1/700 scale merchant ships

The Japanese (not Chinese) drill ship Chikyu is in stock and available from Hobby Link Japan (hlj.com).   it is a bit more than 4500 Yen,  it is a good deal, at about 38 USD with the exchange rate.

The kit is extremely well engineered and you need to follow the assembly sequence for parts to fit.  The one-piece drill gantry is a marvel of molding technology.  Think of the kit as a Gundam.  

Ed

Thanks for the info on the Chikyu. I'm on Hobby Link Japan ordering it now. Does anyone know if they are even still selleing the Colombo Express? I keep finding the PE kits for it but not the kit itself.

I see the Shell Welder occasionally in ads- I think it has been released a few times.  And the Revell Hawiian Pilot was re-released awhile ago- I managed to pick one up.

Hey There !

   You seem to have run into the same thing I have . I can't seem to find the Colombo Express anywhere . And I don't even like 1/700 ( I can't see it well .) T.B.

Tank

I have searched everywhere, I have a couple of dio ideas that I want to do. Growing up in Seattle I would love to make a port dio and convert one or two into Maersk and Evergreen. I have even searched eBay and I'm not the worlds biggest fan of the site. I have thought about emailing Revell and asking them if they have though about re-issue and maybe producing other merchies, not sure if they will listen but its worth a shot.

Ok, so I just an email to Revell about the possibility of a re-issue of the Colombo Express and the QM2. I also mentioned how some of us have commented on the lack of various merchant and military supply ships. The just emailed me back and forwarded the email onto Revell/Germany. Here's hope that they may actually do a re-issue and possibly come out with more kits along these lines.

It's an old story. Ships that work hard for 20 or 30 years and then go to the scrapyard have limited appeal. But if a ship blows up or sinks with tragic loss of life, we get 10 versions of that one.

Yup, I love to build old rust buckets, but that is not the market.

I will say, though, that if you can find the Colombo Express that was a delightful kit to build- there is a great PE set available too.  The only gripe I had was all the container decals were of one line, so I had to make inkjet decals of other containers to get variety of cargo- but that worked out fine.

Hey , Don !

The last " Welder " I got was from Russia . Boy , are those molds in need of attention . I think I have at least six Pilots .

You know :

Sometimes E-Mailing like this is productive .I will do the same because I want more of their older small liners ( i/e The Brasil/Argentina , Canberra/Oriana and the Nuke Ship Savannah as well as the Pilot and some others including the old Tanker kit .

    I have a small pattern and think I can do a scratch of the Ferry Kalakala

Have you considered looking into paper ship models?  There are quite a few merchant ship kits published in 1/200, 1/250, 1/300, and 1/400 scales.  By simply printing them out on your printer at (x) reduction, you can print them at 1/700 scale.  One option could also be to use the paper kits as templates and cut the parts on sheet plastic stock.  These options can really lead to a nice collection of 1/700 merchant ships at a fraction of the cost of plastic kits!

Bill

I just visited www.jsc.com and checked JSC 1/400 scale commercial ships and found 29 of them ranging from various passenger liners to Liberty Ships to Oilers to Container Ships, Research vessels,etc.  The latest GPM flier advertises three merchant ships in 1/100 and 1/250 scale. All can be copied and printed in any scale the builder wishes.

Bill

Sorry for the delay been working the past couple of days. OK everyone knows that I email Revell. I just wanted to post the two reply that I got from them so everyone else can see what was said. This is the first reply that I received.

Aha !

   See ! I told you fellas .That is why I do have the ones I have in plastic  I use the paper one as a pattern . I have many in .010 and .020 plastic ready to build .

GPM lists almost 100 merchant ships ranging from 1/100 down  to 1/700 scale of many types, nationalities, and eras. They even have kits of the Clermont and the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Bill

Bill, you've pulled an acronym on me. What's GPM?

