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Author Topic: Advice on first "sytrene/plastic" battleship kit?  (Read 2501 times)

Gazzalene

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Advice on first "sytrene/plastic" battleship kit?
« on: March 29, 2019, 03:42:09 pm »

Would like to try my hand at a "plastic" battleship kit.
I have seen the price of kits of the same scale can really vary,quality I presume?
I do not want something huge so I think the 1/700th is about right???
Can anyone give advice if that's a good beginner scale and a good make of kit?
even better if a recommendation on actual kit.dont care nationality or era (like ww2) not essential
Thanks
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Martin (Admin)

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warspite

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Re: Advice on first "sytrene/plastic" battleship kit?
« Reply #2 on: March 29, 2019, 05:39:45 pm »

As martin says the most popular (and my first).


Its not the scale you should be considering, it's the actual model size it may be 1/700 but that may be so small depending upon the vessel that it is difficult to fit the running gear, for instance the flower is easy to build - well ish, it depends on how you get access inside, the enterprise is reasonable for micro gear, but the flower can have up to 6 Lb or 3 kg of ballast as well as standard running gear and very stable - the enterprise has a very small free board i.e. once the running gear is in it could be a matter of grammes before she is unstable / lob sided, and some of the other grey ships are a lot easier to balance as its all along the centre, and its all dependent on the running gear, especially batteries.


Here is another example, i built Sovereign as a prototype, square rigger, reasonable ballast - so I thought - 600 g with nothing in the hull, I did brass masts which at 60 g maximum for the heaviest still stayed within the 600g, but it took a 250 g counterweight to get her to stay upright and at the water line, the deeper the free-board or spread the better. So for a first ship look at what others can recommend, the lindburg destroyer, larger scale greys of 600 mm or greater (though greater is even better).
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Colin Bishop

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Re: Advice on first "sytrene/plastic" battleship kit?
« Reply #3 on: March 29, 2019, 06:53:55 pm »

Do you actually want to build a working model or a static display one?

Colin
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Gazzalene

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Re: Advice on first "sytrene/plastic" battleship kit?
« Reply #4 on: March 29, 2019, 08:23:50 pm »

Colin, as soon as i see 1/44 and 1/72 and ballast mentioned! i knew i should have said static.
Sorry for any confusion %)
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Colin Bishop

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Re: Advice on first "sytrene/plastic" battleship kit?
« Reply #5 on: March 29, 2019, 08:38:01 pm »

I rather thought so, in which case you have a huge choice! But I'm afraid I'm no expert.

Tamiya kits are well regarded.


Colin
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raflaunches

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Re: Advice on first "sytrene/plastic" battleship kit?
« Reply #6 on: March 29, 2019, 08:58:38 pm »

Hi there


I agree with Colin, Tamiya do some good quality and relatively easy builds of many warships from battleships, aircraft carriers to gunboats. If you want to go further there are other companies like Trumpeter  who also have a large 1/700 scale range but they also do  bigger scale kits in 1/200 and 1/350. If you want to stick to smaller scale like 1/700 you can try Aoshima or if you’re into some really fiddly PE stuff try Flyhawk! Flyhawk have two different ranges depending on your price range, normal prices kits come with just plastic but releases with an ‘S’ in the part number have brass gun barrels and a lot more PE.
Other companies include Hobbyboss and Merit but I believe they could be sister company of Trumpeter as instructions and layout of the kit are very similar.
And finally a company called Academy have released a kit of HMS Warspite in 1/350 scale which is perhaps one of the most successful battleships to ever been built.
Plenty of battleships in various scales to choose from, if you have an idea what battleship you would like to build in 1/700 we could suggest a manufacturer.
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Gazzalene

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Re: Advice on first "sytrene/plastic" battleship kit?
« Reply #7 on: March 29, 2019, 09:01:03 pm »

Looking at post here Tamiya seem the premium maker.
do not know if 1/700 is too small for a first build?
I might just go with a 1/350th bismark !
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RST

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Re: Advice on first "sytrene/plastic" battleship kit?
« Reply #8 on: March 29, 2019, 09:01:33 pm »

I always wanted a "blue devil" destroyer when I was a kid.  When I was old enough to afford one -and rich enough to buy I must admit I was dissapointed with the quqlity of the somewhat tired mouldings.  If you're a beginner I'd personally avoid "old" mouldings.

I fancy a flower class corvette at some point, every one I see looks good quality.  I almost bought the 1:144 version last year after seeing the review in Model Boats, but having had the chance to open the box and hold one in my hands it's very small and quite fiddly.

I know it's not a battleship but I put together a Merit 1:48 PT boat kit together at xmas this year.  I modified it for R/C and swapped a few bits, but actually I thought it was a) quite allot of kit for the money b) everything fitted together very well c) nice amount of detail. 

For a beginner at plastic kits I'd certainly recommend it and although I'm not a beginner (so 2-3 days incl. modifying for radio control is maybe a bit optimistic for a beginner!), I thought it's a good quality kit, not too big or expensive and can be finished quickly.  It also has a tiny photo etched brass pack included which might be a good introduction to the media?

