The Black Pearl

The brig Lady Washington (http://ladywashington.org/ ) starred in the first POTC movie as HMS Interceptor.

(She was also in a Star Trek flick - Generations? - as the brig USS Enterprise in a holo-deck scene, I seem to recall)

Rick 

Leave it to a couple of lads that hail from Seattle and Tacoma to know this kind of information. Some should have made a model kit of the Black Pearl.

Peewee

Revell makes something they call the "Caribbean Pirate Ship". It comes with glow in the dark paint. Its not based on the movie but to me they are trying to pass it off as the Black Pearl especially to some kid or unknowing adult buying it as a gift.

Heck, they almost got me! I was going to buy it until I became suspicious when I didnt see any reference to Disney anywhere on the box.

The Revell "Caribbean Pirate Ship" actually does have a Disney connection - but not the one Revell is hoping you'll take for granted.

The kit was originally released in 1960 (my source, as usual, is Dr. Thomas Graham's wonderful book, Remembering Revell Model Kits), in conjunction with the recently-opened Disneyland (the original one, in California).  The kit is in fact a reasonably accurate representation of the full-size "Pirate Ship of Captain Hook" that had been built at Disneyland.  That "vessel" was in turn based on the one in the Disney animated movie "Peter Pan," from 1953.  It has nothing to do with the "Pirates of the Caribbean" part of the park, on which the modern movies were (sort of) based.

Mitsdude is correct:  Revell is recycling this old kit, apparently without any blessing from the Disney people, in an effort to capitalize on the new movies.

That's pretty funny - my daughter took one look at the "Caribbean Pirate Ship" and said it looked nothing like the Pearl.

She opted instead for the HMS Ark Royal from Lindbergh as her summer project, no. 70862. Anyone have any idea about what scale this critter is? And no, we are not going to replace the plastic sails

southern dragon wrote:

screw the black pearl, do the flying duchman!!

 The Dutchman would be great! Now I wonder if there would be a model kit that would be modifiable for a Black Pearl treatment? A true hobbyist would build one from scratch. Arrrrr, that would not be me, mate.

Peewee

I haven't watched the movie for a while. However I recall that the "Pearl" was a real ship as opposed to a computer generated one. If that is true then there is a real ship out there that portrayed the pearl and someone should know who she is. Maybe I'll check google.

Try www.kipar.org/piratical-resources/potc-black-pearl.html

more

:Of most importance to the film were the three ships: the Black Pearl, the Dauntless and the Interceptor. For budget reasons, the ships were built on docks, with only six days spent in the open sea for the battle between the Black Pearl and the Interceptor.^[12] The Dauntless and the Black Pearl were built on barges, with computer-generated imagery finishing the structures.^[9] The Black Pearl was also built on the Spruce Goose stage, in order to control fog and lighting.^[9] The Interceptor was a replica of the Lady Washington, fully repainted before going on a 40 day voyage beginning December 2, 2002, arriving on location on January 12, 2003.^[13] A miniature was also built for the storm sequence.^[9]

^more:

[edit] Armament

The Black Pearl is heavily armed, she carries 32 6-pound cannons: 18 on the gun deck and 14 on the upper deck. Its full broadside contains 16 cannonballs and weighs 96 Ibs. (35,8 kg). Strangely, the Pearl does not have any guns neither on the bow nor on the stern which is very unusual for a pirate ship and gives her a grave tactical disadvantage during a chase; the Pearl isn't able to shoot the ship she chases or to reply her hunter's fire. Only her high speed negates this handicap partially. In Dead Man's Chest another advantage the Black Pearl has over her enemies is her ability to hide in the sea at night, if all the ship's lamps are blown out then the ship is no longer visible on the sea thanks to her black hull and sails. This is also seen in Curse of the Black Pearl where she is able to sneak into Port Royal under the cover of darkness, unhindered.

[edit] Filming

In the first movie, the Black Pearl was a steel barge with wooden structures built on top to resemble a real ship. In addition, a soundstage set was used to achieve better control over fog machines. For the second and third movies, a floating sailing ship was actually built in the shipyards at Bayou La Batre in Alabama on the hull of ship Sunset to serve as the set, though it is not an authentic tall ship.^[1]

^{Barge photo,   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/image:Dauntlessbarge.jpg}

I give you my best candidate: old Aurora 2' Bonhomme Richard kit. This model has nothing resembling to the actual Richard nor she even looks as something that should have floated in reality. Nevertheless, her shape resembles most to the Pearl among all plastic sailships ever produced. However, It's unfortunately OOP for long and only occasionally shows up on the e-bay, and for relatively high prices. Geez I don't have a digital photographing machine, I should take photos of kit's pieces to show you. Maybe I can borrow one and do the job. The Revell Batavia kit seems perfect for a flying dutchman (even better for the uncorrupted one that showed up at the very end of the third movie )

cheers

kapudan_emir_effendi wrote:

I give you my best candidate: old Aurora 2' Bonhomme Richard kit. This model has nothing resembling to the actual Richard nor she even looks as something that should have floated in reality. Nevertheless, her shape resembles most to the Pearl among all plastic sailships ever produced. However, It's unfortunately OOP for long and only occasionally shows up on the e-bay, and for relatively high prices. Geez I don't have a digital photographing machine, I should take photos of kit's pieces to show you. Maybe I can borrow one and do the job. The Revell Batavia kit seems perfect for a flying dutchman (even better for the uncorrupted one that showed up at the very end of the third movie ) cheers

Arrrrrgh....Cap'in Taylor really cleaned 'er up now, didn't 'e, mate?

