Interesting news from Bluejacket

I'm pretty sure the old Lifelike (ex-Pyro) "Brig of War" was copied from Model Shipways' original, solid hull Fair American kit (which was, in turn, based on an old model in the Naval Academy Museum).  Pyro was notorious for such deeds.  The two gentlemen who ran Model Shipways for many years referred to it as "Pirate Plastics."

MS still sells a newer, plank-on-frame version of the Fair American:  http://www.modelexpo-online.com/product.asp?ITEMNO=MS2015 .  The resemblance to the little Pyro/Lifelike kit is uncanny. 

I remember building the Pyro version when I was in grade school - having bought it at the corner drugstore for fifty cents.

John, thanks for this item.

It seems that there was more than one "Plastic Pirate" in the 1950's basing their plastic kits on other companies wood kits.

In some respects it makes sense, producing a new plastic version of an existing wood kit taps into an existing market and expands it by providing a crude (Aurora's Black Falcon) kit that can be built by younger modelers and mass produced.

It has been a very long time since I built the Aurora kit, but it seems to me that the cannons on the Bluejacket kit are smaller in proportion than their plastic counterparts (and probably more in keeping with a pirate ship).

I see that an original Aurora kit is being advertised for $175 on oldmodelkits.com, so $345 for the re-engineered Bluejacket kit doesn't seem that bad....

Mike

And also know where the old Life Like "Brig of War" came from.  I built, and sunk in the bathtub, a few of those in my childhood.

That brings back memories of my first Black Falcon. It had masts that were anything but vertical, lots of glue outside of the seams, and no paint. It was cool!