The Ship Model Forum

sgtryan13 wrote:I am exclusively a ship modeler, and love the larger ships over the smaller ones, take a look at the link in my signature line and you'll see what floats my boat. I would describe myself as very experienced with photoetch, my advice would be to either pick a smaller test subject first, as has been suggested by others, or go with the Bismarck, but with a more user-friendly PE set for your first try. Pontos makes beautiful stuff, but it can be a real pain to work with and a buzz kill. Their brass is a little thinner than most, and as such is very unforgiving of errant bends. If you make a wrong bend, and try to re-bend it, 99% of the time the part will break in two at the bend spot. Pontos is also notorious for horrible directions, leading to a lot of frustration. their pe can be challenging to even the most experienced ship builder, but for me the directions just sucked all the fun out of it for me. Also, and this is just my personal preference here, I am not a fan of Pontos' replacement wood decks. many of them look to me to be over-etched, so the lines are burned in a little too dark, I much prefer Artwox wooden decks, more subtle and realistic in y opinion.

Channell wrote:

Guest wrote:I did not refer to scale. I referred to say a Bismarck vs a Fletcher. Same scale but less pieces in the Fletcher, and also less PE in its aftermarket. Is it harder to add the PE details to a Fletcher than to a Bismarck? I can't see why that would be.

Not what I understood but yeah, a smaller ship of the same scale with less PE is generally easier, "technically".

I say technically because it really does depend on what you are building. All PE (and different PE assemblies) are not created equal.

Some things are much harder to put together and you can build anywhere on the detail continuum from bathtub toy to ultra detailed IPMS NATS or Telford-sweeping masterpiece with every last possible detail included that required several years of work.

Beyond that, quantity DOES count. Ask anyone how they feel after finishing a complete air wing for their 1/350 CVN kit! How about a WW2 BB with 50+ tiny 20mm guns that need to be assembled... each individual gun is fairly easy but to do 50 of 'em that all look the same is another feat entirely. Quantity definitely matters, not just technical difficulty of individual subassemblies.

Anyway... Bottom line, your suggested project (1/350 Bismarck +Pontos) ranks fairly high on the difficulty scale, so you ARE crazy to pick it for your first ship. Still, crazy can be fun and interesting... if you aren't new to modeling and PE and are blessed with unusual patience and perseverance it's certainly not impossible to pull off. If you go for it, don't forget to show it to us!

Channell wrote:

Guest wrote:I did not refer to scale. I referred to say a Bismarck vs a Fletcher. Same scale but less pieces in the Fletcher, and also less PE in its aftermarket. Is it harder to add the PE details to a Fletcher than to a Bismarck? I can't see why that would be.

Not what I understood but yeah, a smaller ship of the same scale with less PE is generally easier, "technically".

I say technically because it really does depend on what you are building. All PE (and different PE assemblies) are not created equal.

Some things are much harder to put together and you can build anywhere on the detail continuum from bathtub toy to ultra detailed IPMS NATS or Telford-sweeping masterpiece with every last possible detail included that required several years of work.

Beyond that, quantity DOES count. Ask anyone how they feel after finishing a complete air wing for their 1/350 CVN kit! How about a WW2 BB with 50+ tiny 20mm guns that need to be assembled... each individual gun is fairly easy but to do 50 of 'em that all look the same is another feat entirely. Quantity definitely matters, not just technical difficulty of individual subassemblies.

Anyway... Bottom line, your suggested project (1/350 Bismarck +Pontos) ranks fairly high on the difficulty scale, so you ARE crazy to pick it for your first ship. Still, crazy can be fun and interesting... if you aren't new to modeling and PE and are blessed with unusual patience and perseverance it's certainly not impossible to pull off. If you go for it, don't forget to show it to us!

Guest wrote:I did not refer to scale. I referred to say a Bismarck vs a Fletcher. Same scale but less pieces in the Fletcher, and also less PE in its aftermarket. Is it harder to add the PE details to a Fletcher than to a Bismarck? I can't see why that would be.

Channell wrote:

Novamodeler wrote:Very much appreciated, thanks. Perhaps I should get the Eduard Big Ed set and a wood deck. The size of the project doesn't bother me, since it just takes longer. From my perspective a small ship with PE is no easier than a big ship with PE. The one just takes longer. Right? Or not? What I'm wondering about is more the difficulty of the detailing for a relative newbie to extensive PE work.

The bigger the scale, the more detail will be visible... and the number of details seems to grow exponentially depending on the scale.

If everything else is equal, bigger = more complicated and by extension, harder to pull off successfully.

Novamodeler wrote:Very much appreciated, thanks. Perhaps I should get the Eduard Big Ed set and a wood deck. The size of the project doesn't bother me, since it just takes longer. From my perspective a small ship with PE is no easier than a big ship with PE. The one just takes longer. Right? Or not? What I'm wondering about is more the difficulty of the detailing for a relative newbie to extensive PE work.