I had posted earlier about a line of plank on bulkhead kits on Walmart's web site. They were very cheap, most being twenty bucks or less. I ordered a Brig, and received it a couple days ago. The model cost 18 bucks with free shipping. I thought I would post my impressions of the kit.
The kit came in a plastic bag with a terse label- no kit brand or name, and I don't know whether that number is the stock number or the order number. The waterline is, I estimate, about a foot long. It is supposed to be 1:70 scale.
The kit consists of thin plywood sheets, a few dowels, a piece of cloth, and one sheet of constructions. The plywood is only about 1/16 thick. This may be a problem with planking, as you cannot drive a pin or screw into the frames, and it will be hard to get the right bevel. Still, I do intend to build the kit. The ad said laser cut, and I hoped that the spiling of the planks would already be done. No luck on that, the planks were laser cut rectangles. The wood seems a bit stiff and brittle, so I will probably replace them with basswood. A couple of canon carraiges are included (dowel gun), but I intend it to be a civil ship and will not put in gunports. Masts and yard stock is not tapered.
The plans are the main disappointment. There are no words, only nombers and errors. The printing is terrible. The halftone pitch is very low, so both the resolution and contrast are both low, so it is hard to really make much of the overall shop showing where deck furniture goes on the deck.
Do I think got my money's worth? Yes. At that price I was not expecting Model Shipways quality. I would not recommend it to a person who has not already built a planked hull vessel. But to an old hand at planking, it should be buildable. And it is cheap!