Favorite plastic Schooner kit??

PROFF :

       The nice part is it's cheaper in the long run than the stuff you get from a modeling source .Yes, it has a protective coating as does ALL brass and copper used for crafting  .It's to keep it bright and new and not all turning into spotted stuff from getting an age patina . A lot of folks feel if there's spots of patina it's no good . So , the coating to keep it shiny . It is removeable with a swipe from a cloth that has lacquer thinner on it . I have used this stiff for years in another form and yes I always had to cut it lengthwise because it was too  wide . Ah Well ! - MODEL ON !      Tanker-Builder

Yeah, that sure looks like the stuff ModeExpo and Bluejacket sell.  Nice stuff; I just wish it was available in narrower widths.  But one can't have everything.

Here's the stuff I used on the Victory.

http://www.anythinginstainedglass.com/metals/foil.html

I'm pretty sure that copper tape for stained glass windows is the same stuff Model Expo sells.  It works nicely - though the narrowest width is really too big for 1/96 scale.  I started out by laying a strip of it on a piece of glass, then cutting it in half with a sharp X-acto blade and a straight edge.  Then I chopped it into individual plates.  I added indentations for the nail heads after the plates were on the hull, using a blunt needle chucked in a pin vise.

The model I coppered with it, the Model Shipways Phantom, is now six or seven years old.  I left the copper unweathered, partly because I wanted to see what would happen to it.  (I think it's got some sort of coating on it - though I have no idea what that coating is.)  It seems to have darkened a little, but it still looks fine to my eye - and the adhesive shows no sign of coming loose.  Recommended.

Hey ! PROFF !

 I use the copper tape that is used by stained glass crafters .It comes in three sizes and widths and is self adhesive .One can run the line from bow to stern , burnish it down and later burnish in the plate detail .The biggest problem here might be for some , cost .You can do a lot of ships with it though .It weathers well and they have etching solution to age or patina it .     Tanker-Builder

It is indeed a reissue (unmodified, so far as I know) of the old Pyro Morris-class revenue cutter. 

It is, in many ways, a really nice kit - bearing in mind that it's now almost sixty years old.  A couple of points you may (or may not) want to watch, though. 

Most of the gunports are shown closed - in the form of raised outlines inside and outside the bulwarks.  The inside and outside versions don't match up.  If I were building the kit, I'd consider scraping off the raised lines and scribing in the outlines in the right places.

The ship's boat is a nice, believable shape.  But the thwarts (seats) inside it don't reach all the way to the sides.  You might want to consider adding some detail to the interior - or adding a "canvas" cover.

The hull has no indication of the copper sheathing below the waterline.  Painting it copper (or green, to simulate weathered copper) will look nice, but you might want to consider the self-adhesive copper tape that Model Expo sells.  My guess is that coppering the hull would take an evening or two.

Good luck.  It's a fine project.

I just got the 1988 Lindberg War of Independence Schooner. Haven't opened it yet because a friend of mine told me they were going for good money on Ebay. I guess it is the rehashed pyro Taney kit as mentioned earlier. Looks like a sharp kit though.

I saw your post a while back...you did a superb job with it!!!

That Gertrude Schooner is a pretty cool kit, and readily available....I may pick one up!

Hey-

  I had fun building the old Pyro Gertrude L. Thebaud schooner a few years ago.  It was a bit of work, but turned out pretty nice.  I have a build thread here:

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/7/t/53696.aspx?sort=ASC&pi240=1

Good Luck

Phil

You ARE Going to look HARD !

I have been trying since 1980 to find one that isn't creamed or just a piece of salvageable plastic for something else . That ,without a doubt was one of the prettiest and best designed model floating thingys REVELL ,  EVER put out . I have searched high and low .There was one at the last IPMS / ALAMO squadron show on a vendors table . I cannot afford $ 200.00 for a partially built model ! Guess I'll keep looking .      Tanker-builder

I've heard great things about the orginal Revell America kit....I can only hope to find one!

The Revell America is probably the nicest kit of the bunch.  It originally appeared in 1968 or so, with flexible sails and a removeable keel that allowed you to build the model as a pond sailer.  The kit appeared in the early 70s as the Civil War Blockader, with the pond sailer parts gone and a couple of deck guns added.  That is accurate, as the America did serve in the Union Navy during the civil war.  

The only other time I've seen the kit available was in the late 1980s,  when it appeared in one of those yellow-striped boxes.  This release was the original kit, not the blockader, but had those nasty vac formed sails.  

Only the original release had the nice sails fro the pond sailer, which IMO also made for a decent display model.   If you find a later version of the kit, I'd toss the plastic sails......

GMorrison

CapnMac82

it's probably indicative of the view the kit manufacturers had of the buying public that there are not more schooner kits available.

The fact that they once were as ubiquitous as boxcars in coastal trade may also color those presumptions.

