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Revell Cutty Sark from 1964

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  • Member since
    November 2005
Revell Cutty Sark from 1964
Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, June 11, 2005 4:05 PM
anyone ever heard of it? it was my dads; he bought it when he was a kid at a garage sail. the box is beat up; but to my knowledge all of the parts are still there, I think...

trying to post pics, but my FTP access isnt working for some reason.

its 1/96th scale.

just found out oven cleaner removes paint; which I may try cause parts of it have been painted a bit crudely.

Ive never built a boat before; slowly increasing my modeling skills but never undertook something like a ship...
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, June 11, 2005 4:10 PM
http://modelingmadness.com/reviews/misc/robertocs.htm

that looks to be it. pretty cool looking when finished.
  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Saturday, June 11, 2005 10:52 PM
It's one of the classic sailing ship kits. Though it isn't in the current Revell-Monogram catalog (scarcely any ship kits are), it's still available from Revell Germany.

Here's the kit's history, from the bible on the subject, Thomas Graham's Remembering Revell Model Kits. It originally appeared in 1959, with no sails. In that original issue it was molded in black, brown, and white plastic, with the bottom of the hull halves pre-painted copper. The kit included two spools of thread, two sizes of brass chain, and a tube of cement. That first issue also included gears connecting the steering wheel to the rudder. (Those parts were later omitted - perhaps because the mechanism didn't work well.) With a price of $10.00, it was the biggest, most expensive product in the Revell line - and probably the most luxurious plastic kit on the market.

The kit was reissued several times under its original name, sometimes with a set of vacuum-formed plastic "sails." Mr. Graham gives the reissue dates as 1966, 1974, and 1978. (His data stops in 1979; it's been reissued at least once since then.)

Revell also re-used most of the parts in this kit to make a supposedly different one: the Thermopylae. (Those two ships actually were quite a bit different in appearance; Revell was notorious for recycling kits that way.) The first Thermopylae incarnation appeared in 1960. To make the story more complicated, the real Thermopylae was sold to Portuguese owners late in her life and served as a school ship for the Portuguese navy, under the name Pedro Nunes. In 1967 Revell issued a kit with that name; it was, to all intents and purposes, identical to the Thermopylae kit.

As the Cutty Sark it shows its age a bit, but it's still one of the better plastic sailing ship kits on the market. As a matter of fact there's a nice article about it in the current issue of Finescale Modeler.

Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.

  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, June 12, 2005 1:19 AM
sweet; I must have the first gen; no sails that I see

http://img140.echo.cx/my.php?image=im0017784uw.jpg
http://img144.echo.cx/my.php?image=im0017714vb.jpg
http://img144.echo.cx/my.php?image=im0017754vk.jpg
  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Sunday, June 12, 2005 2:02 AM
There are several hints to determine the age of your particular specimen (beyond any dates that may be printed on the box or the instructions). The very first issue of the kit had those gears on the top of the rudder post and on the shaft of the steering wheel. I've never seen one that had those parts. They'd been deleted by the time I built the kit for the first time in about 1961 or 1962.

The original box art showed not of the real ship but a finished model (with a guy putting the finishing touches to the rigging). The original instructions included advice on buying fine-link chain (finer than the two included sizes) for some of the running rigging, and making the jackstays on the yards out of wire. Later issues left those parts out - and later boxes had paintings of the real ship.

Grand old kit. Good luck.

Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.

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