I just completed my 16th model, the Royal Caroline, 1:50 by ZHL. All have been mounted in acrylic cases. I am rapidly running out of space! The Royal Caroline was completed in about 500 hours, not including the time involved in completely tearing down the completed main mast due to extreme warping. I have now built 3 steamboats, the Morgan, Constitution, Amerigo and just about any other sailing vessel I can think of. I also built a Tug with running gear and an America's Cup racer. I want to continue for a little while longer (I am 84) but need suggestions on what to build. I can only build so many Revenue Cutters! I have never built a modern ship but they seem to be extremely small scale and I am not so confident in my aging eyes and hands. Any suggestions would be most welcome. Are there any really new kits out there?
As an added note, the Royal Caroline was a real pain in many ways. The ZHL product was not in English and I used many other sources during my build including the "Anatomy of the Ship" book. My 500 hours does not include the many hours I spent on the computer trying to search out details on the ship's rigging. Even the AOS has conflicting rigging and pin placement issues. I finally had to rely on basic common sense. Certainly various Captains would have ad their own preferences, but simplicity and consistency is probably common to all. Rigging was probably somewhat different from ship to ship and even on the same ship over its lifetime.
As an added note, the Royal Caroline was a real pain in many ways. The ZHL product was not in English and I used many other sources during my build including the "Anatomy of the Ship" book. My 500 hours does not include the many hours I spent on the computer trying to search out details on the ship's rigging. Even the AOS has conflicting rigging and pin placement issues. I finally had to rely on basic common sense. Certainly various Captains would have ad their own preferences, but simplicity and consistency is probably common to all. Rigging was probably somewhat different from ship to ship and even on the same ship over its lifetime.