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Stopped by the LHS today-- and on the "New Releases" shelf was the Revell USS America and the RoG 1/150 Gorch Fock. The America, I knew about-- but the Gorch Fock???
http://www.revell.com/germany/ships/80-5417.html#.WLcAHW8rJpg
The box says the kit is 58 cm long-- that's about 24 inches. I've never heard of a model of the Fock (or any of her sisters) in this scale-- the largest one I'm aware of is the old IMAI 1/200 scale USCGC Eagle.
Given Revell's inability to compute the proper scale for sailing ships, I'm wondering if this is really 1/150 scale, or is it a re-box of the IMAI kit, with the wrong scale on the box.
UPDATE: After Googling it, I learned that there was a pretty good Heller kit of the GF from many years ago-- I wonder if this is a re-release of that kit?
Note: Based on the box art, this Revell kit appears to be a model of the 1958 ship, not the original 1937 one.
Webmaster, Marine Modelers Club of New England
www.marinemodelers.org
Unless it's the Imai kit, which originally was Eagle, it is almost certainly the Heller GF II.
Modeling is an excuse to buy books.
I'm 99% sure it's the old Heller kit - which has appeared under the Revell label at least once before.
It does indeed represent the 1958 Gorch Fock - and does a nice job of it. I believe it dates from the late seventies, when the folks at Heller were starting to understand what their ship subjects actually looked like.
Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.
Some build shots online confirm Tilleys assessment.
One unfortunate, but not insurmountable problem is a departure from the Heller model. The shrouds and ratlines. Heller included that silly loom, and a bunch of what appears to be semi- decent thread. This Revell boxing goes completely to the darkside with the horrible one piece cast plastic garbages that cannot be seriously used. And deadeyes/ lanyards as a part of them. The modeler can pitch it all in the trash and make their own. The real thing is rather simple, compared to a warship with a lot of work to send people aloft for, nor a huge number of shrouds.
Pretty lousy looking pipe railings, from the original model. It would be nice to replace those. A soldering job.
Great looking hull though, and yes John this time there ARE trusses or chain slings to support the yards.
Revell's shroud and ratline stunt is even sillier than usual in this particular kit. The real Gorch Fock doesn't have deadeyes. Her standing rigging is set up with bottle screwS (i.e., oversized turnbuckles).
GMorrison Pretty lousy looking pipe railings, from the original model. It would be nice to replace those. A soldering job.
There are generic PE railings in 1:144 available, and that is fairly close in scale.
Don Stauffer in Minnesota
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