I have no idea what I am up to :)

J

jepoysaipan

Joined
Feb 12, 2025
Messages
18
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48

Hi,

I am a newbie on this hobby, I wanted to spend my time building something great and enjoyable since I am currently on recovering from a life threatening illness.

I hope someone care enough to teach us newbies on our questions/hardship on our journey on this hobby!

Happy building everyone!
 
Thanks Bryian, I am reading the forums since I wanted to scratch build my first sail ship using balsa and soft woods for a start, also looking at free plans over the internet as a pattern. A good first scratch build is highly appreciated!

BTW, I just got back from WA (Parmelia) last month Thumbsup

Cheers!
 
jepoysaipan said:
Hi,

I am a newbie on this hobby, I wanted to spend my time building something great and enjoyable since I am currently on recovering from a life threatening illness.

I hope someone care enough to teach us newbies on our questions/hardship on our journey on this hobby!

Happy building everyone!
Click to expand...
You'll surely find your questions welcome here and there's a wealth of information available here. That said, at the risk of being what my grandson calls a "buzz-killer," I will offer the observation that the single mistake made by more beginning ship modelers than any other is biting off more than they can chew. While ship modeling can be a very rewarding hobby, it is also one of the most challenging. Unless you already are very familiar with full-size wooden boat building and are an experienced mariner, you are going to have to develop a command of woodworking, sewing, surgical knot-tying, drafting, small-scale metalworking and jewelry-making, fine arts painting, sailing ship rigging, fluency in nautical nomenclature in the period your subjects will have existed, and good historical research skills, don't expect to find "building something great" at all enjoyable if you attempt to build a 1/4" scale Eighteenth Century First Rate ship of the line on your kitchen table in a couple of months' worth of evenings as a first effort! It's not my intention to scare you off, but rather to hope to help you avoid becoming so frustrated you give up on the hobby entirely. Kit manufacturers may suggest it's easy if you spend hundreds of bucks on their kits, but they sell a lot more models to consumers lured by the color glossy pictures on their boxes than they do to knowledgeable modelers who have carefully selected such kits.

I highly recommend you start by building the Model Shipways Learning Series models before you tackle a square-rigger with dozens of brass cannon! These three kits are designed for those new to ship modeling and are intended to progressively provide the experience necessary to tackle larger kits. They have excellent instructions which provide information on basic tools and techniques that most other kit instructions omit.


These are relatively simple kits, but if one builds them with care, they will produce exquisite results. Serious ship modeling demands a very tall learning curve, so the trick is to take it slow so that curve isn't too steep!
 
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I agree with Mr. Cleek. Start with something small that you can learn with/on. I built six ships before takling my last completion. I am not a salesman for Model Expo but you might want to check out its selection of "Starter" kits. ME has several kits listed for under $100 (US) some with everything you need to get started. There are other vendors with similar kit options. When you decice on a model, do a search here on SoS for completed or in-progress build logs of modelers that have built or are building the same model. This is a valuable resource. Enjoy!!
 
scratch building from plans is alot of fun. you really get to aquirie tools n skills that kits dont really teach. my first scratch was a schooner using model shipways plans i bought in a hobby shop. the hospital i worked at had a full carpenter shop so using hard wood was no problem to process anything i needed.

but if i didnt have all those beautiful tools, balsa would have been my first choice. its easy to cut, bends nicely and after a good finish, it will look just as nice as any wood. besides, hulls get coppered or painted so the places hard wood makes a better impression is in the deck n furniture.

perhaps someone with plans from an old finished kit on your side of the globe will be generous to share with you ... or if you can buy plans seperately... that would be the way to get started.

or another possibility would be to check the classifieds here for a nice kit? i see lots of good ones for sale at bargain prices.

Sell, Give away: Kits, Tools, Books, and Other

Sell or give away (your stuff, kits, tools, books)
shipsofscale.com

main thing is have fun. btw this is the best place to get advice... the experts are a great resource here.
 
