There are a lot of factors that come into play for the widely ranging types of hobbies that people enjoy. Whereas for some people putting a puzzle together is an extremely relaxing way to spend hours or days, for others, it drives them completely crazy because it is such tedious work. Other individuals can't wait to put a brush to a canvas to paint things they imagine or see around them, yet others find it uninteresting because they are not artistic. Some people scrapbook, are large number play video games, and some like to garden. Just about any hobby takes a little time, effort, and dedication and when people who participate in that hobby are asked why they enjoy it or what the purpose is, chances are they may not even be able to say. People typically like the steps involved in putting together or collecting for their hobby, while others enjoy the race to the end to see the finished product of something they like. This is no different for people who enjoy building ship models. There is a lot detail, a lot of care, and a lot of historical work that goes into the effort of building any model and of course at the end of all the travail, the builder gets a wonderful model to keep and study.

At some point in their lives, any person who makes model ships first started with the toy model ships that many young people put together quite easily. These beginning efforts weed out those who don't have the patience or the fine touch to move to the next level of models. The model they buy to work on will probably need even more attention to detail, a substantial amount of assembling and gluing and the correct kind of paint when the model has been put together. These are usually sold as kits with everything included and are based on very famous ships so that the builder can learn a little more about the history of the actual thing. It would be expected that these would once again weed out a great many of those who attempt these sorts of projects because they might find that they just do not take pleasure in the tedious work that goes into making it look really good.

There are people who will cultivate a passion for building model ships, and as they find out more about the hobby, go on to use superb attention to detail to create stunning models. At this stage, they might choose to purchase very complicated kits with thousands of scaled pieces that need to be sanded, glued, painted, and assembled and might take literally months if not years to assemble properly. Some enthusiasts may find themselves seeking out kits that others model builders have created or, at some point, try their hand at making a ship that is made entirely by their own hand. People who reach this level of building model ships may cut their own wooden pieces, cast their own tiny nails, sew authentic sails and weave tiny ropes to tie everything together. Builders have the choice of scrutinizing famous, historical ship plans to enable them to build a ship to scale, or perhaps they can see a ship in their own mind's eye that has never been done before and they want to create it.

When enthusiasts get to this point in their hobby, it's anyone's guess as to what thing of beauty they will create next. They will have nearly priceless models of all sorts on display in glass cases in their home or might even donate them to museums that have displays based on the same historical period as the ships they have worked so very hard to create. While not everyone wants to spend time putting together a beauty of a ship model, but there are plenty more people who just enjoy appreciating the art that others create.