New to ships...new help

[Quint]

Hi all, I recently got a gift of a Model Shipways Clipper Flying Fish kit and had some questions. I used to make models as a child and enjoyed it, and thought I'd give this one a shot. From what I can tell, it's an older model, being a solid body, the more recent ones seem to have a ribbing that you need to assemble.
1. Is this a doable first ship model?
2. Is it normal to just have to follow a set of blueprints? no assembly instuctions?
3. any tips?

Thanks in advance, this forum seems like a cool place.

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Hi all, I recently got a gift of a Model Shipways Clipper Flying Fish kit and had some questions. I used to make models as a child and enjoyed it, and thought I'd give this one a shot. From what I can tell, it's an older model, being a solid body, the more recent ones seem to have a ribbing that you need to assemble.
1. Is this a doable first ship model?
2. Is it normal to just have to follow a set of blueprints? no assembly instuctions?
3. any tips?

Thanks in advance, this forum seems like a cool place.

View attachment 553359

View attachment 553360

scharlick, I pulled this info from one of my old Model Shipways catalogs, dated 1986. MS had three classifications for their kits, A - Starter, B - tougher and C - still tougher. Assuming this is the 1/8' scale kit, it was classified as "C" and was the most expensive kit listed at $139.75. I recall over time MS released other scale versions of kits but couldn't find anything else for Flying Fish. I've built a number of MS kits ("old school" yellow box), Katy (A), Elsie (B), Eagle (B), Phantom (A), Harriet Lane (B) currently working on Kate Cory (C) and think their classifications are reasonable representations. All the kits had basic instructions and blueprints.

Is it "doable" as a first kit? The fact that it was essentially MS's most expensive and complex kit would raise some doubts for me. I would recommend starting with an entry level kit.

Hope the documentation was helpful.