• Win a Free Custom Engraved Brass Coin!!!
    As a way to introduce our brass coins to the community, we will raffle off a free coin during the month of August. Follow link ABOVE for instructions for entering.

Starter kit?

D

Daaveyboy

Joined
Sep 13, 2019
Messages
11
Points
13

Hello all

I am looking for my first wooden starter kit (over 60 years in plastic) and the

"Vanguard Models" HM Armed Cutter Sherbourne – 1763 is looking like a good one to begin with.

Is it a good company to deal with or is there any other kit makers to consider?
All advice is greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Dave
 
Daaveyboy said:
Hello all

I am looking for my first wooden starter kit (over 60 years in plastic) and the

"Vanguard Models" HM Armed Cutter Sherbourne – 1763 is looking like a good one to begin with.

Is it a good company to deal with or is there any other kit makers to consider?
All advice is greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Dave
Click to expand...
start small. I hope you don't get discouraged it's a great hobby
 
I saw that kit a while ago and said to myself what a pretty little vessel she is.

A quick scan of sites shows that she cost a touch over GBP1500 to build, and to buy a 1/64 size model costs almost a seventh of the full size 1:1 prototype. How times have changed.

J
 
Jim Fortnam said:
I saw that kit a while ago and said to myself what a pretty little vessel she is.

A quick scan of sites shows that she cost a touch over GBP1500 to build, and to buy a 1/64 size model costs almost a seventh of the full size 1:1 prototype. How times have changed.

Just checked the web site and it is only £159.00 to buy.
Click to expand...
 
I have no experience with this kit but judging from the description it looks like a kit for an experienced wooden ship modeler. Might consider something less complex, larger scale, but requiring all the basic skills to complete, Model Shipways Katy for example. Plank on frame, some basic rigging, etc.
 
Ah, you’re a better shopper than I - so it's a tenth of the cost of the real one. Still a stat to make you reel back in amazement.

@Quint is maybe right to be cautious, but I think you need to have a deep desire to build a model in order to keep at it.
Just do a mental audit of your skill set as it applies to producing accurate cuts and precise fitting of small wooden parts, and go slowly. Lots of preparing bits and nothing to see followed by a couple of days of things coming together and suddenly you have a hull or a mainmast or something
And you can be sure there ID huge support here for any questions or uncertainties you may have.

Enjoy!

J
 
If Chris Watton says its a beginner kit, you could trust him.
I think the price for Sherbourne is very good if you consider the quality.
 
Vanguard is a quality kit manufacturer in an industry where in far too many cases "quality kit manufacturer" is an oxymoron. Being a British concern, Vanguard is close to home and in these days of high-priced shipping, crazy taxes, and such, the more of that you can avoid, the better. That said, no matter how many plastic model kits you've built, that experience will not count for much when building a wooden ship model kit, even the simplest of them. As much as the manufacturer's advertising tells you that you can do it, you will be modeling a different world with different materials in a language ("nauticalese") that you likely don't understand, all of which will demand great attention to detail and the application of skills you quite likely don't have. None of which is to say it's not worth trying, but in my experience, the quickest way to lose a hiker on the way up Learning Curve Mountain is to blow a lot of smoke up his arse about how easy it is before he begins the trek.

You get it that you have to begin small. That's the best indicator that you will succeed. The U.S. firm, Model Shipways, has a series of three progressively more complicated models purposefully designed to teach basic skills provide experience in a progressive manner. The set of model kits, which can be purchased all at once or individually, are priced very reasonably (apparently being a bit of a loss leader to get you hooked,) and they even have some sort of incentive program to keep you going where if you send them a picture of your completed model, they'll credit the original price of it to the purchase of your next one. There are lots of YouTube videos on this set, as well, which many find very helpful. When the kits are assembled, they produce very nice models. See: https://www.modelexpo-online.com/pr...-3-kit-combo-series-with-tools-glue-and-paint (I recommend you only purchase the kits individually and don't pay a premium to get "paint and tools included." Their paint isn't the best and their tools are unnecessary. Only buy tools when you need them and never in a "set" that somebody else whose looking to make money off of you has piced out for you. If the "package" with tools pencils out that the tools and paint cost you nothing, go for it, but otherwise you're better off buying the paint and tools you've selected yourself.)

Whatever kit you may be interested in, the quality kits will have copies of their instructions posted on their models' advertising pages in PDF format. Before buying a kit, study the instructions and review the "build logs" for that kit in the online forums. Every kit manufacturer has a beautiful photo of their models on the box and in the ads, and it was built by the very best professional modeler they could hire to build it. That's a picture of what your finished model could look like if you had the skills and resources their professional modeler did. Only if you study and can understand the instructions can you be relatively sure you've fully assessed the model. Until you see them, you will not believe how terribly inadequate the instructions for many model kits can be. This is especially so with any instructions translated from an original language you don't speak. Nearly every kit has "problems," if not outright glaring errors and near-fatal defects. Nobody's perfect and the more complex things get, the more imperfect things get. Ship model kits are rarely simple things. Read the instructions. Here are links to the instructions on the Model Shipways "Shipwright 3-kit-combo series:"


When you've enjoyably worked your way through these three instructional "model by numbers" kits, you might even end up saying, "Why should I spend the kind of money these kit companies charge for their "model by numbers" kits? I'm going to just "go over to the Dark Side" and build my next models from scratch using readily available plans.
 
Last edited:
Many thanks Bob for this detailed reply, I think I am swayed towards the Vanguard HM Armed Cutter Sherbourne – 1763 it gets good reviews, there is a full build on YouTube to help me, a comprehensive full colour instruction manual & it has free UK shipping and is only £159.00 and is classed as a Novice build.
Once again many thanks.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top