posted
I'll back Jason up with his comments about 1/1400 scale as being the easiest to find kits in. There is a dazzling array of available kits, tho the vast majority are made of resin, which is considerably different than working in plastic, as most folks are used to. It's a good compromise for detail and availability of kits, as well as for spacing. You won't have to do much in the way accurizing (only a very limited number of subjects need this, most by ERTL) and there is also a wide variety of decals available, as well as the fact it's easy to get custom decals done in 1/1400 scale. Starcraft Models builds the bulk of the 1/1400 scale ships available and the majority you'll find is from the TNG Era.
My favorite scale is 1/537 (or thereabouts) as Jason already mentioned. You can get most excellent detail and while most kits for this scale are no longer in product, you can still get them on eBay and for close to the same prices as the resin cast 1/1400 scale kits - sometimes cheaper, as in the case of the ERTL Reliant kit! Downsides are that these kits are no longer being produced, most are highly inaccurate, necessitating accurizing, and they're rather big. The refit Enterprise comes it at a hair over 22". This is also predominately the scale of the TOS Movie Era, with the Refit Enterprise, Reliant and Klingon K'T'Inga's coming in this scale, as well as several vacuum formed kits by a company called SciFi Spaceship Miniatures (now out of business due to a C&D from Paramount), as well as pretty darned close to what the 22" Cutaway TOS Enterprise is (officially, I think it's 1/500).
And now we're on to Jason's favorite scale. 1/2500 is pretty small, tho larger than the old MicroMachines that they used to put out back in The Day. There have only been a handful of kits produced in this scale, w/the original's being the ERTL 3-Enterprise set which included the TOS, E-A and E-D. They later came out with a "Fill In The Gaps" release which included the E-B, E-C and E-E. While these are nice kits, they too have their problems. There are also a small number of resin cast kits in 1/2500 scale, as well. Thomas Models has released some and should be re-releasing them again shortly. TM Lindsey has a small - and growing! - number of kits, as well. And, of course, you can always go Jason's route, give up a personal life and kitbash and/or scratchbuild a bewildering number of lil' ships! If you've not already, check out Jason's site for pics of more of the ships he's built.
There are other scales, as well, but most of those are sort of "off-scale" ships, being predominately "One Of's", so to speak. While you can feel free to ask model related questions here, obviously, I highly recommend [url=http://www.starshipmodeler.net/cgi-bin/phpBB2/index.php]Starship Modelers Discussion Forums[/ul] as a great source to go and read what others might have asked before, as well as visit the main site for lots of "How To" articles.
Hope that doesn' scare ya off.
Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Thanks again, that message board looks good.
By the way, what is the difference between resin and plastic models? I did a couple of models when I was about 10 (I didn't paint them ) and they were plastic. What difference does resin make?
Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
Resin kits are almost all solid, unlike their injection molded plastic cousins. Resin will often have crisper detail (tho not always) and be relatively cheap to mass produce in considerably smaller numbers than injection molded kits. The reason that most plastic kits retail so low is that thousands are produced, dropping the price, but if you go with just a few hundred, the prices go up dramatically - according to the research I've seen others do into trying to produce a limited injection molded run of a subject.
Downsides to resin:
*) Poor castings can result in airbubbles and pinholes littering the surface of the model.
*) Poor molding of the master can result in seam lines in very bad places. Right in the middle of a nice, flat area of a models surface isn't the smartest place for your mold to "break" so you can have detail on both top and bottom surfaces. Open faced molds are often pretty hard to deal with, too, as they make it to where you must perfectly mate up both surfaces for the model to look right. This isn't an easy thing to do....
*) Poor making of the master can also result in complicated molds, resulting in complicated construction of the model.
*) Voids (airbubbles) just under the surface can cause problems and must be filled.
*) Struts and pylons can be made too thin to hold the weight of others parts, and later sag because of this.
And there are other problems which can occur from poor mastering and bad castings. However, they're pretty kewel, in the long run. They often result in a variety of subjects that you'd not have otherwise.
Again, don't be afraid to ask questions. I'm sure that between at least Jason, "The Woozle" and myself, we can answer most any question you've got and put to us here.
Registered: Apr 2003
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![[Wink]](wink.gif)
1/2500 is pretty small, tho larger than the old MicroMachines that they used to put out back in The Day. There have only been a handful of kits produced in this scale, w/the original's being the ERTL 3-Enterprise set which included the TOS, E-A and E-D. They later came out with a "Fill In The Gaps" release which included the E-B, E-C and E-E. While these are nice kits, they too have their problems. There are also a small number of resin cast kits in 1/2500 scale, as well. Thomas Models has released some and should be re-releasing them again shortly. TM Lindsey has a small - and growing! - number of kits, as well. And, of course, you can always go Jason's route, give up a personal life and kitbash and/or scratchbuild a bewildering number of lil' ships! If you've not already, check out Jason's site for pics of more of the ships he's built. ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
) and they were plastic. What difference does resin make?
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