Hi again all. I have discovered that trying to decide what ship to build is one of the hardest parts of this hobby. I have decided on which battlewagon to build (thanks for the input), but I gave it some thought and figured it might be better if I do a smaller boat first. Now I am looking at cruisers. I have a small Capitani Romani class ship, but I traded for her, so this will be the first real build that I will (hopefully) complete. I was GOING to do Oyodo, but the Profile Morskie plans are totally off from about midships forward. Scratch that one. Going over the plan sets that I have (and that appear to be correct), I have the following choices: Algerie Zara class (actually a Pola hull with a Zara super) De Ruyter I would love some feedback from some of the more experienced builders. I want this build to be as easy as possible so that I have a relatively high chance of actually completing a boat. Thanks! Capt. OCD
Find some miyukikai plans for the Oyodo. www.freetimehobbies.com has some of the Miyukikai plansets available. If you already have a Capitani Romani I suggest you build the Zara. There are few Italian ships actually on the water relative to the historical size of their navy, but there are plenty of Frenchies. If I recall right the de Ruyter has way too much freeboard, but I have never seen one modeled. All three should be about the same as far as building, although I think the Zara hull is available in fiberglass. Ron Hunt
If you are looking at the Algerie you should really consider the Suffren as well. She is slightly longer (~3") and similar size otherwise but she has twin rudders and three shafts instead of one rudder and 4 shafts on the Algerie. Power just the center shaft and she can turn really nicely! The only thing I can fault the Suffren for is her lack of sidemounts, but she is a cruiser so that's not really fair. Both are easy to build with a fair bit of room and weight.
