Choosing your first ship to model
Once you embrace scratch-building and free yourself from the limitations kits impose, you face a tough challenge, what ship to build?
In this post, I’ll talk about the considerations that need to be taken into account to help you make a decision that will govern the next few month or even years of your life.
It’s a big decision!
Scratch-building is great because suddenly, the opportunities seem endless, but are they really?
Before starting to build, you should consider the following to be confident you have the made the right choice.
Consideration #1: Completeness of available information
What I mean is, a model is only as good as it’s worst part. There is no point in spending 2 months making a perfect scratch-built gun if you have no information on the ship’s boats. No one will notice the gun detail if the boats are clearly not right. You have to realise that the information needed to make a good scratch-built ship model is immense.
HMS Roberts (1940) is as simple as major warships get (also featured on the thumbnail), might be a good topic @1/350 scale
The information available on-line these days is a huge help and saves writing to museums and archives round the world. Also, there are many good reference books now and the late John Lambert spent years faithfully documenting vessels and armaments from WW2.
So, spend time gathering information on your ideal subject, collect pictures and plans, look at models others have made, email archive collections etc, buy books, ask on forums. This period of pre-planning can take months but it is cheap in comparison to the costs of a failed project. As an example, for my current 1:48th scale Flower Class Corvette, I bought 5 books, 3 plans and have over 1,000 files saved, the folder is a beast and yet still there are some details I’m having to guess.
You cannot have too much information.
Consideration #2: Scale
Scales are a bit like gloves, they grow to fit you and become very comfortable. A new pair of gloves can take time to break in. Scales are the same. Once you get used to working in a scale, you know what you can achieve and how far you need to go regarding detail to make a good model.
So, this will also impact on consideration 1. The smaller the scale, the less detail you can include and so the less information you need when starting out, to an extent. Often model plans are really outline plans only. Many don’t include sections which are vital to navigate how things fit together. However, small scale models can live with assumptions easier than large scale ones.
Obviously, scale also affects the model size. It has to go somewhere when it’s finished and, for most modellers, that limits the subject you can choose. I’d love to model HMS Warspite (early WW2 re-fit), but to achieve that, I need to go down to a scale I’m not comfortable with, so I worry that the result will not be good enough.
The scale has to be one you are comfortable with, start with one you have built kits in
Consideration #3: Skill level vs Complexity
The difference in complexity between a capital ship and a patrol boat is many orders of magnitude. No matter how much you love the subject, start with something simple to build skills and confidence. Finishing a simple subject well is worth far more than an abandoned model that was just too complex. Indeed, “simple” subjects require very high finishing skills as they leave nowhere to hide. Complex ships with loads of equipment, when weathered, can hide a multitude of errors.
Check out my seaplane tender. It’s a very simple model, but it took me two attempts, years apart, to get the finish you see on the pictures.
Start with a simple subject to build skills and confidence
Consideration #4: Cost
If you think scratch-built models are cheaper than kits, think again. Depending on your skill level and equipment, you will likely include commercial items, etchings etc and this cost can add up fast. If you venture into custom etch-work, remember each sheet is a prototype. A typical custom A4 sheet these days will cost over £100 and while it can contain 100’s of tiny parts, getting it wrong is an expensive mistake. However, many commercial etch sheets are available for a wide range of vessels and can deliver parts suitable for your first scratch-build
An outstanding etch set is available for HMCS Snowberry in 1:72nd scale, made for the Airfix kit, it would work just as well to assist a scratch-build
Start with a subject that has a wide range of commercial items available
Consideration #5: Techniques and tools
Scratch-building will require many more tools and uses different techniques to kit building. However, Amapa, which I built over 25 years ago, was really made with very basic tools, a jig-saw and a pillar drill plus normal modelling tools. These days I have a lathe, a laser cuter, a resin printed plus a room full of tools, but great results can be accomplished with far less, in particular if you incorporate some commercial parts in your project.
Start with a mix of commercial and your own parts, no need to make everything on day one.
Consideration #6: Construction Design
Kits come with a set of instructions and a build sequence, obviously, scratch-built projects don’t. So, before you cut the first piece, you need to have a good idea about how the project is going to come together and also at what stage each component gets painted.
Depending on how complex the superstructure is, this can take a great deal of thought and provision for the process must begin before you cut your first frame. Over the years, I’ve tended to build superstructures to fit into box openings in the deck. This takes a little more time, but it makes the sub-assembly easier to work with as its not attached to the hull. It also makes the process of achieving a perfect fit-up of the superstructure to the double curvature of the deck far easier.
There are no generalisations for this consideration, only that it is an essential part of the thought process and having a good plan for the build sequence will ensure you don’t end up stuck with a half-built model you can’t complete.
Develop a stage plan before starting
Consideration #7: The hull
Building your own ship model entails a hull, no way round it, it’s not a ship without a hull and its really not a true scratch-build with a commercial hull (in my opinion at least). Building your first hull can be daunting and it may put people off attempting the move away from kits. This is a shame, as making a hull is really not hard.
There are a number of ways to make a hull, each deserves its own blog post:
Solid wood, the old fashioned way. Often done in halves as it’s easier to work. A series of horizontal sheets are cut out, sandwiched together and then carved and sanded to shape. Requires some serious woodworking skills and tools.
Plank on frame. A set of sections, such as those shown in the image below are glued to a keel and planked. The frame should be at least 1/8th inch (3mm) thick to take pins to hold the planks in place. Glue planks to each frame and each other. Be careful not to use very thin planks as they will bend between the fames and spoil the hull. If you are worried about starting this type, just buy a wooden kit and follow the instructions for the hull. You don’t have to complete the kit, but the hull build process will give you the confidence to draw and build your own hull using planks.
Diagonal planked. The way motor boats in WW2 were made used double diagonal planking. The is simpler because the planks don’t need to bend as much and don’t need tapering, so it requires less skill and is quicker. It is especially good for hard-chime boats. I often will block infill between the frames with balsa blocks and sand this so the final hull shape (sort of cheating, but it works and saves a lot of time) before planking. Then only a single layer of planks are required. If just using double planking (say for a hollow hull) stringers will be required to maintain the shape, the planks can be very thin with this method (0.5 mm). For a working boat, apply a waterproof layer between the plank layers, epoxy soaked cloth is good for this.
Block-infill. When using block infill (balsa is good) you can just eliminate the planking stage and use the hull as sanded. The problem with this approach is the frames can end up showing through, if not immediately, over time. However, if you apply an epoxy soaked cloth over the hull and wet&dry sand that back, this will remove any frame indications and also product a waterproof result.
Whatever approach you choose, I guarantee you will enjoy the process.
HMS Roberts lines drawing shows a relatively straight-forward hull with a large mostly parallel centre section, albeit the wide gun stabilising lower hull shape is very unusual.
Sanding your first hull is a milestone in life that takes you from being a kit builder to a ship modeller.
