Greetings! I’m curious if any of you can recommend a good ship kit for beginners that is not expensive and should be available in most hobby shops? My dad had quadruple bypass a few months ago and he’s looking to start building models to have something to do, since he’s on disability and can’t work. He asked about ships, and I didn’t really know what was available, and aside from the Titanic and a modern German Uboat, I’ve only built cars.
I think he built some ships when he was a kid, and he said he’d be interested in doing the Bismarck or something. Any suggestions?
Adam Howard
The best “afforable” ship kit I’ve seen lately (and built myself) is Tamiya’s 1/350 Fletcher class destroyer. A real sweatheart of a kit. Goes together well, not to big or complacted. About $30 depending on where you get it. At about 15 inches long it’s not large, but is an easy to build scale.
I would try and stick with the Tamiya kits. For the most part all of there models that have done go together with very little work to fix fit problems. They have great detail. One thing that will come into play with ship models is that most of the nice kits require photoetch rails at a minimum. A good web site is www.greatmodels.com
It is a good kit to start, its not expensive and not too big, but still a great kit.
1:350 Tamiya Fletcher.
I vote for the Fletcher also. I just got it and it looks like a great build.
I also bought the PE set for it. Haven’t started yet as I am still waiting for my airbrush to arrive. But soon I hope.
James [:)]
I’ll second all of that. The Fletcher is a real pleasure to build. Throw in some Gold Medal
Models photo-etch brass, and you’ve got one little beauty on your hands.