So what about boats then?

[.Mark]

Trawling round looking for cars to build I happened on some ships - Titanic, Bounty, Santa Maria - that kind of stuff. They look quite interesting and different.

How are they for a relative novice to get started? I notice some of the boxes have skill levels but on a scale of 1 - 5 which is what I have usually seen what does that mean to a reasonably dextrous person?

[dr_gn]

.Mark said:

Trawling round looking for cars to build I happened on some ships

I have built a few ship models. This year I built the Airfix HMS Victory, and it was a total nightmare in terms of brittle plastic, difficult painting and overall poor parts fit. Where Airfix get their "8 hours construction time" from is beyond me. (last few post here) :

http://tinyurl.com/ydrpm5v

I would definitely not recommend it for a beginner (or any other of the Airfix range which are presumably just as bad).

Years ago I built a Revell Cutty Sark, with was a far superior kit, and went together very easily. I made a decent job of it even though I was only about 12 years old, so I'd say look at the Revell Range for sailing ships. The Revell Titanic is a bit of a clunker though, and a lot of their 20th century ships will be old moulds and are at relatively small scales, so beware!

Tamiya do some nice 20th century warships which will also go together very nicely.

[.Mark]

Thanks for that Dr. I think the kits I have looked at are Revell so will go look closer. Quite looking forward to all this - it'll give me something to do when all the old gits start snoring at Christmas

[dr_gn]

.Mark said:

Thanks for that Dr. I think the kits I have looked at are Revell so will go look closer. Quite looking forward to all this - it'll give me something to do when all the old gits start snoring at Christmas

No probs - BTW, whichever one you decide you fancy, try to find a kit review online before you buy it, may turn out to need loads of work to get things to fit, or may turn out to be spot on.