative.

 

Good luck with your model building!

Leo

[uss frolick]

Sultana first. Planking over that solid hull will be fun. 

[ccoyle]

You managed to obtain a very nice stash all in one swoop! There really isn't a bad kit in that bunch.

 

One thing to generally ignore is the difficulty ratings provided on kits by Model Shipways. Ratings are generally intended to sell kits and not always a good indicator of how challenging a kit is to build. A good rule of thumb is the more "stuff" a kit has, e.g. guns, masts, rigging, etc., the harder it is to build. If you follow that guideline, Flying Fish is hands-down the most difficult kit on your list. Another thing to observe is that all of your kits are plank-on-bulkhead except for two (Emma C Berry and Sultana). The best way to learn POB construction is to build a POB kit. From your list, that makes Latham, Glad Tidings, and the AVS the best choices. The final choice comes down to which kit subject piques your interest the most. Building a wooden ship model can be a slog at times, and having a kit you really like can help keep you motivated.

 

Have fun with your projects!

[allanyed]

Mark 

IMHO you have started with the best beginner kits available so have already jumped far ahead of the majority of ship modelers with minimal experience.  Go with the least complex and work up as Chris has suggested, that is the fewer the parts the simpler the kit but still letting you gain experience without a lot of frustration.

Allan

[Ryland Craze]

Mark, You have received some good advise.  I would think the Sultana is a good kit to start with.  There is a practicum on how to build this kit that was written by Chuck Passaro.  It is located in the Articles Database near the bottom of the page at this link: https://thenrg.org/resource/articles

 

Whatever kit you decide to start with, please start a build log so we can follow along.

[Jaager]

Mark,

I will take on the role of curmudgeon for this. and advise this:

 

Take good care of and store your collection carefully.  You may wind up selling off many of them.

 

Two of the camps here are

1) kits as a gateway to scratch building (a small group)

2) kits as an end in themselves 

If you catch bug number 1  ....

If you are one for whom what is popular or sticking to the well trod paths are things to be avoided......

 

The OcCre kit is probably best kept for last.  Not up to the quality of the others  and a full set of 3 masts and all that rigging plus lots of guns.

 

The MS Flying Fish is a 1850's era large clipper,  The kit is 1:96 scale.  There is a lot of detailed rigging and a scale that requires art and finesse to do well.  It is a real challenge to do well.

 

The hull of the whaleboat is  just a step beyond what you are doing.  This kit is about the equipment details.  There is a small book by a former NRJ editor.  There are articles in the CDs in probably all three journals that are for sale here.

 

For the fishing vessels,  HIC wrote a book that provides graduate level details.

 

For the solid hulls,  check out StewMac for good quality rasps.  I doubt that a POB kit mold is sturdy enough  for a rasp.

 

If you want your expenditure to pay off, try to avoid the historian,  topic specialization, and explore new paths bugs.

 

 

Edited July 15, 2022 by Jaager

[GrandpaPhil]

Just remember, fewer masts are easier than many masts.  And fore and aft rigs are easier than square rigs.

 

Incidentally, the MS Sultana was my first real ship model.  I really enjoyed it.  I learned a lot!

Edited July 15, 2022 by GrandpaPhil

[glbarlow]

The AVS was my first model. I learned a lot from it and enjoy the result to this day. 

[Mike Collier]

I’m just starting to build wooden ship models, I bought Model Shipways Become a Shipwrights of Old kit. I built theDory and I think it came out nice and the Norwegian Pram also came out nice. I was in my local hobby shop and I found a Midwest kit the Chesapeake Bay Crabbing Skiff which I’m building now. Once that is finished I’ll move on to the Muscongus Bay lobster smack. It is very enjoyable hobby. I will have to decide on my next afterwards.

[Jaager]

Mike,

 

Your list reminded me of a trail that I gave thought to when I was wading into this.

 

To continue with your theme but broaden your possibilities, skill, and confidence,

The deadrise boats, skipjacks, and log canoes of the Bay can be a side branch investigation.

These were built by backyard builders, not schooled in the art.

There is a paperback by Steve Rogers covering a skipjack - the methods are a bit eccentric compared to the methods done here.

H.I. Chapelle wrote a paperback - "Notes on..."  that is available second hand.

Ben Lankford  wrote a paperback to accompany the model of the Willie J Bennett that he developed for Model Shipways, that may possibly be found second hand.

The S.I. has skipjack plans for sale.  The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum used to sell actual blue prints for various Bay fishing craft.

 

My point is that this branch is a very approachable area for a first time scratch build.  It does not require a second mortgage to obtain the needed tools and wood.  It just requires and interest in the subject.   

 

You have been wise in your path so far.  If you are tempted by the flash of lots of guns, liners, frigates, clippers, etc.  be mindful: that way lays a time sink and possible quicksand.  When you know, when you do not have to ask if you should,  that is when those can be essayed with confidence.

Edited July 16, 2022 by Jaager

[Roger Pellett]

This is a good time to reflect on why you want to build ship models.  Are you interested in Naval Architecture or maritime history?  Are you inspired by Horacio Hornblower age of fighting sail novels?   Or do you just enjoy building kits?

 

 Assuming that you want to have a life other than assembling ship model kits then you probably own at least 15-20 years of ship modeling.  Your interests are likely to change over this long time period.  I also second Jaager’s thoughts that over time you may want to venture into scratch building unique subjects.

 

You have several categories of models each catering to a specific modeling interest

 

Fighting Sail:

Armed Virginia Sloop

Essex

Sultana

Fair American

Niagara

 

American Workboats:

Whaleboat

Glad Tiding

Ben Latham

Emma Berry

 

Clipper Ship:

Flying Fish

 

If your interest is in building historically accurate models, I would weed out Essex and Niagara;  Essex, because those old European POB kits were really pretty crude, and Niagara because the kit builds a replica, not the actual ship.  No one has found any design information drawings or otherwise for the vessel that fought with Perry in 1813.

 

Roger