Marks Sea Witch

Aha :

I wish they would do a movie .The problem is I can't remember the name of the book .It was about the life and times of the crew and life of the Tug - "The ISABELLE QWELL " It did take place during the great convoy era .

Yep...I have both of those movies...and have watched them hundreds of times...especially when I building.  Them or a lot of Roger Whitaker.  *Last Farewell*.........

I'm reading *Grey Hounds of the Sea* currently...and it bring the entire *scene* to life of those days.

Rob

Hi ;

  The" Wake of the Red Witch " was it ! Funny how you remember some things isn't it ?

Was that John Wayne movie...Reap the Wild Wind, or Wake of the Red Witch ?  Excellent movies both of them.   The Sea witch has sailing records that stand to this day......now that's some thing.

Rob

Hi :

Gee , I have that kit too  .Had to build a new fore deck out of Evergreen plastic . Did you know . All of you sailing ship fans out there that was another ? Yes , in the fifties I ran across one from ,of all places AURORA . Yep ! And it too was a square stern " Yankee Clipper " It came out about the time the movie in which John Wayne starred .Can't remember the movie's name though .

It could've been a twin to the MARX ship except for the plastic decks and separate yards and masts . By the way , neither one had the embossed or raised detail copper bottoms . Now here's a mystery . Which ship again re-appeared years later as a very nice IMAII model ? Here's a clue  .It wasn't a commercial vessel but a BERMUDA YAWL . Do you know which companies did her and who was first ?

In many cases you will need to drill out the blocks regardless of manufacture...just to make the entrance of the rigging doable.  I always drill out my blocks regardless.  I did see block tree in both of my kits and I have ample blocks from my many other builds....if I need them.

Good luck

Rob

That took me minute, Rob. At first I thought you were referring to the metal decks.

Yes...I like the metal ones too....but I also have hundreds of good quality wood ones as well.  The metal ones sometimes require a bit of clean up to remove the casting sprues if left on.

I pain them all black any way.

Rob

Yes...my Sea Witch and Swordfish are both metal deckers.  You have to melt the deck houses to them via the plastic tabs extending from the deck houses through the metal deck...via access holes.

I, however, will be applying wood decking over the metal ones.

Good luck and smooth sailing.

Rob

You might consider buying some aftermarket blocks and deadeyes. I personally like the cast metal ones from Bluejacket (www.bluejacketinc.com ),. I haven't tried the wood blocks from Syren Ship Models (www.syrenshipmodelcompany.com ), but in photos they look great.

Ok received the Sea Witch today, interesting, in my 45 + years of building models I never saw a metal deck in a plastic kit Tilley was right.  Also likes that the masts and yards were one piece not in halves one thing I didn't like was that all the blocks need to be drilled oh well I guess I will be using left over blocks from other kits. All in all looks like a pretty nice kit so we will see how the parts fit is.

Right on!

Marx also produced the 1/96 scale Webb built Swordfish(American made clipper).  I picked one up on the Bay for $49 along with the Marx Sea Witch.  They will complete my clipper collection..to include the Cutty Sark, my scratch/kit bashed built Glory of the Seas and my scratch/kit bashed build of the Donald McKay...not to mention the Portuguese Ferriera(AKA CS) .

I love clippers...especially AMERICAN clippers.

Rob

Vett, it looks like your computer (or phone, or tablet, or whatever) is pulling the same stunt that mine does: "correcting" what it thinks are spelling mistakes by turning words into gibberish. Unless, of course, there really is a ship named "Duty Sark!"

You're not alone. My I-phone insists on sticking apostrophes into the words I type, making "its" into "it's" (it just tried to do it again) and "well" into "we'll." it seems to believe me if I backspace and type the word correctly again.

I hate electronic gadgets that think they're smarter than I am. The trouble is, at least 95 percent of the time they're right.

GM I got the sea witch for 59.00 not bad, I have built the duty sark a couple of times same for the constitution , thanks for your input

Really the Nunes and the Thermo still compare well to that Sea Witch even if completely non authentic.

66 cents on the $

One caveat: avoid the Thermopylae and Pedro Nunes kits. (The Thermopylae was renamed Pedro Nunes.) Those kits are just modified reissues of the Cutty Sark, with the same hull. The real Cutty Sark looked like the real Thermopylae only from a long way off.

I'll say this. If you truly are interested in the Sea Witch, have a go. But the three I saw on eBay are really expensive at $ 149.00 or so minimum bid.

I personally wouldn't buy that, but that's just me.

I f you want to build a great looking clipper ship at that scale, get a Revell Cutty Sark or the various clones of it like Thermopylae.

One of the best plastic ship kits ever, and for less than $ 100.00.

Thanks tilly I have a picture of the decks and they look like wood but I can't figure out how to post them here, I guess I will have to wait til the kit gets here

The original Marx kit, as I understand it, had prepainted wood decks stamped out of sheet metal.  I don't know whether the kit ever appeared under the Marx label with plastic decks; maybe so.

At any rate, the Lindberg version is, as I understand it, otherwise identical.  It's not up to modern standards, but it's not bad. And if you're looking for a large-scale plastic model of an American clipper ship, it's the only game in town.