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Revell Batavia kit pictures (warning: large files)

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  • Member since
    January 2006
  • From: istanbul/Turkey
Posted by kapudan_emir_effendi on Tuesday, May 9, 2006 11:32 AM

I've bought the kit the year it appeared, in my annual trip to Paris. This is a real gem, one of the best  plastic sailing ship kits I've ever seen. I'm waiting to gain enough confidence and experience in my modeling skills to build it.

Just on the good occasion of having a thread about Batavia; I always wondered the exact classification of her. Is she an indiaman ? or a fluyt ? My recent readings of Conway's "Cogs, Caravels and Galleons" shaked my certainty about the classification of late 16th early 17th century ships. Until very recently, fluyt was a small-medium sized dutch merchant typified by her round stern but the opus magnum book says that the word "fluyt" in fact is used to describe a wide range of merchant ships whose main distinction is the sail and rigging plan rather than the hull shape. I hope the scholars of the forum may illuminate this messing of terminology for me.

Don't surrender the ship !
  • Member since
    February 2003
Posted by shannonman on Tuesday, May 9, 2006 11:27 AM

This is my Batavia, Its not finished as I discovered that rigging is not for me.[ large old shakey hands]. I think I'll stick to reading about sailing ships. But at least you can see what she looks like out of the box.

 

 

 

"Follow me who can" Captain Philip Broke. H.M.S. Shannon 1st June 1813.
  • Member since
    February 2003
  • From: Lacombe, LA.
Posted by Big Jake on Monday, May 8, 2006 9:02 PM

Great Webshots albums, This will help fellow modelers.

A+

jake

 

 

  • Member since
    May 2006
Posted by jamiemcginlay on Monday, May 8, 2006 4:15 PM

Hello,

I built the Batavia a couple of years ago and was lucky enough to visit the reconstruction in the Netherlands.  I posted my photographs on my webshots page and created a kind of virtual tour if anyones interested.  I linked a lot of the photographs with the specific part numbers on the kit to try to help out.

You can see it at:

http://community.webshots.com/album/170875768AdfsPy

Cheers.

Jim

  • Member since
    December 2005
  • From: San Diego
Posted by jgonzales on Monday, May 8, 2006 11:30 AM

Hello all,

Here is a link to some pictures on the Drydock Models forum - they are of a modern-day replica of the Batavia. Here's a descriptive quote from the Drydock website:

The present Batavia was named after a historic predecessor which was built in 1628 in Amsterdam by order of the VOC, the Dutch United East India Company. On her maiden voyage, under the command of Francisco Pelsaert, she was wrecked on a reef off the Australian westcoast. This reef is part of the islandgroup called 'Houtman Abrolhos'. The wreckplace of the Batavia lies on present Beacon Island at 28° 30' South and 113° 47' East. Of the 341 crew, forty drowned trying to reach a small island, the rest succeeded. The island held no water or food, therefore the commander decided to try and make for Batavia (now called Jakarta) on Java and get help. He left with the ship's boat together with some officers.

http://gallery.drydockmodels.com/album288

I think you will find that the model is an excellent representation of this replica.

Jose Gonzales

Jose Gonzales San Diego, CA
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, April 27, 2006 4:44 AM
 jwintjes wrote:
As a footnote to my mentioning the Revell Batavia kit in the Cutty Sark thread below, I managed to take a few pictures of what's in the box; unfortunately my technical skills are even less than what my students think of my social skills, so the pictures are quite blurry.



Last time when I saw the kit in a hobby shop it only had depicted a drawing of the ship on the cover kit box. I always wondered why there are some Revell kits which only have a drawing on the cover box whereas some other Revell kits display a shot (in color) of the assembled ship.

It would often help to have this assembled image of the ship on the cover (e.g. my quick builder kit from Revell of the USS Consitituion shows an image of the assembled kit).

Regards,
Kater Katze Felix


  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, April 27, 2006 4:39 AM
 Katzennahrung wrote:

Would you mind writing a pre-review for modelinmadness.com?



Sorry typo. It should read: www.modelingmadness.com.

Regards,
Kater Katze Felix
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, April 27, 2006 4:38 AM
 jwintjes wrote:
As a footnote to my mentioning the Revell Batavia kit in the Cutty Sark thread below, I managed to take a few pictures of what's in the box; unfortunately my technical skills are even less than what my students think of my social skills, so the pictures are quite blurry.



Would you mind writing a pre-review for modelinmadness.com? The operator of the site is very responsive and wrote me last time he is after more kit-reviews of plastic sailing ship kits.

I asked him whether he would like to have a review of my Maflower from Heller. He will also shape my mangled English if needed.

However, at this time I am still experimenting with my digital camera. Your images are likely very good in my eyes and you would simply have to add the text (if you like you can study the regulations at modelinmadness.com).

Regards,
Kater Katze Felix

  • Member since
    March 2006
Posted by jwintjes on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 3:36 PM
Prof Tilley has pointed to what is indeed an obvious ommission in my post. I must admit I'm right now too tired to support this with a photograph, but there is detail on the inside of the bulwarks. The hull halves are not exactly solid, but as the scale is 1/144 it is not that noticeable. One might nevertheless consider razing the detail inside the hull halves off and replacing it with an additional layer of plastic strips.

Regarding availability I'm afraid that the kit was only in the catalogue for a few years. It does, however, surface fairly regularly on European internet auction sites and does not command high prices; shipping it to the USA will probably more expensive than the kit proper.