Welcome, I too was new to this a couple of months ago and have received many helpful replies to my questions and lots of links for learning.
There is a lot to learn and you will make mistakes as I have. Slowly, slowly is the key. Check out the YouTube videos
Another manufacturer you should consider is OcCre as they grade their model boats in order of your experience ie beginner, intermediate and experienced.
I bought one of their beginner kits which have very good build notes along with loads of coloured pictures. They also have many YouTube videos covering just about every model they make. But they don’t tell you how to avoid the many pitfalls.
That’s where the guys on here come in to their own as they volunteer their expertise willingly. I have looked at a few forums and this is the best. My first build is the Polaris.
I bought a starter kit of tools with the kit and have now added lots of other tools and it gets bigger by the week.
The beauty of this hobby is that a lot of the kits are very reasonably priced as are the tools. A cheap hobby compared to other hobbies I have had.
Good luck
 
Welcome aboard! Shipbuilding can be quite rewarding and certainly gives you 'something to do' while creating a masterpiece! Your decision to start off with a scratch build, to me, is quite daunting. But it can br satisfying too. I have to ask, what tools do you have? Do you have access to good wood supplies of different species? Veneers? Hardware for your model with respect to the scale you have chosen? My suggestion is as others have already mentioned - start off with a decent, doable kit first. Then, with newly acquired skills, you'll have a much better idea on how to oroceed on a scratch build. And along the way, you'll gather the tools you'll need. Feel free to post your questions too! Consider starting a Build Log with pictures so we can come along on your journey. Welcome to our Merry Group!
 
Bob Cleek said:
You'll surely find your questions welcome here and there's a wealth of information available here. That said, at the risk of being what my grandson calls a "buzz-killer," I will offer the observation that the single mistake made by more beginning ship modelers than any other is biting off more than they can chew. While ship modeling can be a very rewarding hobby, it is also one of the most challenging. Unless you already are very familiar with full-size wooden boat building and are an experienced mariner, you are going to have to develop a command of woodworking, sewing, surgical knot-tying, drafting, small-scale metalworking and jewelry-making, fine arts painting, sailing ship rigging, fluency in nautical nomenclature in the period your subjects will have existed, and good historical research skills, don't expect to find "building something great" at all enjoyable if you attempt to build a 1/4" scale Eighteenth Century First Rate ship of the line on your kitchen table in a couple of months' worth of evenings as a first effort! It's not my intention to scare you off, but rather to hope to help you avoid becoming so frustrated you give up on the hobby entirely. Kit manufacturers may suggest it's easy if you spend hundreds of bucks on their kits, but they sell a lot more models to consumers lured by the color glossy pictures on their boxes than they do to knowledgeable modelers who have carefully selected such kits.

I highly recommend you start by building the Model Shipways Learning Series models before you tackle a square-rigger with dozens of brass cannon! These three kits are designed for those new to ship modeling and are intended to progressively provide the experience necessary to tackle larger kits. They have excellent instructions which provide information on basic tools and techniques that most other kit instructions omit.


These are relatively simple kits, but if one builds them with care, they will produce exquisite results. Serious ship modeling demands a very tall learning curve, so the trick is to take it slow so that curve isn't too steep!
Click to expand...
Thanks Bob!, very well said and a suitable advice as well. I will surely look into those learning series, unfortunately I am currently in the Philippines and surely those models kit are impossible to find if not so overpriced, when I get back to the US I will surely try those.

That is why I wanted to build from scratch so I can source out materials easily without getting tied to the supplied materials on the kit. Having said that I do have some experience on those you have mentioned except the "mariner" part :), I was able to make my nieces & nephews wooden toys and build them toy kits from time to time at one time become an enthusiast of "Tamiya Model" craze back then.

I had experienced the frustrations as well as the "scare" of building a perfect kit and surely you are on point of "biting off more than they can chew", since I am pretty much strapped at home at the moment, I think it's time to get back to the hobby I once loved.

Cheers!
 
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