Was there ever a 1/96 scale Sovereign of the Seas Model?

To the best of my knowlege, the only clippers in plastic, were the Thermopylae,
the Cutty Sark, and the Sea Witch. Of those, I believe the Marx Sea Witch, and the Thermopylae were 1/96 scale. the Cutty Sark was available from Revell in 1/350, and 1/220. I haven't seen a Thermopylae in quite a while, and the Marx Sea Witch hasn't been around in decades.
Pete

Greg,
I'm not sure of the exact scale but check out the Airfix kit. It could be what you are looking for.
Dai

There were two famous sailing ships named Sovereign of the Seas. The later one was a clipper ship designed by Donald McKay; to my knowledge she's never been the subject of a plastic kit (though I think I recall a wood one from A.J. Fisher).

That ship also has the distinction of being the subject of one of the first more-or-less serious books about scale ship modeling. Capt. E. Armitage McCann published a book on how to build a model of her in the 1920s. In the back of the early editions was an ad for a "kit," consisting of some pine boards, some wood dowels, a few lead castings, and some spools of thread, that would give purchasers a small head start on following the instructions in the book. The publisher touted it as "everything but the paint on your work table." Maybe that was the first ship model kit.

The first Sovereign of the Seas was an enormous, elaborately-decorated English warship built in the reign of Charles I. That's the one represented by the Airfix kit. (The kit has the name Royal Sovereign on it; the ship was renamed late in her career.) I don't know the exact scale of it, but it's considerably smaller than 1/96. As a certifed member of the Olde Phogey Modelers' Society, I can remember buying one when it first appeared in the U.S. (in the mid-sixties, if I remember right). It was noticeably bigger than the "regular" sailing ships (Constitution, Bounty, Santa Maria, Eagle, etc.) in the Revell line. (They cost $3.00 each; the Airfix Royal Sovereign, if memory serves, cost $4.00.)

For a junior-high-school student that Airfix kit was a pretty awesome project, but it doesn't really come up to modern standards. The "carved" ornamentation (which is what makes this ship so distinctive) is pretty soft, there's not a lot of detail on the decks, and the spars are highly simplified. Airfix did much better a few years later on its H.M.S. Prince, and still better on its Wasa - which is still one of my favorite plastic sailing ship kits.

I'm aware of two other plastic renditions of the Sovereign of the Seas (the English one), one from Pyro and one from Aurora. I've never bought either of them, but I have the impression that neither is worth getting excited about. Both are smaller than the Airfix version.

To my knowledge there's one wood kit that represents this vessel: the one from Sergal, also sold by Mantua. One of my deep-rooted prejudices is about to show again. I've never bought this...thing...but I've seen several semi-completed versions of it, read reviews of it, and talked with several people who've built it (or tried to do so). It's one of the most abominable products ever foisted on the model-building public - a hideously over-priced conglomeration of bad research, awful plans, ill-fitting parts, second-rate materials, and junky cast metal fittings. It's been sold at various times for prices ranging from $500 to over $1000, and probably has been responsible for driving more people out of the hobby than any other kit. A handful of determined souls have, admittedly, managed to finish it - and a still smaller handful, by replacing or modifying almost everything that came in the box, have turned it into respectable scale models. But I recommend avoiding it at all costs.

Unfortunately the range of large plastic sailing ship kits is quite small. Revell has done three that are reasonable scale models: the Constitution, the Cutty Sark, and the Kearsarge. The other big Revell kits are either slightly modified reissues or completely bogus. (The Thermopylae and Pedro Nunes are variants on the Cutty Sark, the Alabama is a variant on the Kearsarge, the United States is a slightly-modified Constitution, and the "Spanish Galleon" and "English Man-o'-War" are non-scale caricatures designed for interior decorators.) Heller's H.M.S. Victory is a beauty (though it does have some problems, which we've discussed in other threads of the Forum). The old ITC Sea Witch has knocked around under various labels, most recently Lindberg. It looks reasonably like the real ship, but comes nowhere near modern standards. (I think the Marx one mentioned earlier in this thread was a different kit, but I'm not sure; I've never seen it.) The Heller Soleil Royal looks at first glance like a masterpiece, but it has some major problems in terms of accuracy. Three other, slightly smaller kits from Heller are definitely worth investigating: the German 5-masted steel ship Preussen (a big model of a huge ship - on 1/150 scale, I believe), the French Mediterranean chebec, and the galley Reale. The latter, especially, is pretty spectacular.

In the late seventies and early eighties the Japanese company Imai released some beautiful sailing ship kits. I don't think any of them were as big as the Revell Constitution, but they were all high-quality products. Some of them have resurfaced recently under the Aoshima label.

Maybe some other Forum members can add a few to this list, but those are the only big plastic sailing ship kits I can remember at the moment. Sadly, most of them are not currently available. The Revell Cutty Sark, for instance, is not in the current catalog of either U.S. Revell/Monogram or Revell-Germany. The current Revell/Monogram catalog, in fact, includes a grand total of seven ships. Two of them are sailing vessels: the 1/192 Constitution (originally released in 1956) and the 1/96 Constitution (1965). To my knowledge, no American manufacturer has released a genuinely new sailing ship kit in almost thirty years - more than half the period in which plastic kits have existed.

