Moonlighter Posted August 26, 2019 Share Posted August 26, 2019 I'm keen to try a maritime subject and fancy doing an aircraft carrier. I don't want to spend much on it due to the fact it'll be a learning experience for me, so could somebody give me some suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted August 26, 2019 Share Posted August 26, 2019 Got any idea on scale? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonlighter Posted August 26, 2019 Author Share Posted August 26, 2019 17 minutes ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said: Got any idea on scale? Nothing too big. 1/600 or 1/700 I guess. I'm not sure what the common scales are for ships... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JosephLalor Posted August 26, 2019 Share Posted August 26, 2019 (edited) 46 minutes ago, Moonlighter said: Nothing too big. 1/600 or 1/700 I guess. I'm not sure what the common scales are for ships... 1/700's a common small scale for far eastern kit companies, though Matchbox ships were also in that scale. 1/600 is peculiar to Airfix I believe. Italeri have released ship kits in 1/720 including at least one modern carrier. My first thought for a small scale carrier is Airfix's wartime Ark Royal. It gives you a complement of Swordfish and Fulmars. Edited August 26, 2019 by JosephLalor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted August 26, 2019 Share Posted August 26, 2019 What's your total modelling experience like? Are you a complete beginner, or just new(ish) to ships? Some kits require a lot of skill to get the best out of, and others need a lot of skill to get anything other than a train crash out of. There are some which are fairly painless though. I'd suggest one of the 1/700 Trumpeter carriers, or maybe the Academy kits. People could nit pick them for accuracy, but they are relatively inexpensive whilst being good kits to assemble with nice precise moulding and decent parts fit. Flyhawk's little HMS Hermes is a delight but many of the parts are absolutely tiny so it's a challenging build even for that reason. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vlad Posted August 26, 2019 Share Posted August 26, 2019 Also, do you have a time period in mind? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonlighter Posted August 26, 2019 Author Share Posted August 26, 2019 1 hour ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said: What's your total modelling experience like? Are you a complete beginner, or just new(ish) to ships? Some kits require a lot of skill to get the best out of, and others need a lot of skill to get anything other than a train crash out of. There are some which are fairly painless though. I'd suggest one of the 1/700 Trumpeter carriers, or maybe the Academy kits. People could nit pick them for accuracy, but they are relatively inexpensive whilst being good kits to assemble with nice precise moulding and decent parts fit. Flyhawk's little HMS Hermes is a delight but many of the parts are absolutely tiny so it's a challenging build even for that reason. I would say I'm an intermediate builder. Comfortable with aftermarket of any type and basic scratch-building. New to ships though. I'll take a look at the trumpy/academy kits, as well as the airfix Ark Royal, although I believe that's a very old kit and may fight me a bit. Thanks for all the advice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrantGoodale Posted August 26, 2019 Share Posted August 26, 2019 Tamiya 1/700 USS Saratoga would be good. A quick and simple built and you could skip getting any aftermarket photoetch. I will try posting an image of mine later this week. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArnoldAmbrose Posted August 27, 2019 Share Posted August 27, 2019 Gidday Moonlighter, I've done a number of ships, Airfix 1/600 including Ark Royal but that is the only carrier to date so I can't compare building it to others. I built it OOB but modified the aircraft a little - undercarriage, prop blades or discs and on the Swordfish torpedoes as well. I did it quite a few years ago but don't recall any problems with it. I am a very average modeler who paints with a brush and doesn't do PE etc. As with most Airfix ships they became scarce (in my part of the world anyway) but I think the kit has been re-issued, but I think is overpriced now unless the kit has been improved. If you think you might like a collection of ships then maybe 1/700, there's more scope. The modelers responding above know what they're talking about and have more experience. I re-started with Airfix because of nostalgia and price, and have stayed with them for consistency of scale - I personally like 1/600. HTH. Regards, Jeff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gooney Fan Posted August 30, 2019 Share Posted August 30, 2019 Hello I recently bought an Airfix Ark Royal as a nostalgia trip having originally built one in approx 1972. I think the tooling has lasted surprisingly well. Gooney Fan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Pearcy Posted September 9, 2019 Share Posted September 9, 2019 Hi. I'm building my first ship for a friend who served on Hms Invincible. I managed to get a 1/700 Revell kit off eBay for £15 and as I'm building it it appears to be a reasonable kit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roym Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 Get an Italeri 1/720 USS Nimitz or one if her sisters. Nice, cheap, basic, basically accurate and not fussy builds. Do it out of the box as a waterline and spend your time painting the flight deck as it's the focal point of any carrier. Only filler needed is at the stern for the horizontal deck part on the fantail. The newer issues have a sprue of extra aircraft (Hornets). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Boak Posted October 8, 2019 Share Posted October 8, 2019 (edited) If you are looking for something cheap and simple to act as an introduction, then the old 1/700 carriers from the four Japanese companies would be a start, but beware as a lot of these have been replaced by much more complex modern tooling. The choice there would be Illustrious/Victorious , the 50s AR/Eagle, Saratoga/Lexington, various Essex, and a wide range of the larger Japanese vessels. Revell did a 1/720 AR with a Tribal class destroyer, and also a rather poor Essex. These kits do range from fairly poor to pretty basic. Since then a number of better but still straightforward kits appeared, an Independence class CVL and a CVE from Skywave, often revised under different names by different companies. The CVE is readily available from Tamiya as Bogue. Recent Aosima kits also fall under this level of difficulty, such as Wasp, Illustrious and Hermes. Some of the smaller Japanese carriers also can be found. The better more modern kits such as the Trumpeter and Dragon Essexes and the more recent Japanese carrier kits have a very large part list and may be daunting - the Flyhawk Hermes being perhaps the most extreme of these. Forewarned is forearmed, so if you are familiar with lots of fine etched brass and fancy one have a go. Edited October 8, 2019 by Graham Boak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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