Model ship costs ...

KeithLyall

KeithLyall

Joined
Jun 13, 2022
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Sorry guys, time for a small moan. After looking at the excellent Amati HMS Vanguard build by Kamal (Link) I was looking at the cost of the model. On Premier Ship Models, they have Amati Vanguard which at first looks like a great buy with 40% off the price (Link), a sale price of £688 rather than the "normal" price of £1,075. Looks to be a great deal ... NO DEFINITELY NOT. Looking at other model ship sites such as Cornwall Model Boats, their standard price is £685 for the same model. Why do companies inflate prices like this in the hope people will think it is a great deal ... I have no time for companies that try this type of sales approach and based on this would tack away from said companies.
 
I want to clarify my idiosyncrasy towards kits. I believe that before starting to build a model, it is extremely interesting to study, by doing research, the entire history of a vessel that you want to reproduce. Researching the drawings, reducing them to the desired scale, transferring them onto the wood is part of the art of model making. It's clear that not everyone has the same manual ability or desire. Personally, I'm on my second construction and I'm not ashamed to ask what or how to do it. As a kid, I was 6 or 7 years old... (I'm 79 now) they took me to visit a school, and I remember seeing a model ship. Ship that definitely wasn't made from a kit. I remember as if it were now the details that left us children speechless. I read that if you buy all the pieces separately you spend more than buying a kit. I do not agree. My first ship cost me €18 when I bought the wood online in China. Now I bought myself a €45 mini wood lathe with which I will make the cannons and other parts. However, I bought a Chinese kit for €18 that I will never build, but I use to recover the gun carriages, grates and small details that are too small to make with my current capabilities.
In short, be modelers and not assemblers. The world is full of houses with Bounty .. Victory .. Constitution ... ect put together from one kit.
Sorry, but this is my opinion
Eugenio
 
Morghy said:
I want to clarify my idiosyncrasy towards kits. I believe that before starting to build a model, it is extremely interesting to study, by doing research, the entire history of a vessel that you want to reproduce. Researching the drawings, reducing them to the desired scale, transferring them onto the wood is part of the art of model making. It's clear that not everyone has the same manual ability or desire. Personally, I'm on my second construction and I'm not ashamed to ask what or how to do it. As a kid, I was 6 or 7 years old... (I'm 79 now) they took me to visit a school, and I remember seeing a model ship. Ship that definitely wasn't made from a kit. I remember as if it were now the details that left us children speechless. I read that if you buy all the pieces separately you spend more than buying a kit. I do not agree. My first ship cost me €18 when I bought the wood online in China. Now I bought myself a €45 mini wood lathe with which I will make the cannons and other parts. However, I bought a Chinese kit for €18 that I will never build, but I use to recover the gun carriages, grates and small details that are too small to make with my current capabilities.
In short, be modelers and not assemblers. The world is full of houses with Bounty .. Victory .. Constitution ... ect put together from one kit.
Sorry, but this is my opinion
Eugenio
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Everyone is welcome to their opinion !! In my opinion the choice of whether to build from a kit or from scratch is entirely up to the individual and what gives them pleasure and enjoyment from their hobby and I see that being based upon experience, ability and availability of appropriate tools and skills. Your statement "be modellers and not assemblers" is a condescending statement to many on this Forum who get hours of pleasure building from a kit.
 
this thread is about the same as this one

state of the art model ship building

Good Debate and Discussion now for my 2 cents from an INTERMEDIATE MODELERS STANDPOINT, I LIKE TO CALL THE MODELS THAT I LIKE TO DO BOTH POF AND POB SEMI KITS; HERE GOES first BOB YOUR MODELS ARE TRULY WORKS OF ART WHICH I COULD NEVER COME CLOSE TO IN EITHER SMALL OR LARGER SCALE,...the bulk of...
shipsofscale.com

it is far cheaper to build from scratch or assemble a scratch kit than it is the buy a pre made kit because there is no middle man making a profit.
 
Your statement "be modelers and not assemblers" is a condescending statement to many on this Forum who get hours of pleasure building from a kit.

true when i judged ship model contests years ago there was always a scratch built catagory and a kit catagory. one is a hobby craft and one is an art form.

few want to take this to the level of art. it is like assembling jig saw puzzles and i did hundreds over the years with my aging mom when i went to visit her.
There is a relaxing zen quality to it. Nothing wrong with assembling a kit but it is not the art of scale ship modeling.

kit or scratch requires a degree of skill
 
Back to the original subject of the post, I've always found Cornwall Model Boats kits to be reasonably priced and for the shop to provide excellent service. I live in the states, but I've sometimes found that even with shipping I can do better shopping there. I don't think the do sales, but their regularly priced kits are usually in the range of what I find on sale elsewhere. They are part of a small group of vendors I always check when looking for something. As for inflating prices, ship model companies aren't the only ones who regularly do that. I'm a musician and just about every site and brick-and-mortar music shops have the list price and then the actual "sale" price.
 
