Colors for the Seeaddler - John Tilley

When I saw the topic on the list the first thing I thought of was the Time-Life book. That's the most lengthy coverage of the subject I've happened to encounter. I should emphasize that this isn't a topic I've ever made a serious effort to research. I imagine some material is out there; I believe the Seeadler's captain, Count von Luckner, wrote his autobiography, for instance.

I do hope you're not thinking in terms of building a Seeadler model on the basis of the old Revell kit. It's one of Revell's more outrageous hoaxes. It's nothing but a slightly modified re-boxing of the company's U.S.C.G.C. Eagle, with yards added to the mizzen mast and a couple of other, less conspicuous changes. The Eagle and the Seeadler actually bore scarcely any resemblance to each other. They weren't/aren't even contemporaries; the Seeadler was a converted merchantman that presumably had been in service for some time before WWI, and the Eagle (under her original name Horst Wessel) was built in the 1930s. And I'd have to check to be sure, but it sticks in my mind that the Seeadler may have had a wood hull. (The Revell hull is studded with plating lines and rivets.)

All this is a shame, because the Seeadler was a significant ship and would make a fine model subject. But there's no way something built from that kit would meet any reasonable definition of the term "scale model."

Aww you took all the fun out of it! You mean that Revell would pull a stunt like that, outragous

As I've noted before in this forum, the manufacturers of sailing ship kits have not, in general, caught up to the standards of accuracy - or ethics - of those who do aircraft, cars, and armor. That applies to the plastic kit manufacturers as well as those European "plank-on-bulkhead" firms that I've pontificated about so often. And the gap even exists within the output of a single manufacturer. It's hard to believe, for instance, that a firm like Revell would try to change, say, a B-25 into a B-17 by slapping a couple of extra engines on it. Or a Ford into a Chevy by changing the name on the hood. Or, for that matter, a Bismarck into a Yamato. But that sort of stunt has always been commonplace in sailing ship models.

Other examples: Revell produced a purported H.M.S. Beagle that was in fact a modified Bounty; a Stag Hound that was a modified Flying Cloud; a C.S.S. Alabama that shared most of its parts with a U.S.S. Kearsarge; and, of course, several Thermopylaes (on different scales) that were not-much-modified Cutty Sarks. In all those cases the visual differences between the actual ships were ridiculously obvious - but few if any people apparently complained. The firm reached the bottom, in my opinion, with that three-foot-long thing they called a "Spanish Galleon," which came out in the mid- or late seventies. It bore scarcely any resemblance to anything that ever floated. I was working in a hobby shop at the time, and remember the news release that Revell sent out to dealers: "We've zeroed in on the market with this one: young married couples and interior decorators." Note the lack of reference to scale modelers.

Sailing ship modelers have always been the most neglected and least-catered-to segment of the hobby. Though there are some good kits and good manufacturers out there, I'm afraid I don't see any major change in the wind.

Would you consider Heller a better company or Trumpeter's new ship kits?
Jake

JTilley, in reference to the "Spanish Galleon".

"We've zeroed in on the market with this one: young married couples and interior decorators"

I've built two for just that purpose One for a restuarant and another for a hispanic style home who's homeowner wanted the ship painted in gold in order to blend into her decor. If Revell produced this kit to sell for the above stated purpose, then I would say its a great kit, builds fast and has plenty of room to be creative with.

I'd say the Heller ships would be in the same class, they too have a lot of out of scale features, and many of the same kit produced under different names, however, to build for a decorative piece, they can be made into a very striking subject.

I model plastic sailing ships with this philosophy, If I am to build out of the box, then I must be subjected to use a lot of creative license in order to build a nice model.

I wouldn't want to pronounce any model manufacturer categorically "better" than another. In evaluating a kit, all sorts of things need to be taken into consideration: its accuracy, its age (it's not reasonable to expect a 1956 kit to be comparable to a 1995 one), and - as scottrc quite reasonably points out - what you intend to do with it.

The first Revell sailing ship kits (Constitution, Santa Maria, Bounty) were state-of-the-art in the 1950s. They don't come up to today's standards - as the airplane and car kits of that era don't. In the intervening period (almost fifty years now) just about every model manufacturer has produced kits of varying quality. Some of the Heller kits (e.g., the one they call "La Sirene," and the "Reine Mathilda" we discussed in this forum a few weeks ago) are ornamental caricatures rather than scale models. The best Heller produces (H.M.S. Victory and galley La Reale, for example) are, in my opinion, among the finest plastic kits ever produced. Same goes for Revell. I'm a big fan of their 1/96 Constitution, which, in my opinion, can compete on pretty equal terms with any wood kit I've seen. (Caveat: I certainly don't claim to have seen them all.) Their little Golden Hind and Mayflower kits are really nice, as is their Charles W. Morgan. They've also produced some items that, in terms of scale modeling, can most gently be described as junk. (Granted - they may make nice decorations, and give some people a great deal of satisfaction. I'm talking strictly in the context of scale modeling. That "Spanish Galleon" isn't a scale model.)

The best Revell kits are far more accurate than the worst Heller kits - and vice versa. (I haven't seen any of the new Trumpeter ones - other than the big aircraft carriers, which look pretty good.) Similarly, I'm sure aircraft modelers would agree that the best Revell kits are more accurate than the worst Tamiya or Hasegawa kits. The unfortunate truth is that the buyer needs to beware. That maxim applies to all forms of model building; unfortunately it's especially true in the area of sailing ships.

Strongly recommend "Count Luckner The Sea Devil" by Lowell Thomas,
a great read,& possibly could be found via "Amazon"
On colors, I have a Mercator 1:1250 model of her with black hull,
ochre masts,tan decks,& boats & deck fittings in white.
Can't say if its accurate or not, but most Mercator models
did reflect a fair amount of research in their presentation
Roowalker

Thanks for the info.

Jake