Hello from Washington State

[Grandslam]

Greetings, I am looking to build my first ship model and the choices are plentiful! I am new to this hobby, but not to precision building, (harpsichords). The choices that I am looking at is the Endurance, Beagle, and the Albatross is a distant third.
Any thoughts about the brand? I am leaning towards Occre, but that is based only on their website. 
I suspect that every person has there favorite brand and for various reasons, but I need to start somewhere.

I have enjoyed reading the forum and log pages. A lot of very talented craftspeople out there and I am a bit in awe of you folks.

Thank you

[palmerit]

Vanguard Models has great kits, great materials, great instructions and plans. 

Edited 15 hours ago by palmerit

[Keith Black]

 GS, welcome to MSW. Glad to have you aboard. 

[Nirvana]

GS Welcome to our world. Why not try out Vanguards models. 

Superior models with the creator being one of us.

[Baker]

[Jim Lad]

Hello, and a warm welcome to the forum from 'Down Under'.

 

John

[GrandpaPhil]

Welcome!

[ccoyle]

Welcome aboard!

 

Have you had a moment to read this topic?

 

Of the three models you listed, Albatros has the easiest hull form and rig to model, but all of them would be a stiff challenge to a beginner. Most folks around here would recommend something a little less demanding for a first-time wooden ship model. As mentioned, the fishing boats from Vanguard Models are popular choices, as are the Midwest Products line now available from Model Shipways.  MS also offers an 18th century longboat kit that has been very popular, as has OcCre's Polaris. BlueJacket Shipcrafters also offers several kits aimed at beginners. Lots of choices out there these days!

[palmerit]

I'm in the midst of both the Vanguard Sherbourne and the Vanguard Ranger (one of the six fishing boats). Both of these would use some similar kinds of construction approaches to the Occre kits you mentioned (though the Vanguard hull skeleton is way more robust). You'll also see recommendations here of the Model Shipways Shipwright series (Dory, Pram, Smack), which I built and are fun beginner models in a progressive series (if sometimes frustrating) but they're also a very different kind of model (especially for the hull) - some of the Midwest kits are similar to these in construction. If you want a model before doing one of the other ones you mentioned, I think the Vanguard models would be a better option.

 

You can see the full sets of instructions for Vanguard models (and Model Shipways and some Midwest models) on their web sites. Occre I believe has most of theirs too, which are often just photos and often Youtube videos with no commentary, which is a different approach.

 

I'm pretty new to this hobby, having just started last summer. I remember being lost in a sea of options, not knowing how to pick one. If I hadn't researched suggestions people made here, I probably would have picked a model in the middle of the difficulty hierarchy assuming I could handle it, got frustrated quickly, and likely abandon the hobby. It's easy to make a false analogy to the ratings on plastic models or a Lego models. I'm sure most adults could build a middle-level plastic model kit or any of Lego's 18+ models. Beginner plastic models are for 8 years olds, beginner Lego models are for 5 year olds. Wooden ship models are different beast. Novice wooden ship models are challenging to most adults. Maybe since you come from a woodworking tradition, you'll find them easier than many of us.

 

I’ve never seen someone post that they regretted starting with a novice model because they found it was too easy - to the contrary, most end up finding lots of challenges, and a lot of the abandoned build logs are from people who started a model beyond their skill level. One thing nice about a novice model is that you can complete it in weeks to months rather than years. 

 

Olga Batchvarov has a YouTube channel with group builds (and lot of other content) - she's about to start one for the Model Shipways Philadelphia (not a beginner model, but also not an advanced one): 

https://www.youtube.com/c/OlhaBatchvarov

 

There are also a couple of YouTube playlists on building the Vanguard Sherbourne. Even with great instructions from Vanguard, and lots of build logs here, it's sometimes helpful to see a video of someone building the model and talking about the approach. 

 

 

 

 

Edited 3 hours ago by palmerit

[Knocklouder]

Good luck on your journey  !! 

Bob  M.