It has always been harder to sell things that aren't bristling with guns. As for box cars, Art Athearn made a lot of money selling those things. If done right, for instance with cargo and crews or a reasonable attempt to represent the commercial interests that ran them, you would think it would find a market.

But you are right. I really miss the era when kits were paper route money and they took an afternoon to build.

We talk about the same problem in the civil aircraft forum.  There are many classic civil aircraft that are not available in kits because they don't have guns nor bombs slung under the wings.  Yet they were beautiful or historically important aircraft.

CapnMac82

it's probably indicative of the view the kit manufacturers had of the buying public that there are not more schooner kits available.

The fact that they once were as ubiquitous as boxcars in coastal trade may also color those presumptions.

But you are right. I really miss the era when kits were paper route money and they took an afternoon to build.

I've been on a search for a model, any medium, of the Fram, certainly the most famous ship in the world for some period of time. Nuttin...

CapnMac82

Simple, elegant, trim lines; backbone of coastal trade; seen on every American coasts and all of the Great Lakes.  Also, from every size from petite to enormous, and mast counts from two to seven.

Just began Great Lakes "schooner" scratchbuild (bread and butter hull).  It is the Lucia Simpson, last schooner in commercial service on the lakes.  Many of the lakes "schooners" had a wierd rig, almost a brigantine or barkentine or topsail schooner.  Single yard on foremast with a sort of diamond shaped sail called a razee sail.  They certainly were beautiful ships.  This will complete my build of Great Lakes bulk carriers, the only sail vessel. Others include four steamers from ship contemporary with Simpson to currently operating modern ship.

it's probably indicative of the view the kit manufacturers had of the buying public that there are not more schooner kits available.

The fact that they once were as ubiquitous as boxcars in coastal trade may also color those presumptions.

Engineering-wise, talk about a "win"--the masts and yards (particularly in American practice) are identical other than the boom on the mizzen.

Rigging so simple, only Heller-of-old would be able to mess it up.

Simple, elegant, trim lines; backbone of coastal trade; seen on every American coasts and all of the Great Lakes.  Also, from every size from petite to enormous, and mast counts from two to seven.

Unfortunately the pickings in plastic are pretty slim.  I certainly agree about the Revell America.  The problem is finding one.  (It was only in production for a year or two, as I remember, and it hasn't been reissued often.  If you can find one labeled "Civil War Blockader," better grab it.  I think it's just the America with a couple of guns added.)

I can only think of a few other plastic kits that could be described as schooners.  Pyro, back in the earliest days of styrene, issued two that were inspired by/pirated from wood kits:  the fishing schooner Gertrude L. Thebaud (borrowed from Marine Models) and the Revenue Cutter Roger B. Taney (from Model Shipways).  Both were nice, if unsophisticated, kits, forming solid bases for serious scale models.  Both have been reissued several times in Pyro, Lindberg, and Lifelike boxes (and probably others) under those and other names ( "American Cup Racer" and "Independence War Schooner").  Pyro also made the sail/steam Revenue Cutter Harriet Lane, which was schooner-rigged and later reissued under the name "Civil War Blockade Runner."  I occasionally see it in Lindberg boxes. 

Aurora used to make a Bluenose; I believe that's the kit currently being sold by Academy.  And Pyro used to make an Elsie, in its "dollar series."  That one surfaced recently in the gallery over at modelwarships.com. 

A long time ago, ITC offered three schooner-rigged yachts, the Atlantic, Waterwitch, and Corsair.  And, come to think of it, the old Aurora War-of-1812 privateer Corsair fits the definition.  I think the ITC Corsair was reissued by Glencoe some years back - but I'm not sure.

That's the best my tired old brain can do at the moment.  There probably are a few others that I've either forgotten or never heard of.

For what little it's worth, I think I'd recommend the Revell America first and the Pyro Thebaud second, with the big proviso that both are awfully hard to find - and probably expensive.  This situation bugs me; a schooner is an excellent way to break into sailing ship modeling.  Here's hoping that, if the manufacturers ever do get interested in sailing ships again, they'll bring us an up-to-date Gloucester fisherman and/or a revenue cutter.

The better news is that, as was mentioned above, there are some nice wood schooner kits out there - in several levels of difficulty and price.  The Model Shipways Phantom, Elsie, and Benjamin W. Latham are particularly nice.  And Bluejacket's range has a whole category devoted to schooners.

I agree about the America....I'll keep a lookout for one.  Thanks, guys!

Another vote for the Revell America.

Mark

Revell's America is a good one. They are on eBay on occasion for $ 50 - $ 60. I've never built it but it's a big good looking boatie.

Thanks, GM...I haven't yet ventured into the realm of wood, but I'll definitely take a look at the Bluenose kit you mentioned...

The immediate two that come to mind are the Bluenose and the Baltimore clipper/ Pride of Baltimore.

Aurora and later Hobby Craft made the former. Not a great kit, with a very curious dory construction, but good looking.

There are plenty of wood kits of the latter, take a look online.