i scratch build because i have access to tools n developed skills over the years.... but i always recomend kits to first timers. but not those cheap solid hull kits... they are usually lacking and expect the builder to have skills they really dont have yet, or even tools. the plank on frame are a good challenge, especially since you can ask the experts here for advice... and these guys are real experts as you can see in their build logs.

a good kit will have everything you need but be cautious of the level the kit is rated for compared to your level of skills. start with a schooner before taking on a 16th or 17th century war ship or clipper with complicated rigging schemes. develope your attention span and eye for details in the plans.
 
I am exclusively a scratch builder. However, had it not been for starting out with building kits I would never have had the ability to produce ship models as a commercial business. I was driven away from kit building years ago due to cost, the quality of wood ,and poor fittings included in the kits I purchased. ( I realize the quality of kits has improved greatly over the years, but so has the cost.) I would say to the kit builders in the group, "DON"T GIVE UP THE SHIP," your work is absolutely beautiful.
 
I speak as a novice. I started with a €20 Chinese kit. I never completed it, in fact I'm using parts of it to make my own fantasy ships. I think that in any case the Chinese kit made me understand what equipment was necessary for this hobby.. From what I can say, I believe that the cheap Chinese kits are well made and if you do a search in the forum, you will find several people who use them they assembled.
In practice, €20 is well spent even just to get an idea.
 
I am with Fourseas regarding wooden models. I love that there are kits even though I am a scratcher. I did have a kit from Italy many years ago but gave it away after seeing what was in the box and comparing what they provided with contemporary information. Fortunately there is now more access to information for kit manufacturers and modern tools to make realistic and high quality parts compared to the past. To be sure, only a few kit makers seem to do much research on the details, but there are a couple of the newer manufacturers that appear to do a great job. One day in the future when I can no longer control the wood passing through the saw I know there are high quality kit makers out there working for all of us.
Allan
 
We kit bashers are somewhere in the middle between kit builders and scratch builders. It's poor form for a scratch builder to piss on a kit builder, because kits are essential to speed the learning curve of those who want to build nice ship models and who need to develop their skills at a rate that doesn't cause them to lose interest in modeling. Many of us start with kits, then move on to kit bashing, and finally end up scratch building. It's much easier progression than gathering piles of expensive books, making huge mistakes in model building, and usually producing such disappointing results in the first few models that the builder gives and devotes their time and effort to other things. Sometimes the discipline and skill necessary for scratch building a masterpiece has to have some help along the way, hence kits.

It is also important to recognize the different purposes people have behind building a model ship. Some look to build realistic dioramas which are authentic to the last detail, others cut corner on authenticity in favor of making an artist's piece. Kit's usually are somewhere in the middle, and that where bashing (adding details and changing thing for better history accuracy) comes in. It's a bit less difficult that scratch building and you can really improve the accuracy of a model with easy changes and additions. Builders have to choose where their comfort zone in the spectrum of model purpose lies, according their skills, experience, desires, cost, and tools materials available.

No matter what place you are on this spectrum, make models and post build logs here. We all benefit from that.
 
Morghy said:
In short, be modelers and not assemblers. The world is full of houses with Bounty .. Victory .. Constitution ... ect put together from one kit.
Sorry, but this is my opinion
Eugenio
Click to expand...
Hi Eugenio, your statement about modelers versus assemblies is a bit harsh. Why a scale modeler cannot be an assembler, who said he/she should be a builder? In my opinion, the scale modeler could be either or could be both!
Not every scale modeler has the necessary skills and the ability to fabricate parts. It requires serious skills to process the materials that will be ready for scale modeling. How many of us can afford tools to fabricate all the parts?
On the contrary, kits are great for all beginners or experienced where you can just assemble as is or 'bash the kit' where both assemble and fabrications will be used.
 
For those of us who came to wooden ship building late in life kits give us the opportunity to get into making something half decent, whereas learning all the arts of scratch building would probably mean that we died before completing anything at all!!
 
DARIVS ARCHITECTVS said:
because kits are essential to speed the learning curve of those who want to build nice ship models
Click to expand...
After following dozens of build logs on various sites my biggest gripe with kit manufacturers are poor planking techniques where the planks do not end at the rabbet, out of scale/misshaped belaying pins and gratings, and incorrect cannon patterns. Based on what at least two of the manufacturers have done in the past few years I see no reason why the others cannot improve on these few basic items. We do always have kit bashing if we want to make any changes.
 
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