Deciding on the first kit

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Hi all.
I need some help in deciding on the kit to buy for Christmas. Now I realty like Lady Nelson from Amati but iI'm not sure of the materials and the instructions although i think the sell an extra set of instructions. I also like the Aurora by Occre which I've been told that Occre has better plans and materials.
Any suggestions?
 
That's always been a tough question here. All of us have experience building different kits, and some are scratch builders. So, you will get a wildly diverse set of opinions on which ship kit makes a good starter. What you can do to help is to tell us what sort of skills and experience you have in model building, or other related hobbies or crafts. Some kits rely strongly on blueprints and plan as the instructions, which assumes you are familiar with how to assemble a wooden ship model. Others provide more text and photographs to better assist beginners.

Also, let us know which types of vessel appeal to you from a personal standpoint, after shopping around a bit and seeing what types of kits are out there. Tell us the level of complexity of the ship model, from 6th rate to 1st rate, single masted schooner to three masted man of war. Tell us which time period you are interested in. Most kits are from the 19th century. Older ships have less information available as to how they were built, which gets worse the farther back in time that you go.

You mentioned the Lady Nelson, which is actually a great kit. It doesn't teach you how to plank a hull, however. That is something you typically get from other books and there are plenty of those that can show you how to measure and apply planking to a hull with complex curves. Some kits are historically accurate, and some not. Know that ALL KITS have some features that are incorrect, and with a bit of research and a few questions, you can figure out what those parts are and correct them with a bit of modification or scratch building. For example, the Lady Nelson is a ship that never actually existed, but is a representative example of a British cutter of that time period.

No matter which kit you build, it is likely that one of us here has built it, since the amount of ship kits out there is rather limited compare to the plastic model kit world. You can depend on all of us here to answer any question you my have. So, now matter how simple the question may seem, please ask.
 
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Thank you for your prompt response. To be honest I've been a modeler for quite a long time but mostly static plastic models and figurines 43mm and 70mm. It is a hobby I have since my younger years. I had bought the Cutty Sark in the mid 90s; from billing boats but back then the pieces were not precut and ended up trying to saw the pieces apart were finally after quite a few time and effort managed to destroy it :-(. Well thats one project I was very disappointed in.
And those days there wasn't much on the internet to work with.
I am mostly interested in the 18th and 19th century vessels with the least or middle complexity so as to start off with and todays internet is full of information providing you have the time and the energy to go through it. Plus there are plenty of youtube vids with a wide spread of "how to".
Also you guys are very helpful, I've been reading a lot of build logs for the past month and I have to say that this community is awesome !!!
So, do you think that the Lady Nelson might be a good project to start with?
 
With your modelling skills? I think so. The vessel has samples of all the harder parts of modelling, but not to excess. These would be hull planking, which includes custom fitting of strips of wood such that the lines of the plank are correct, tiny parts to paint and assemble, scratch construction of fittings from provided lumber, and your first foray into rigging. You will learn what the lines do on the vessel as you go from your research. You may not need books on rigging for the Lady Nelson, because it is pretty simple, but on a large ship, you certainly will. Members here know the best books to obtain for a specific model, so please ask. Getting the best source books from recommendations for a specific vessel saves lots of research time. Some of the books show illustrations and drawings of specific rigging lines, which helps a LOT. I recommend this book below, which is for 19th century ships, and is 95% large illustrations. Search the web for the best price, usually as a used book.

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Thanks for the suggestion on the book, so as I said, the internet is massive and filled with info. I have already purchased and downloaded this book some 10 years ago in pdf and quite a few other books.
So I will probably go with the Lady for a starter kit/
 
Hi all.
I need some help in deciding on the kit to buy for Christmas. Now I realty like Lady Nelson from Amati but iI'm not sure of the materials and the instructions although i think the sell an extra set of instructions. I also like the Aurora by Occre which I've been told that Occre has better plans and materials.
Any suggestions?
Hallo @fotiseliop
we wish you all the BEST and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Birthday-Cake
 
Hi all.
I need some help in deciding on the kit to buy for Christmas. Now I realty like Lady Nelson from Amati but iI'm not sure of the materials and the instructions although i think the sell an extra set of instructions. I also like the Aurora by Occre which I've been told that Occre has better plans and materials.
Any suggestions?
Hallo @fotiseliop
we wish you all the BEST and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Birthday-Cake
And? Did you start in the meantime your first ship model?
 
Hi all.
I need some help in deciding on the kit to buy for Christmas. Now I realty like Lady Nelson from Amati but iI'm not sure of the materials and the instructions although i think the sell an extra set of instructions. I also like the Aurora by Occre which I've been told that Occre has better plans and materials.
Any suggestions?
HI, I do not know the first one you mention, but I can highly recommend the Aurora, which I build many years ago- plus 50 years of building - THe good thing with Occre (Madrid based) and that goes for all their models, that you can download any of their models FREE even before buying. I was living in Madrid when they started the company. They make models at the middle class of price with the plus that you can study your model before buying. Here in Spain, it is easy to find a special shop for model-building where the top one is www.model Reyna in Madrid, with very high tech. service´. I have never bought models over the Internet. I want to see it, feel it before You buy, and by then avoy getting mad, because what you bought is not what you expected
 
HI, I do not know the first one you mention, but I can highly recommend the Aurora, which I build many years ago- plus 50 years of building - THe good thing with Occre (Madrid based) and that goes for all their models, that you can download any of their models FREE even before buying. I was living in Madrid when they started the company. They make models at the middle class of price with the plus that you can study your model before buying. Here in Spain, it is easy to find a special shop for model-building where the top one is www.model Reyna in Madrid, with very high tech. service´. I have never bought models over the Internet. I want to see it, feel it before You buy, and by then avoy getting mad, because what you bought is not what you expected
I will attach a PDF format of the Aurora. put your mouse over the numbers and name, and it will open up. DEarivs archive has made some comments on hull planking and added figs of some books. I have always myself -when it was needed - use the article: simple hull planking for Beginners, which can be downloaded for free. it must be here somewhere as I do not longer remember how many times I have recommended this- this was my bible when I was building.
 

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