Jorit

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 2:35 PM

I see it isn't in the current Revell Germany catalog.  Looks like they took it off the market when the original production run sold out - if it ever did.

A friend of mine runs a hobby shop in Newport News, Virginia, that stocks a fair number of Revell Germany kits.  Next time I'm up there I'll look for the Batavia.  Beyond that, I have no idea where to find it.

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

  • Member since
    November 2005
  • From: Madison, Mississippi
Posted by Donnie on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 2:01 PM
Where did you buy this kit from. Out of curiosity, I tried to find on my usual hobby store links and came up empty handed.

Donnie

In Progress: OcCre's Santisima Trindad Finished Builds: Linbergs "Jolly Roger" aka La Flore Mantua's Cannone Da Costa Americano linberg's "Cptn Kidd" aka Wappen Von Hamburg Model Shipways 1767 Sultana Midwest Boothbay Lobsterboat (R/C)

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 12:04 AM

It looks to me like a nice kit.  I know next to nothing about the real ship, but in general the parts show a level of finesse that Revell kits don't usually exhibit these days.  If the underwater hull is indeed too shallow, it isn't obvious to the naked eye.

I agree that the "wood grain" effect on the decks is overdone, but I've certainly seen worse.  A little gentle sanding and a good paint job could make an enormous difference.  One feature of the deck closeup that jumps out at me is the hatch.  Apparently the raised lines represent pieces of rope holding the hatch covers in place.  I've never seen anything quite like that - but my knowledge of Dutch sailing merchant ships is just about zero.

It looks like the moldmakers confined that "wood grain" treatment to the decks.  The hull planks appear to be separated by raised lines, with no "grain."  (Logically that doesn't make sense.  I wonder if the masters for the decks and the hull were made  by different people.)  The clinker construction of the upperworks is, as I understand it, fairly characteristic of northern European construction during that period - though the practical reason for it escapes me.  The underwater hull appears to be smooth, with no planking detail at all.  That's defensible.  Any of the various treatments that were applied to ships' bottoms in an effort to ward off rot and marine life might well have concealed the edges of the planks.

One feature that isn't visible in any of the pictures is the inside of the hull halves.  Many plastic sailing ships (including the otherwise beautiful little Revell Golden Hind that I'm working on at the moment) suffer from hull castings that are too thin.  (The bulwarks of the big Revell Constitution, for instance, couldn't possibly be made up of frames with both internal and external planking on them.)  The problem, ironically, gets worse as the scale gets larger.  Plastic parts can't be too thick; if they are, they suffer from shrinkage when they cool after being removed from the mold.  Maybe the Batavia is on a small enough scale to make the bulwarks believable.

Among the best kits in that respect are the two old Revell versions of the Mayflower.  They're based on the replica ship Mayflower II, which was designed back in the 1950s by William Baker - one of the best in the business.  He gave the Mayflower II unceiled bulwarks; the frames are visible on the interior, with no internal planking.  Revell did a beautiful job of reproducing the structure of the real thing.  (Would that they'd given the Golden Hind similar treatment.  I spent about five hours the other night adding plastic strip "frames" to the inside of her port hull half.  Next time I go out to the workshop the starboard half awaits me.  I find it difficult to look forward to that job.)

The two-piece lower masts don't bother me.  I've built quite a few kits whose masts were molded that way, and have never found it necessary to reinforce them.  I'd be more concerned about the fact that the topmasts, topgallant masts, and flagpoles appear to be molded integrally with each other.  I'd be happier if each segment of the mast, and each cap and other fitting, were molded individually.  But I'd have to look at the parts carefully before forming an opinion. 

I'll be on the lookout for this kit.  I don't know that I'd get around to building it in this lifetime, but it is indeed a refreshing change of pace - and certainly one of the best plastic sailing ship kits to appear in the past twenty years.  Indeed, quite possibly the best - though admittedly there hasn't been much competition.  Many thanks to jwintjes for bringing it to the Forum's attention. 

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

  • Member since
    March 2006
Revell Batavia kit pictures (warning: large files)
Posted by jwintjes on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 2:08 PM
As a footnote to my mentioning the Revell Batavia kit in the Cutty Sark thread below, I managed to take a few pictures of what's in the box; unfortunately my technical skills are even less than what my students think of my social skills, so the pictures are quite blurry.

The main sprues:



The strange object on the right side is the stand, which is in one piece. A nice little piece of kit engineering.





Note the size of the hull. This will result in quite a large model.



Some detail shots:



The stern gallery. Those funny chaps supporting it look like trolls in this pictures, but in fact the detail is quite nice and worthy of a careful paintjob.



This is a particularly interesting bit - the lower parts of the masts are hollow two-piece constructions. While this probably causes some fit problems it could make it easy to strengthen them by inserting a piece of metal rod.



Stern decorations.



One part of the upper deck. The usual wood detail which is raised and overscale.



More stern decorations.



Bow and forecastle.



A failed attempt at producing a detail shot of the figurehead.

The kit has some of the usual problems that come with plastic kits of sailing ships and have been highlighted in the past by Prof Tilley - pinrails, blocks, shrouds, vacuformed sails (which I didn't bother to take a picture of). I'm also less than enthused about the raised planking detail which to my eyes is overdone; on the other hand I personally think the decorations are extremely well done. As far as the smaller parts are concerned, some are very nice (like the cannon barrels), others are nicely engineered at the expense of detail (the gun carriages are all in one pice).

The general quality of the moulding is high and the instructions seem to be sound. Overall I'd say that the kit is worthy some effort and can result in a very nice model

Jorit

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