Advice on ship/boat kits

[Faraway]

I’ve been building aircraft and armour, but only one boat. The Revell ‘pibber’.

I think I would like to build another maritime craft, so where do I start ?

Which manufacturer, scale etc is the best place to start ?

All recommendations will be most welcome.

Jon

[beefy66]

Well your TAMIYA Pibber came out great but if you want to stick to 35th scale you are very limited to expensive kits from Italieri there are a lot more kits in 350 and 700 scales but 700 is to small for my old eyes.

There are other various scales but it depends on your taste really 1/144 scale ships and subs by Revell are a good base to start IMHO they give you a cheap kit to practice and build up skills and you can get some great up-grade sets from Eduard and White Ensign

 

HTH

beefy

[Faraway]

6 minutes ago, beefy66 said:

TAMIYA Pibber

What a dick I am. 
Your advice is good, I was looking at 700 scale by Flyhawk, they look good, but a bit expensive and as you say quite small. So perhaps 144 might be the way to go. I’ll look at what’s about.

Thanks.

Jon

[beefy66]

2 minutes ago, Faraway said:

So perhaps 144 might be the way to go. I’ll look at what’s about.

Well you have the Snowberry Flower class and the big USS Fletcher I built that early this year and they do a Landing craft LSM all good kits either OOB or with the detail sets.

 

 

 

Beefy

[Faraway]

7 minutes ago, beefy66 said:

Well you have the Snowberry Flower class and the big USS Fletcher I built that early this year and they do a Landing craft LSM all good kits either OOB or with the detail sets.

All three look good, the landing craft is a bit different, the fletcher looks amazing and I see they do one with PE etc, bit pricey though, always had a soft spot for the corvette.

I shall investigate further, thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

Jon

[Faraway]

@beefy66 I looked at the Landing Craft, but decided against it, for the time being. Years ago I started the Snowberry in 1/72, but never finished it, it has since passed on to @Starspell who is currently building it. So after much searching, I think I’ve found the Revell 1/144 Snowberry kit, which I will order and maybe add some Eduard PE parts. 
Jon

[Faraway]

@beefy66 I’ve ordered the Revell Corvette, do you have any recommendations for any of the after market PE etc ?

[beefy66]

There is quite a bit of after market for this kit Eduard have 3 sets or you could get BIG ED set 3 in 1 then again PONTOS do a full set there is also some smaller sets from L` Arsanel it depends on how far you want to go with this some good builds on here recently from @robgizlu, @longshanks and @Gisbod

 

beefy

[Faraway]

@beefy66 many thanks for this info. I’ve looked at the Eduard sets, bit pricey, but I’ve used their sets in aircraft and they ate usually good. I’ve also looked at the L’arsenal sets, they do look good, I might mix and match Eduard and L’arsenal. Do you know if there is a UK supplier for L’arsenal parts, or do I have to go direct to France ? 
The Pontos looks amazing, but then so does the price, although, I wouldn’t mind getting their wooden deck.

Thanks for your help and guidance,  I’m a bit new to maritime models.

When I start the build, I might do a WIP.

Jon

[beefy66]

Hi Jon

 

Starling models used to stock the L`arsenal stuff but think Mike is on a break until end of January I would look at direct ordering for now unless Hannants have some stock

 

Will look forward to your WIP

 

beefy

[Modelholic]

Don't forget to look at the 3D gubbins.

Micro Master - for instance - has some great stuff.

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/micro-master?section=1%2F144+Scale+Navy&s=0

Tom

[Faraway]

11 hours ago, Modelholic said:

Don't forget to look at the 3D gubbins.

Micro Master - for instance - has some great stuff.

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/micro-master?section=1%2F144+Scale+Navy&s=0

Tom

Many thanks for the link. These parts look amazing, I’m going to have to exercise great caution with this build, there are so many excellent after market parts, that my credit card might think I’ve gone mad. 😳

Jon

[Faraway]

@Modelholic @beefy66 many thanks you two, for your information and guidance and patience. The kit is due to be dispatched tomorrow, so 🤞should arrive by the end of the week. My plan is to have a look at all the parts and see which would benefit from being replaced, I’ve already got a vague idea so will have to restrain myself and try and not get too carried away. I’ve a nightmare of a kit to finish (AMP 1/48 Bristol Sycamore) which I will not let beat me, then I’ll hopefully start the ship. I think that the anchor chains are moulded in plastic and that is definitely to be replaced with a metal chain, so can I impose on your good nature and ask one last question. I think I’ve found a supplier

https://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/search.html

but not sure what size to get. Do you know which size to get or anywhere else to get anchor chain ?

Many thanks.

Jon

[Chewbacca]

On 27/12/2020 at 17:18, Faraway said:

@beefy66 many thanks for this info. I’ve looked at the Eduard sets, bit pricey, but I’ve used their sets in aircraft and they ate usually good. I’ve also looked at the L’arsenal sets, they do look good, I might mix and match Eduard and L’arsenal. Do you know if there is a UK supplier for L’arsenal parts, or do I have to go direct to France ? 
The Pontos looks amazing, but then so does the price, although, I wouldn’t mind getting their wooden deck.

Thanks for your help and guidance,  I’m a bit new to maritime models.

When I start the build, I might do a WIP.

Jon

l'Arsenal delivery is excellent.  I bought some 1/350 resin parts from them a year or so ago.  Postage was, IIRC,  ~€1.50 and they were here in 2 days.  In contrast, they were out of stock of a couple of items I wanted which I ordered from a UK supplier (can't remember which one) and it was about £4 postage and took over a week to get to me.

[Faraway]

42 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

l'Arsenal delivery is excellent.  I bought some 1/350 resin parts from them a year or so ago.  Postage was, IIRC,  ~€1.50 and they were here in 2 days.  In contrast, they were out of stock of a couple of items I wanted which I ordered from a UK supplier (can't remember which one) and it was about £4 postage and took over a week to get to me.

Thanks for that. It’ll be interesting to see what difference being out of the EU makes.

Jon

[beefy66]

Hi Jon sorry for late reply busy time in the beefy house hold

 

On 12/28/2020 at 10:00 AM, Faraway said:

think that the anchor chains are moulded in plastic and that is definitely to be replaced with a metal chain, so can I impose on your good nature and ask one last question. I think I’ve found a supplier

The anchor chains are a separate plastic moulding as you can see here from the instruction sheet and on the sprue to the right they look to small to my eye so will be replaced on My Buttercup build with this chain works out at 2mm per link about 20 links per inch F76 on the list at Cornwall Model Boats Hope This Helps.

 

 

 

Stay Safe

beefy

[Faraway]

On 30/12/2020 at 13:50, Chewbacca said:

 

Edited December 31, 2020 by Faraway

[Faraway]

@beefy66thanks for that. My kit arrived just now, so now it’s time to investigate all the extras I might want to fit. I looked at the chain you suggested, but it’s out of stock at Cornwall boats. I’ll search elsewhere. Plenty of time as it’ll be a while until I get to that stage.

Jon