Please recommend kits

[Tom Mallinson]

I’m just starting to practice making tall ships. My goal is to construct a USS Constitution type ship. What vendor would you recommend?

[ccoyle]

Welcome aboard!

 

A three-masted man-of-war is one of the most difficult types of wooden ships to model. As a beginner, you should aim toward the opposite end of the spectrum: smaller ship, fewer guns (if any), and less masting and rigging.

 

To get an idea of what other beginning modelers are building, take a look through the following 523 build logs, all of which have been tagged as first builds:

 

https://modelshipworld.com/tags/First Build/

 

Pay particular attention to the builds that have been tagged as "finished." Those are models that beginners actually finished -- a good attribute for any beginner kit!

[Mercator]

My first wood ships models were the Artesian Latina Swift then the Dutch fishing boat Botter. Then Two more smaller boats by Vanguard the Lady Eleanor and the Nisha. I wanted to be familiar with all aspect of wood ship modeling ( what glue to use, paints, etc,) then I decided that I was ready and build the Duchess of Kingston, 3 masts, not too many guns and became familiar with the rigging which took me the most time. I am glad that I started small. Also made a jig so I could practice ratlines before attempting on the model.

I have over 50 years experience building styrene kits and painting figures but nothing made me ready for wood ship models, except a lot of patience.

[palmerit]

Definitely recommend Vanguard Models. I’m working on the Sherbourne and have a couple other Vanguard Models in the queue. Wooden ships are really challenging, even “simple” ones. A Constitution or Victory scale of ship seems to require a lot of experience and can take years to complete. 

[Chuck Seiler]

I second Chris' comments about starting small AND checking out other "first timer" build logs.  There are alot of good vendors out there, large companies and small operators.  Check out the build logs to see what they say about quality of instructions and quality of material. 

 

I would recommend a kit that has some rigging and some planking (double plank on bulkhead) to get a feel for what you need to learn.  Also recommended -pick something that interests you AND has numerous build logs to assist you.

 

I know that doesn't answer your specific question, but I hope it helps.

 

ALSO:  Alcohol is your friend...to unglue the errors you made.  AND You can never have too many clamps.

[RossR]

If you really want to start out with a three  masted ship consider Occres HMS Beagle.  There have been a few first build build logs that turned out really well of this kit.  I didn’t do a build log, but it was my first kit and I was happy with the results.  
 

if you want to learn skills to prepare you for something like the USS Constitution, some of the advice from others above might be the way to go.