Zvezda Black Swan 1/72

Paul-

That's terrific!  I'm glad you got the Pearl/Swan! And I for one would LOVE to see this as a WIP thread...keep us updated, I'm already drooling over the kit, and I can't wait to hear some impressions.  I got my homemade furled sails on the Wasa today, but I'm not that impressed with my results....they look okay, but I have a few things to learn!

Once I'm done with the Wasa, I have a vintage Revell Golden Hind I'm going to start, and by then I'll probably have convinced myself that the Swan is a necessary addition to the collection!  I really dig the style of it, and it looks likeit has amazing detail!  Still really surprised that it comes with Injection-molded sails, for a 800+ part kit that's priced at over 100 bucks, though....lol

Keep the details coming!

And BTW, if you have ANY questions regarding your build, don't hesitate to ask!  Everybody here has been totally generous with their knowledge...some of these guys have been building model ships for a long, long time, and they know their stuff!  It's a blast!  Personally, I'm only on my second ship (I've been building Tamiya race car kits since forever, so I have lots of modeling exp), but I've learned a TON already, and it's fascinating to me....

Dave

My LHS didn't have either the Jolly Roger or the Vasa.  But they did have the Black Swan.  They let me look into the kit and I was very impressed by what I saw.  Mind you, this is before I saw the info that David posted this morning. Which by the way, Thank You Dave, I appreciate any and all feed-back or info I can get .  I liked the shroud/rat line assemblies enough that I felt they would not be too toy-like.  And even though the sails are plastic, in this scale they did not look like they would be a problem as per looks.  The guy at the LHS today was a very knowledgable ship-modeler and he gave me several ideas as to what to do about sails/no sails.  Knowing my skill level from my usual genres, he thought that the Swan was a good choice, so I bought it.  Price was not a concern, since I just got back from vending at the SoCal NNL and had sold enough to easily make the purchase.  I looked at it as getting rid of a bunch of kits I won't build for one I will.

Since I did purchase the Swan, I'll turn this thread into a WIP.  The sprue shots are the same as the link that Division 6 provided, other than the figurehead.  I've had a chance to study the instructions, and the rigging diagram/steps are very clear and easy to follow.  If anyone wishes to see instruction scans or sprue shots, just ask, I don't mind posting them up.

Beware David, after seeing me start on this WIP, you might be very tempted to buy a Black Swan/Pearl.  lol

 Paul

2wheel-

A deadeye and a shroud are two components of the rigging of a ship.  The Shrouds are the closely-spaced vertical ropes that stabilize the masts by holding them to the outer hull of the ship.  The horizontal ropes that cross the shrouds to form a *net*-like structure are called ratlines.  A Deadeye is composed of two wooden blocks which connect the end of a shroud to the "channel", which in turn connects to the Hull.

Typically (in almost all cases), shrouds, ratlines and deadeyes of plastic model kits are all injection molded plastic, which in my opinion looks more like a plastic flyswatter than a series of interconnected ropes! They look crummy!  Common practice for shipbuilders is to not use the supplied shrouds, and instead rig them using thread.  It seems like a lot of work, when coupled with the *other* rigging you'll have to do. But truthfully, shrouds are easy, not complicated, and it goes pretty fast...being one of the outermost areas of rigging, it's actually a luxury to be able to run the line somewhere open like that!  I rigged the shrouds on my Revell Vasa (something like 40 lines per side) and it was one of the fastest steps of the kit so far!  But, rigging the horizontal ratlines across them is a different story.  I didn't even bother with them, especially at this scale, it's common to omit them. Otherwise, it would have become a HUGE pain in the rear! Which is why model manufacturers mold the shroud/ratlines in plastic, to save us time, and still give the impression of a fully rigged ship.

What's interesting about this Zvezda kit, is that the ratlines actually have some sag to them, which is unusual for molded examples, plus the deadeyes actually look similar to the blocks on a real ship and if I'm seeing it correctly, it appears that  the deadeyes actually get rigged with line, instead of being entirely made of plastic.  Interesting.  Plus, there's some seriously articulate detail to many of the parts....

....I'm still very intrigued by this Black Swan kit (I like the color scheme from the pic you posted)....I want to build it, but for the price....It's going to take some consideration....

Hope this helps!

David

Here's a link to the Hobby Terra site that sells the BP.

It has photos of all the parts, the only difference in the 2 ships is the figurehead.

Disney backed out of the licensing after the model was produced so to sell in the US they changed the name and one or two parts.

I'll stop by my LHS today and see if they have a Vasa or Jolly Roger.

What's a 'dead-eye shroud'? 

From the pics of the built Swan the plastic sails don't appear to be detrimental.

bondoman

It looks like fun but it's really expensive. Smaller ship models are generally agreed upon as a better place to get started,

I would really recommend that you find a Lindberg "Jolly Roger", which like the Black Swan (Pearl) is a take on the current desire to say fulsome stuff about Davy Jones. It's a rebox of a kit called La Flore which in turn is base on a museum model.

The Lindberg ship is a very accurate representation of a ship that therefore never existed either, but is a very pretty little French frigate in concept.

She's full rigged and that's a chore.

Take a look at the new Revell Vasa. Everyone building it really likes it, and the 17th Century rig is easier to get put up than the 18th is with the Jolly Roger.

AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!

 

I would prefer larger because my eyesight isn't what it used to be. Also manual dexterity isn't as good also.  That's why I was looking at the 1/72 ship. 

When you say she's fully rigged, are you refereing to the Jolly Roger or the Black Swan?

Funny, I saw this kit just this morning, and immediately got interested!  I'm a fan of the stylings of the old Galleon-type sail ships, and there are few enough kits of this type on the market.  Although, I'm not a huge POTC fan, if I built the kit, I doubt I would use the color scheme from the films...I prefer the wooden colors.

But, for over 100 dollars? Not sure if I can justify adding this one to the stash...maybe some day down the road, once I run out of stuff to build...I'll be keeping my eye on it, anyway...

If I can offer some advice, since you're new to shipbuilding (I'm pretty new myself)...I have to agree with Bondoman....maybe try your hand at somthing a little less ambitious....this thing has a lot of parts (BTW, inj molded sails?  In a $100 kit? Come on!)...and it looks like the rigging is advanced....appears to have some cool deadeye-shroud assembly...

I'm building the Revell Vasa right now, and it's a great kit! Challenging enough to be fun, but no so difficult that it's discouraging....

Just my opinion....

David

The Black Swan is a rework of their PotC Black Pearl (you can still get it in Russia).

The model is very large.

It looks like fun but it's really expensive. Smaller ship models are generally agreed upon as a better place to get started,

I would really recommend that you find a Lindberg "Jolly Roger", which like the Black Swan (Pearl) is a take on the current desire to say fulsome stuff about Davy Jones. It's a rebox of a kit called La Flore which in turn is base on a museum model.

The Lindberg ship is a very accurate representation of a ship that therefore never existed either, but is a very pretty little French frigate in concept.

She's full rigged and that's a chore.

Take a look at the new Revell Vasa. Everyone building it really likes it, and the 17th Century rig is easier to get put up than the 18th is with the Jolly Roger.

AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!