...Next time I'm home from business I have to paint and fit the prop and try to find somewhere to try it on the water.

Polystyrene model ship kits are a bit sparse in the UK, but I'm working near Paris and "Euro Maquette" near Austerlitz in Paris is just sublime if you fancy a kit!  VERY expensive though, but then everything is over here!!  Having said that, the guy who I think owns it is very knowledgeable and speaks good English when I go in looking for bits!


http://www.euro-maquette.eu/marine.html


Not sure if that helps?  Otherwise if you just want to try it find a shop you can open the box (always ask first!), have a look at the parts and see what you think.  You only have to spend £20'odd on a small kit if you just want to try.


Rich
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raflaunches

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Re: Advice on first "sytrene/plastic" battleship kit?
« Reply #9 on: March 29, 2019, 09:17:05 pm »

The first picture show the Tamiya 1/700 scale HMS Hood with the Flyhawk 1/700 scale SMS TBD whilst the second shows the close up of my work in progress of the Flyhawk kit. The Tamiya kit was well fitting much like the Flyhawk kit but the difference is age. The Tamiya model is over 15 years old and the Flyhawk is about 6 months old!


B0-B31-B60-B72-F-4-DC1-A316-E189602-C4642" border="0 D09792-D5-7-C66-4-D67-8-FD4-EC726-D2-FA5-F3" border="0
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Nick B

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Allnightin

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Re: Advice on first "sytrene/plastic" battleship kit?
« Reply #10 on: March 30, 2019, 12:07:09 pm »

Have you looked at the Tamiya 1/3550th USS Fletcher at all?

https://www.tamiya.com/english/products/78012fletcher/index.htm

It is large enough to already include a fair bit of detail and you can further improve things with a photetch set ( 1/350th being much easier to work with than 1/700th) without paying out a huge sum or requiring a lot of space when it is finished
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Re: Advice on first "sytrene/plastic" battleship kit?
« Reply #11 on: March 30, 2019, 04:41:40 pm »

Would like to try my hand at a "plastic" battleship kit.
I have seen the price of kits of the same scale can really vary,quality I presume?
I do not want something huge so I think the 1/700th is about right???
Can anyone give advice if that's a good beginner scale and a good make of kit?
even better if a recommendation on actual kit.dont care nationality or era (like ww2) not essential
Thanks
A lot depends on your skills - you can get 1/350 battleships with a super-detailing photo-etch add-on that makes an impressive model.   As you go down in size, the models become more 'Fisher-Price' in their detailing with only the large lumps represented on the decks.If you can live with the 2' length of the 1/350th models, I'd go that route.   If not, there's a bunch of 1/600 models available.  Some of these smaller models were originally tooled in the 60s so detailing can be a bit approximate (no Google images back then to work from).Are you into plastic modelling or is this something completely new to you? 
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ballastanksian

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Re: Advice on first "sytrene/plastic" battleship kit?
« Reply #12 on: May 07, 2019, 11:05:00 pm »


The Airfix range is still worthy of attention but many are very old toolings and so I would recommend making sure all the holes for weapons etc are reamed before you reach for the glue! I remember being very upset at failing to get turrets and radar units fitted to my Ark royal model until my Dad told me to make the holes bigger.


I have no experience with Tamiya, but if their military models are to go by, the ship kits will be good. Italeri kits are cast in brittle plastic which make the masts etc a break risk even before you up pack the sprues!


The newer kits from Trumpeter and Hobby Boss etc look great built. I have seen loads at shows and they look great especially if you fit up market sets.



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tonyH

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Re: Advice on first "sytrene/plastic" battleship kit?
« Reply #13 on: June 29, 2019, 01:55:44 pm »

Plastic has hit the nail spot on. It depends on what skills and patience you can (and want) to apply. If in doubt you can spend just enough so you can (a) get experience of what is the smallest bit of plastic you can lose in the carpet and (b) how fed up you can get and stick the whole lot in the bin! For a mega-selection look at Hannants who have a shop/warehouse in Colindale and see what takes your fancy. If size is critical and it's not shown then google the actual ship and divide by the scale to see what's ahead.


Good Luck :-))









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deadbeat

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Re: Advice on first "sytrene/plastic" battleship kit?
« Reply #14 on: June 29, 2019, 04:09:11 pm »

I have recently completed a 1/700 battle fleet comprising HMS Rodney, HMS Hood, HMS Illustrious, HMS Naiad and two O class destroyers, all from different manufacturers. I agree with what's already been said 1/700 shouldn't be your introduction to plastic models, at this scale tweezers and magnifying glasses are essential!
I suggest as others have 1/350 scale might suit your need, it really depends on how much room you have to make and display the model, shelf space is at a premium in my house due to my models. I have built the Tamiya HMS King George V cost approx £50, many other ships available at this scale, my favourite manufacturers are Tamiya and Trumpeter at 1/350 scale.
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