New Zvezda releases

kapudan_emir_effendi wrote:

1/200 French frigate Acheron (A modified Revell constitution ?)

Does anyone know if that would that be the ship from Master and Commander, or is it another French ship?  If it is the one from the movie, could there be a hope for the HMS Surprise, or something that is supposed to pass for the Surprise?

If that;s the case, I am very exited now.

Emir

I went to Zvezda's web site www.zvezda.org.ru the Crusader ship is a modified Cog.I will bet the Caravelle Nina and Conquistador are the old Heller molds.Since Zvezda has redone alot of there molds like The Brigentene,The Pourqoui Pas, and The Sirius.The Heller Conquistador  they used the hull and decks from there Santa Maria  and then added and extra fore castle and stern deck plus some other deck structures.They also did The Matero from the same hull.Perhaps Zvevda will come out with that one too.

   Zvezda's new kits that they are producing are nice kits.I've build the Greek Triera and I'm in the middle of the Hansa Kogge.There fit is very nice they have good detail.What I really like is they give you a choice of full hull or waterline.Other than the old 1/350 Imai tall ship series no one as offered that for sailing ship builders. Very interesting news .Thanks for the update.

Rod

dear mr. millard,

You gave very interesting information to me. I never knew that Heller issued different variations on the Santa Maria hull. The current injection molded Santa Maria's are not pleasing me; every wooden kits of her, plans and illustrations show a nao with an imposing triangular forecastle and a windowed stern with a minimum decoration at least (mostly a picture of holy virgin). The astute and simplistic plastic kits are coming rather ugly and incorrect to me. I will gladly prefer a rather fictitious but more flamboyant "conquistadores ship". I already bought the hansa cog and I'm very content with it but I really cannot say the same for "trireme" and its variations. According to the utmost scholarly source about the warships of antiquity, "age of galley" by conway press, Zvezda's triremes are totally false by hull construction, size and oar number. A proper trireme must have 170 oars and it is neither that heavily built nor so broad and it does not have a fully covering deck. The larger cataphract (full deck) polyremes of later hellenistic and roman periods that this kit tries to represent are as big as 18th century frigates and 64 gun ships. The zvezda kit is a sorry caricature of that key warship. When I first heard that Zvezda was going to release a greek trireme, I was most excited but my feelings ended with a shocking disappointment upon seeing the kit. What I hoped was a model of the Olympias, the first accurate trireme replica of any scale since antiquity. If you want to build a rather acceptable model of a classical warship, my humble suggestion is that you buy the good old imai/academy roman warship. Place a second row of oars to the upper oarbox and you shall have a decent liburnian, the workhorse of patrolling roman fleets between 1st-5th centuries AD.

I will continue to inform the board when I can catch any news.

my very best wishes

Emir

You are correct historically the Greek Triera is way off.Perhaps that's why when ever I show it people say "look At the Viking ship"The kit did go together very nicly I only had to scratch build a few things.The problem today is that Zvezda is the only model company even trying to produce new sailing ship models in plastic.All the other companies are either just reissueing old molds or doing nothing at all.I was hoping that as the resin companies got stronger they would start producing some.But right now only Cottage Industries "Revenue Cutter" is out there. With a pretty healthy price tag.(Hey model companies my wish is for a model of The Great Harry, in plastic or resin)

Rod

It is interesting to compare their website in Russian

http://www.zvezda.org.ru/?nav=1&p=7

and in English

http://www.zvezda.org.ru/?lng=eng&nav=1&p=7

You can see the "Eastern European market" models (some "Airfix classic ships" among them).

Michel