Ebay score.

Thanks for the reply, Prof Tilley.  I built the Cutty Sark when I was 18 years old.  That was in 1964.  It still sits on a shelf at my parent's home and my Father still dusts it about once a month.  

I had always thought the main difference between Revell's Cutty Sark and Thermopylae was the color  the hull was molded in.  I'm going to have to see what Taubman plans has to offer.  For my CSS Alabama, I found plans at the Marshall Library which will no doubt help a lot.  I've also ordered an upgrade set to correct the guns.  I also have some ideas about adding deck camber to Le Superbe.

I have read several of your posts about that kit and was prepared for a lot of extra work.

Thanks again

Ray Marotta

Lyons, Co.

The old Revell Cutty Sark and the Heller Superbe are nice kits - if you can overlook the various signs of the Cutty Sark's age and live with (or fix) the Heller kit's flat decks. 

When you open the Thermopylae box, though, I'm afraid you're in for some disappointment.  The kit is one of Revell's notorious marketing scams:  a slightly-modified reissue of the Cutty Sark.  Most of the changes between kits are irrelevant to reality; they apparently were made just to make the kits different.  (The big hatch between the main and mizzen masts, for instance, wasn't present on the real ship; its function is to cover up the slots for the Cutty Sark's deckhouse.)  Two of the modifications do seem to be reasonable:  the poop deckhouse (with its rounded sides) and the figurehead, which is beautiful.  In reality, the Cutty Sark and the Thermopylae looked about like each other from, maybe, half a mile away, but there the resemblance ended.  The most conspicuous difference:  the Cutty Sark's hull has a distinctive, squared-off forefoot; the Thermopylae's forefoot was distinctly rounded.

I don't like to be the bearer of foul tidings, but I also don't like to see modelers get deceived - particularly in the case of a kit that's going to take months or years to build.

I've gone crazy on ebay.  Gotta stop this.  I just got a Heller 1/150th Le Superbe and a Revell 1/96th Thermopylae.  The Heller kit was $49.00 and the Revell was $57.00.  The stash is now large enough to last me around 50 years if I build continuously...

Great Model!

I got lucky on ebay again today (8/20).  I won Revell's 1/96th Cutty Sark...

No!  I did not know that Trumpeter made a 1/350th Saratoga in that configuration.  Oh well, I've got the Yankee Model  Works backdate set.   Though it was my first experience with resin parts,  I was surprised at how easy it was to work with...

Ray you do realise right that Trumpeter did make a 1/350 scale Saratoga in the fitout that you want to backdate to.

http://store.spruebrothers.com/product_p/trp05607-os.htm

 And BTW there is a great site out there if you want to buy Aftermarket parts for the Flower Class Corvettes

http://www.djparkins.com/acatalog/Great_Little_Ships.html

Ray Marotta

I'm going to try!  I'm currently building a Trumpeter 1/350th USS Lexington that I'm backdating to 1941 which means 4 8" Turrets and different configurations of the stack and island.  Then, there's a Revell 1/144th Fletcher and a 1/72nd Airfix Flower Class Corvette followed by a Trumpeter 1/350th USS North Carolina which is ahead of a Nichimo 1/200th Yamato.  Somewhere in there will be a Amati 1/80th scale   J- Boat.  I've also got a Testors 1/25 scale Miss Budweiser unlimited Hydroplane.  It goes on and on...

There's another layer as well. When I bid, I use snipes. I set up an automatic bid with a website, in which I load my maximum bid amount. It waits until one second before the auction ends, and bids $ 0.50 more that the last bid, if that bid is below my maximum. If I win, the site charges me $ 1.00. If I don't win, no charge.

I like it for numerous reasons.

First, by setting a maximum bid, and walking away from it, I don't let myself get into a frenzy with a bidding war.

Second, I don't have to be there.

Third,it makes no sense whatsoever to bid before the deadline as it just drives up the price.

Fourth, I win a lot.

I'm going to try!  I'm currently building a Trumpeter 1/350th USS Lexington that I'm backdating to 1941 which means 4 8" Turrets and different configurations of the stack and island.  Then, there's a Revell 1/144th Fletcher and a 1/72nd Airfix Flower Class Corvette followed by a Trumpeter 1/350th USS North Carolina which is ahead of a Nichimo 1/200th Yamato.  Somewhere in there will be a Amati 1/80th scale   J- Boat.  I've also got a Testors 1/25 scale Miss Budweiser unlimited Hydroplane.  It goes on and on...

Nice score.  I've had Alabama on my list of "wants" for quite some time now.  I'm slowly collecting everything I'm going to need to modify the kit to make it a more accurate representation.  Don't get me wrong, it's a nice kit.  But it's one of Revell's marketing gimmicks.  In this case Revell just modified their fantastic Kearsage kit to make a passable Alabama.  There is a great set of aftermarket cannons that are near perfect replicas of Alabama's guns.

As for Ebay, what you experienced was normal.  You were just bidding against someone who had set a "maximum bid".  Here's an example.  You're bidding against me.  I have set a maximum bid of $50.  You bid $10.  Ebay will automatically bid for me at around $11.  It will continue to do this until you beat my maximum bid.  It's actually a nice feature that can be a blessing or curse.  On the positive side it allows me to set my maximum bid and then go do other things.  I either win or I don't.  On the negative side you have to be careful about your maximum bid.  One time a buddy of mine wanted a vintage Revell Constitution kit.  It was unopened and was from the first year of the kit's existence.  A choice piece.  He wanted it so bad he set his maximum bid at $500, thinking nobody would go higher than maybe a hundred bucks or so.  So a few days later he gets an email saying he won the auction....for $460!   Somebody had just kept bidding it up.

Congrats on the Alabama.   Are you going to post the build on the forum?

Phil

Ray,

The current bid on ebay shows the lowest amount that the current leading bidder needs of his/her bid to win. For example, if I were to bid $100.00 on an item, but the next highest bidder bid $50.00, my bid would reflect as $51.00 instead of $100.00.  If I saw that the current highest bidder was winning at $26.00 and I bid $100.00, his bid would then automatically reflect as $101.00 if he had placed a higher bid than my $100.00.

Bill