Hi. Newbie needs advice.

[wooster]

Hi All
I’m out of my comfort-zone here. I’m a railway modeller who fancies a change and I thought I’d give 1/32 WW1 aircraft a try. So where’s a good place to start? I thought about the Roden SE 5a w/ Wolseley Viper. Then I settled on the Italeri Sopwith Camel until I saw several nice looking Nieuports from various manufactures. As I’m a novice (at biplanes anyway) I’d rather not spend a lot of money and then find it isn’t for me. Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Rich

[RAGIII]

Welcome to the Forum. I agree with Justin on this one. The WNW kits are extremely well engineered and make things like mounting wings far easier to accomplish. If you are set on a NIeuport go with the Special Hobby kit. It is somewhat better than the others, IMHO.
You will find all of the support you need right here on these pages.
RAGIII

[Des]

Hello Rich and welcome to the forum. I will echo what has already been said, very good advice from two excellent modelers.

Des.

[lcarroll]

Justin has it right, Rich. It's worth a few extra $ to optimise your experience entering a new genre, and as he says you are almost guaranteed a nice experience, the Kits are that good. The others are not horrible, but a little experience prior to tackling them will go a long way to your continued enjoyment of the WWI Aircraft Model experience.
Cheers,
Lance

[wooster]

Thanks for the advice gents. Who are the best online retailers likely to have a good range of WNW? I looked at Hannants but the only 1/32 Pfalz DIIIa I could find was a Roden.

[Thumbs up]

Thats just it,they are that good that most of them have soldout!!!!

[Des]

Have a look here  http://www.wingnutwings.com/ww/modelkitsets  The Wingnut site will direct you to the Weta Workshop if you want to purchase any kits.

Des.

[Dave Brewer]

Des beat me to it Rich.
Wait till this weekend,they are having a 15% off sale.
Cheers,
Dave.

[Juan]

Like Dave said.  The coupon code needed is "BLACK15".

[Ian from Doncaster]

Hi Rich, and welcome!

Where are you based?  I ordered a WNW kit from Weta on Saturday 12 November and it arrived on the following Thursday.  I am in the UK and WNW has a Weta distribution centre in Holland.  If you are in the EU, Weta adds on the VAT and a delivery charge to the kit price. 

However as I was also a WWI newcomer a few years back, and was a bit daunted about cutting the relatively expensive plastic, I shied away from a WNW for a while.  However the price represents good value considering the time the kits can take to make, plus the quality.

I have other kits in 1:48 mainly Eduard, which have all been decent so far.  I can't compare other 1:32 makes as I only ever got WNW so far in that scale.

Take a few minutes (or hours) and scan the site here and look at some of the build logs.  Not only can you see some great models in process of being built, but also the modellers are without an exception happy to share hints and tips, point out issues with any kits, painting and weathering etc.  It is all here, and all freely shared.

I would also recommend having a look at Des's parent site via the big red banner above the forum pages.  Des has built many kits, with highly detailed build logs, and he also features his outstanding scratch builds. 

No apologies for the shameless plug for Des, there is some inspirational stuff on here!

Oh, and if you're an experienced modeller in other genres there is the "Time to Relax" off-topic section on this forum, where you can share your other work..

[coyotemagic]

Welcome aboard, Rich!  I agree with the others.  Can't go wrong with the WNW Pfalz D.IIIa to ease into WWI aircraft.  Having built a number of Roden 1/48 scale kits and one WNW kit, I can assure you that you will get far more enjoyment with the WNW experience.
Cheers,
Bud

[Monty]

Hi Rich! Welcome to the site! There's lots of good advice here! I have very little else to add, except "Have Fun, Take a few pictures and show us!" Regards, Marc

[Nigel Jackson]

Hello Rich and welcome to this magnificent forum. It's great to see so much advice already given, and so typical of the membership here.

Best wishes
Nigel

[Manni]

Hello Rich, have fun here. With some patience you can build nearly every WNW kit as a beginner, because you don't have to sand and scratch wrong fittings or missing details.
Manni