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Imai's old Cutty Sark now available from Aoshima

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  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Thursday, July 20, 2006 7:16 PM

Squadron Mail Order sells it for $135.96.  It might be worth checking the shipping rate for the one from Japan; that might lessen the discrepancy significantly.

The Imai kit I bought back in 1978 didn't have sails; the one shown in the Squadron web ad has vac-form ones.  Otherwise it seems to be the same kit.

If so, it's a beauty.  In many ways it's better detailed than the Revell 1/96 version.  (Countersunk planking seams, no hideous joints in the deck, better detail on the deckhouse bulkheads, etc.  In fairness, the Imai kit is almost twenty years younger than the Revell one.)

I recall two amusing errors in the Imai kit - both of them easily fixed.  The kit is obviously based on the beautiful set of plans drawn by George Campbell, which are on 3/32"=1' scale.  (That's 1/128.  Squadron says the kit is on 1/120; I thought the old Imai box said 1/125, but I could be wrong.)  I've sung the praises of those plans several times in this Forum; they're wonderful pieces of draftsmanship, and I've never seen so much information crammed into three pieces of paper.  Mr. Campbell was the naval architect in charge of the ship's restoration back in the 1950s; he knew whereof he spoke.

The drawings are covered with detailed views of individual components, and with copious notes.  Mr. Campbell used one drawing to show the two cargo winches - the ones adjacent to the fore and main hatches.  They were in most ways identical, each having two wood barrels, a set of gears, and a clutch mechanism that let the operator choose from two gear ratios.  The forward winch also had, on the ends of the larger barrel, a pair of iron gadgets called "cable lifters," which were used to move the anchor chains on their way from the hawse pipes to the "chain pipes" that led down to the cable locker.  Mr. Campbell shows the cable lifter on the left end of his drawing, with a note reading "Both ends thus on forward winch."  The right end of the drawing has no cable lifter, and is marked "Both ends thus on after winch."  It seems the Japanese designer responsible for turning the drawing into a styrene part didn't read English.  The kit contains two identical cargo winches - each with a cable lifter on the left end.  (Revell omitted the cable lifters completely.)

The other goof concerns the "booby hatch," the structure over the hatchway just aft of the mizzen mast.  Mr. Campbell apparently assumed the shape of this fitting was obvious from the side view in his inboard elevation and the top view on the deck plan.  Imai proved him wrong; the booby hatch in the kit looks ok from the side and the top, but ridiculous from any other angle.

A few minutes' work with an Xacto knife and plastic cement will shift a cable lifter from one winch to another, and a little work with styrene sheet will fix the booby hatch.  Make those two corrections, lay in some aftermarket blocks and deadeyes, and you're well on the way to a beautiful model of a beautiful ship.

One other reason to pick this kit:  it seems, unfortunately, to be the only game in town as far as fairly large plastic Cutty Sark kits are concerned.  The Revell 1/96 kit, incredibly, has disappeared from the catalogs of both Revell-Monogram in the U.S. and Revell Germany.  I think I've seen it in some hobby shops fairly recently, but it appears that, in terms of what the dealers can get from the manufacturer, the only large-scale Revell sailing ship kit currently on the market is the Constitution.  This is indeed a sad time for plastic sailing ship enthusiasts.

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

  • Member since
    December 2003
  • From: 37deg 40.13' N 95deg 29.10'W
Posted by scottrc on Thursday, July 20, 2006 1:01 PM
Is about $85.55 in US dollars.

A competetive price compared to the Revell offerings.

  • Member since
    December 2005
  • From: San Diego
Imai's old Cutty Sark now available from Aoshima
Posted by jgonzales on Thursday, July 20, 2006 12:19 PM

Hello all,

The venerable model is resurrected:)

http://www.hlj.com/cgi-perl/tanoue/freedompage.cgi?Code=AOS31568&Page=0&Style=0

Does anyone know what 9800 yen works out to in dollars?

Jose Gonzales

Jose Gonzales San Diego, CA
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