Hi, guys!
First of all a heartfelt "Thank you" to Scott for
a. sitting through all them videos and not collapsing while doing it
and
b. finding them good after all.
Can I have the number of your shrink? ;D
Even before you start reading, please excuse that this will be turning into a speech. It's a passion-driven thing; I can't help it!
Form what I read, you plan to go on an all-out build. You have seen that even with 3-4 hours at the bench almost daily I (as an experienced ship modeller) managed to build a cruiser-sized boat within the span of 3 months and one week, without even touching the base or rigg that thing. OK, I am a slow modeller, but I dare say, if you go for a quality build you may be able to shave off 10-15% of that time at max.
A fleet carrier (e.g. short hull Essex or Lexington Class) has twice as many parts and is about twice the size for the ship anlone. A good carrier model usually lives by its airwing on deck: That means you have anything between 30 and 60 planes on deck. Each one of them comprising of 15-20 parts (counting PE and decals included). That means on the top end the airwing alone has twice as many parts as my Graf Spee, PE included! If you go with a jeep carrier (USS Independence/Princeton) you can get away with a cruiser sized ship and a much smaller airwing. This would be the maximum I'd recommend for first all-out ship build for a top motivated modeller.
A WWII battleship -preferrably Tamiya(engineering, fit, etc.) is a big undertaking but in the same range as a jeep carrier. A modernised USS New Jersey might a be the best choice as you won't have to put down almost 150 AA guns. There is good PE available for these, too
WWII cruisers are great modelling subjects due to the multi-role concept of the ship class: You have plenty of surface and AA-guns, torpedo tubes and even scouting planes. By construction this class tends to be a bit more complicated, but offers more visual interest at the same time. Cruisers would be in about the range of the Graf Spee that I built.
WWII destroyers are the perfect starter kits into the world of ship modelling. Destroyers offer the most interesting real-life stories to keep an interesting background. By size and parts count they are moderate, meaning with all the PE and figures and stuff they are hardly ever reach 800 parts in total. The shelf space they take up isn't excessive, even with a good base. The ships were ridden hard in wartime so you have the full span of weathering possibilities and you have very attractive camo schemes. There is a great range of kits available and a good supply of PE to go along.
Now, I have - on purpose- not touched the topic of historical accuracy of the kits in the market, because that would be opening a whole new can of worms and I think this should be disregarded for a first ambitioned build. As in almost every kit of every genre there are accuary problems with more or less easy fixes. Some very nice looking kits are outright crap in a box, if accuracy is an issue. This can spoil a lot of fun, if you venture too deep into that rabbit hole, so best disregard it.
OK, enough food for thought for starters?
I am here all week! ;D
Ahoi, you landlubbers!
Guido