Looking for a ship... HMCS Aurora

Hi,

Unfortunately, early 20th century and WWI era ships can sometimes be hard to find in kit form, though there are some companies that do make resin models, which sadly can be fairly pricey.  I sis a search on line and it does appear that a compnay called Iron Ship Wrights does a 1/350 scale version of HMCS Aurora (from 1910) but it lists at a price of about $195.  

Regards

Pat

http://ironshipwrights.com/ships_350.html

Hi;

   Although you may NOT want to go there, Check some of the paper/card model sites.

Excellent detective work, Pat.

The fact that a kit even exists is pretty sweet, and at a reasonable scale. The model would be about 15" long, plenty big.

I think $ 195 is really reasonable for a full hull ship kit.

ISW kits are nice, too. I've built several. As with other resin ship kits, some skill is required. Kit makers often make an attempt to provide all of the parts in resin, which gets problematic with small parts and things that need to be straight, like masts.

The builder needs to use judgement and be ready to replace things with a little scratchbuilding here and there.

There most likely won't be any photo etch available beyond what if any is in the kit, but 1/350 will have plenty of generic sets of things like railings if you need it.

Good luck, nice project.

Bill

Wow thank you for finding that Pat, I doubt my searches even included resin, I've never tried working with it before! Little nervous about that and the Cad $200+ for it lol.

Is resin really that good that it can comand such a high price? I would prefer plastic for many reasons least of all cost and familiarity but I'm willing to give it a shot. I did find some old page of White Ensign's that referenced either Arethusa (the class) or Aurora as a kit but couldnt find anything futher.

Thanks Both Bill and Pat! I hope I can find something that I can use on ebay or online

Vancouverite217

Is resin really that good that it can comand such a high price?

It's not the quality that drives the price, it's the cost of the material. 

Casting resin, esepecially fine grain stuff, does not come cheap.  There's a lot more material, too, as resin is typically cast solid, and not hollow like injection-moulded plastic.

Also, most resin kits are meant to fill "niche" markets, where sales are likely to be in the dozens, not hundreds, or even thousands.  Which means each sale has to pay for a lot of overhead costs beyond the direct production costs.  (Some resin companies don't maintain inventory, and cast to sale--this varies widely over the industry.)

Resin is a bit more brittle than styrene.  So you need to treat is a bit differently.  You glue it with either CA or epoxy glue. 

Resin typically needs to sawn from it's moulding plugs, that and sanding creat some wicked dust particles.  You want a good respirator mask, a good half-face mask with replacable canisters is typically best (if presently harder to come by during our current plague).  I usually add a set of nitrile glove, but, that's from having a copious supply of those, ordinary laytex will help keet the grit off 

If you go this route, I'd recommend getting a tug or other smaller auxilary fro mthe same company to get a "feel" for the building process.

That's my 2¢

Thanks for the extra info. The logic makes a lot of sense too, pity about the supply/demand for niche kits. Due to cost I'll probably end up doing the whole thing as a resin virgin!