I’m new to ship modeling. Been doing armor and aircraft for many years, but I recently acquired a passion for the ships of the Royal Navy during the Great War after reading the excellent book “Castles of Steel” by Robert T. Massey. This book covers in great detail the struggle between the Royal Navy and the German High Seas Fleet.
Getting back to my subject question, are there any decent kits of ships of this period? Battle Cruisers are my first choice, but just about anything will do. Plastic or resin kits are my first choice – the larger the scale, the better. Also, who sells kits like these?
seventrs
I don’t know of any strictly WWl battle cruisers but the following can be back dated, HMS Hood and HMS Renown. These ships were designed and built under WW1 building programs and were the last of the periods battle cruisers.
I think that there is an HMS Iron Duke kit and HMS Warspite is from that period.
HMS Campbelltown is a USN destroyer (Can’t remember her original name).
Any of the Vand Ws, White ensign, will do for the RN.
ON the other side SMS Emden and a torpedoe boat are available.
An Australian company has/is about to produce a submarine AE2.
Dai
there are several kits of first world war ships available that do not need modifying. there are two 1-350 scale german capital ships by icm. there is a 1-350 revell kit of the emdem. there is the 1-600 scale kit of hms iron duke by airfix. those kits that can be modified back with some work are the 1-600 kits of the warspite and hood, though technically the hood did not serve in the great war. another 1-600 kit from airfix would be the repulse but does need some work to convert her back and is hard to find. in 1-700 scale you can backdate some japanese battleships like the kongo, hiei, kirishima. i know there is a polish company that kits a first world war german torpedo boat in 1-400 scale. hasegawa have released a 1-350 kit of the mikasa from the pre war era and from what i have heard is a very good kit. i hope this gives you some helpful info.
I just picked up a 1/700 HMS Tiger by a company called Combrig, from Russia. This is a really nice looking resin kit that seems to be a good starter. Combrig makes a series of WW1 British, German, and Russian battleships and cruisers, mostly in 1/700.
There are, as others have pointed out, a number of subjects chiefly in 1/350 and 1/700 scales, in both injection-moulded plastic and in resin. Come on over to our secure website and have a look under ICM, WSW, Combrig, and others. In our own range of resin kits we offer HMS Chester and the Russian cruiser Askold in 1/700, and the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Mary Rose in 1/350. We also have the US 4-piper USS Reuben James in 1/350; while in her 1941 fit, she could easily be backdated to her WW1 appearance.
Hey guys–many thanks for the info! Looks like I’ve found another place to send what little surplus cash I have.
I found a web site for a company called Fine Art Models that sells assembled models of ships of various kinds, including one of the Emden. However, the asking price (about the same as for a late-model used car) puts it completely out of my reach. I’d rather have the satisfaction of building my own anyway.
You may be thinking of Blue Water Navy. They made a 1:350 scale resin & brass model of the U-35 WWI U-Boat.
Bluw Water Navy is now Yankee Modelworks. The BWN/YMW U-35 is currently available.
Another submarine from the era, although not technically from WWI is the BWN/YMW S-Class sub. This US submarine began operations in the early 1920s and saw service through WWII as training subs.
For the vendor with the most complete stock of what you are looking for and a lot more here in the USA you must go to the Pacific Front Web Site (www.pacificfront.com). You will find there more stuff than you can build in the next 100 years. If you would like to know what is available in 1/700 models of pre-dreadnoughts, dreadnoughts and other battleships and battlecruisers, including big gun monitors and coastal battleships contact me directly and I will forward to you a pdf with a listing of the ships and their makers. There are hundreds in that scale. WS
Have you ever seen one of these completed? Every one who I’ve ever talked to who had one of these kits tried to offload them to other suck … gullib … er, um, ‘unsuspecting’ people. To call them ‘craftsman kits’ may be generous.