I was interested in the two letters from Revell, for a couple of reasons. First, I was a bit surprised that the company responded to the query at all. Second, I found the German e-mail a beautiful example of how to write lots of friendly words without saying anything whatsoever. (They'll reissue the kit someday if they think the market justifies it. We could have figured that out for ourselves.)

Years ago, the much-missed White Ensign Models, acknowledging the shortage of merchant ship kits on the market, announced that it was considering starting a line of 1/700 resin ones. The first proposed project was the great 4-stack liner Aquitania. White Ensign said it would release the kit if 25 modelers agreed to buy it. That didn't happen. Therein, I fear, lies the root of the problem: the manufacturers have too much evidence that merchant ships just don't sell.

Well, Revell now has a nice 1/700 Titanic and Olympic. I continue to dream of the day when I can build up a collection of styrene (i.e., affordable) 1/700 liners. Lusitania, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, United States, Imperator, QE 2, QM 2, one of the great Italian ones, one of the Dutch ones, France, Normandie....What a sight such a collection would be! Well, stranger things have happened. It wasn't long ago that I was lamenting the complete absence of WWI capital ships in 1/700.

John, GPM is a leading paper model company from Poland, as is JSC. HMV is another great company out of Germany that produces outstanding ships in paper card.  The ship models themselves will stand scrutiny with any plastic ship models; indeed, they are often superior.  Just perform a search on your Browser of choice such as "GPM paper models" or "JSC paper models".  I believe that you would be suitably impressed!

Bill

Be aware though, that doing a good looking build in paper will require your best effort. Aside from not needing to do much painting, it ain't easy.

Nothing worth doing is easy.  Building a great plastic model takes work, as does building a great paper model.  However, the paper framework within the parts might be a nice start to a scratch-built ship using the paper parts as templates for sheet plastic.  It still requires a great deal of creativity and skill, but it will add a new dimension to our hobby and can serve as a source for ship kits not available in plastic. And, these kits offer the flexibility that they can be rescaled simply by scanning the printed parts sheets to whatever scale the builder likes.

If you like merchant ships, there are hundreds of them available in paper card.  There are quite a few sailing ships not manufactured in plastic, probably with greater accuracy than any sailing ship currently manufactured in plastic.  There is a huge amount of steel warships available that are not manufactured anywhere else in styrene. And, there are the usual array of after-market photo-etch sets and brass gun barrels, too.  Check these sites out!

Bill

I just recently saw a show on amazon instant video called superships. There is a few of those ships I would love to see made into kits, like the Eric Raude, the Shanghai Express, the Ocean Ranger and the Ulysses.

Merchant Cap, this is an old thread but there has been other discussions on merchant vessel kits recently. So, not a bad idea to bump this thread up.

     The previous suggestions for paper models is a good one.  I had picked up the SS Mexico, a Victory ship. It is 1/400 but, as noted in previous posts, can be scanned and reprinted into another scale and plastic parts cut out from that.  Takes awhile to do and requires some good modeling skills, which I still lack, but I will continue to try. 

  I have not seen Revell Germany re-issue the models discussed in the 2015 posts but I still think the letter-writting idea is a good one.

     Nino

Merchant Capt

Keep me posted on finding any old or modern merchant ships or liners models. Loose cannon models had some good 1/700 scale resin models. I just did their Carpathia. Came out well. However they don't seem to be in business any more. Merchant Capt

 

  Here is a new release., expected this December from Pit Road:

US Navy Cargo Vessel Liberty Ship Set (AK-99 Bootes/AK-121 Sabik)

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10656832

    Nino

That's odd.  Those two Skywave/Pitroad Liberty ships have been on the market for years.  (15?  20?)  I wonder why they would present them as something new now.
Rick

I suspect it's a "new release" because you get both in this  "new" box set.  The original Kits were a single Liberty Ship only.

    The photos of the hull and deck look good, as in no flash, although some flash is visible on the Sprue trees.

   Nino