About 25 years ago I concluded a review of the Heller H.M.S. Victory by asking, rhetorically, "Ok, Heller, how about a Sovereign of the Seas?" I'm still waiting.

I find the larger scale much simpler in terms of working, and also much easier to create the amount of detail that I like to see in my models.

As mentioned in an earlier post, I also have a smaller scale Flying Cloud, but creating a lot of detail in that model is more difficult for me.

I also believe that some people will miss a lot of the detail that is put in due to the size of the subject, but that is speculation on my part.

There are some fantastic wood ship kits in larger sizes, and I suppose I will dive into that area of modeling once I am finished with a few current projects.

As always,
Thank you all for your input and advice

Greg

QUOTE: (I think the Marx one mentioned earlier in this thread was a different kit, but I'm not sure; I've never seen it.)

jtilley,
I built the marx kit in the late fifties. it was a one-piece plastic hull, with printed steel decks, and plastic masts and spars, with separate vacuum formed sails. It was actually not a bad kit. I still have the hull, and many of the parts, one of these days, I'll lay in some deck beams, and plank a new deck, then mast and rig. As I recall I have plans for it.
Pete

Sumpter250 - now that you've jogged my memory, I think that kit (or a similar one) with the one-piece hull and metal deck came up on this Forum a couple of months ago. Seems to me that one may have represented the Swordfish, but I could well be mistaken. It sure would be interesting to get hold of a complete Marx product list from those days. My first HO train set was made by Marx.

We tend nowadays to thumb our noses at those old kits that were produced by toy companies during the dark ages of the hobby. The truth is that companies like ITC, Marx, and Strombecker often showed a sense of adventure and originality that would leave many of their modern counterparts in the dust. (I must confess, however, that the logic behind making a deck out of painted steel utterly escapes me.) On the other hand, maybe their choice of obscure subjects, and their unusual approaches to them, explains why they aren't making models any more.

At any rate, if I were you I'd take good care of that Marx kit - and don't let any kit collectors near it. They'll probably tempt you with many sheckels to turn it over to them unfinished.

QUOTE: Originally posted by jtilley There were two famous sailing ships named Sovereign of the Seas. The later one was a clipper ship designed by Donald McKay; to my knowledge she's never been the subject of a plastic kit (though I think I recall a wood one from A.J. Fisher).

I have an old wood model of the USCG Eagle by Scientific. On the side of the box are pictures of other kits. The clipper ship Sovereign of the Seas is one shown.

My memory has just been jogged again. Scientific made quite a few wood ship model kits back in the fifties through the seventies. As I recall, they varied enormously in quality. Some had balsa hulls (ugh!) and decks printed on balsa sheets. On the other hand, I recall (I think) looking at a Scientific version of the Golden Hind that wasn't too bad. It had a nicely carved basswood hull, decent white metal fittings, and plans by George Campbell - one of the best. I guess Scientific, like most other model companies, evolved over the years; its more recent kits probably were better than its earliest ones.

Another small line of wood kits I'm remembering now was made by a company called Sterling, which is better known for its balsa airplanes. Sterling made a few handsomely-packaged solid-hull sailing ships sometime in, I believe, the early or mid-seventies. (I may be way off on the dates.) I remember a Sterling Constitution and one American clipper ship - which may have been the Sovereign of the Seas. My memory of those kits is exremely hazy. I recall them as having nice boxes (with color paintings on the covers), high prices, and contents that just were not in the same league as companies like Model Shipways and Bluejacket. I don't think the Sterling kits were on the market long.

Another tiny tidbit just surfaced in the primordial ooze at the depths of my senile brain. I remember having a conversation with Sam Milone, one of the two fine gents who founded Model Shipways. He mentioned that MS was, at least for a while, making the white metal (read: lead alloy) fittings for Scientific and Sterling kits. Sam didn't regard those companies as serious competition for Model Shipways. Neither do I.

In its early fall flyer, Model Expo is offering a book called " How to Make a Clipper Ship Model". The subject is the Sovereign of the Seas. Its only $7.16. Maybe a scratch build is in order.

That book is a reprint of the old classic by E. Armitage McCann in about 1927.

For practical modeling purposes it's just about worthless nowadays. Captain McCann makes reference to lots of materials and techniques that either aren't commonly available any more (e.g., genuine hide glue) or have been superseded by something better (e.g., razor blades instead of an Xacto knife, and anchors cut out of sheet lead). And the folded plans that come with it are nothing to get excited about. On the other hand, the detail drawings in the text are nicely done and such things as the descriptions of the rigging are still valuable.

I'm not quite sure just what sort of career McCann had in the merchant marine, but I believe he had some experience in latter-day sailing vessels. This book is, in other words, a direct link with somebody who had first-hand knowledge of the subject. He's often referred to as "the father of modern ship modeling." The book is a fascinating snapshot of how model building used to be done. I recommend it highly on that basis (particularly at such an excellent price) - but anybody wanting to build a clipper ship from scratch with modern materials, tools, and techniques will need to look elsewhere.