 Sound as if the Bonhomme Richard might make a good candidate for a Black Pearl make over.

Peewee

I see a Heller 1:500 Bonhomme Richard listed on Ebay at the moment but the entire bow looks different from the Pearl. An East Indiaman version would be close to what I am looking for.

Peewee

If POTC had been made 20 years ago, I wouldn't be surprised if a kit manufacturer had produced a kit of the Black Pearl, and maybe other ships from the film like the Flying Dutchman, HMS Interceptor, HMS Dauntless etc. However, the combination of less casual/youth interest in modelling, and movie producers demanding much higher license fees for tie-in products like this, means that film/movie-based plastic kits are rare nowadays (Revell's "Star Wars" kits are the only recent ones I know of)

mfsob wrote:

That's pretty funny - my daughter took one look at the "Caribbean Pirate Ship" and said it looked nothing like the Pearl. She opted instead for the HMS Ark Royal from Lindbergh as her summer project, no. 70862. Anyone have any idea about what scale this critter is? And no, we are not going to replace the plastic sails

The Lindberg (ex-Pyro) Ark Royal would be about 1/250 scale, based on the dimensions of the real ship of this name, but the actual ship represented by the model looks rather smaller, more like the Airfix "Golden Hind", which would make the scale somewhere around 1/150.
I built this kit last year, after painstakingly removing the plastic sails and the weird "lantern" mouldings - it's not particularly accurate in proportion or detail but still is quite a nice representation of a 15th century galleon (from a distance, anyway), I built it to practice painting techniques for the Airfix "Golden Hind" and "Revenge" kits. 




With the right paint job, it could well be "kitbashed" into something like the Pearl. A better candidate might be one of the Heller galleon kits, but these might be hard to track down in the US. Alternatively, Revell's "Spanish Galleon" (not an accurate scale model, but perfect for conversion to a fantasy pirate ship! - see Michael D's very impressive build of this kit here), though at over 2" long this might be a bit daunting for a beginner project.
 

EPinniger wrote:

If POTC had been made 20 years ago, I wouldn't be surprised if a kit manufacturer had produced a kit of the Black Pearl, and maybe other ships from the film like the Flying Dutchman, HMS Interceptor, HMS Dauntless etc. However, the combination of less casual/youth interest in modelling, and movie producers demanding much higher license fees for tie-in products like this, means that film/movie-based plastic kits are rare nowadays (Revell's "Star Wars" kits are the only recent ones I know of)    mfsob wrote: That's pretty funny - my daughter took one look at the "Caribbean Pirate Ship" and said it looked nothing like the Pearl. She opted instead for the HMS Ark Royal from Lindbergh as her summer project, no. 70862. Anyone have any idea about what scale this critter is? And no, we are not going to replace the plastic sails   The Lindberg (ex-Pyro) Ark Royal would be about 1/250 scale, based on the dimensions of the real ship of this name, but the actual ship represented by the model looks rather smaller, more like the Airfix "Golden Hind", which would make the scale somewhere around 1/150. I built this kit last year, after painstakingly removing the plastic sails and the weird "lantern" mouldings - it's not particularly accurate in proportion or detail but still is quite a nice representation of a 15th century galleon (from a distance, anyway), I built it to practice painting techniques for the Airfix "Golden Hind" and "Revenge" kits.  With the right paint job, it could well be "kitbashed" into something like the Pearl. A better candidate might be one of the Heller galleon kits, but these might be hard to track down in the US. Alternatively, Revell's "Spanish Galleon" (not an accurate scale model, but perfect for conversion to a fantasy pirate ship! - see Michael D's very impressive build of this kit here), though at over 2" long this might be a bit daunting for a beginner project.

This looks like a candidate. The bow area looks for in form with that of the Black Pearl.

Peewee

PeeweeBiggs wrote:

I see a Heller 1:500 Bonhomme Richard listed on Ebay at the moment but the entire bow looks different from the Pearl. An East Indiaman version would be close to what I am looking for.   Peewee

The Aurora model was supposed to represent an east indiaman as Richard was an ex-indiaman by name of Duc de Duras, built in 1769

kapudan_emir_effendi wrote:

PeeweeBiggs wrote: I see a Heller 1:500 Bonhomme Richard listed on Ebay at the moment but the entire bow looks different from the Pearl. An East Indiaman version would be close to what I am looking for.   Peewee The Aurora model was supposed to represent an east indiaman as Richard was an ex-indiaman by name of Duc de Duras, built in 1769

Ok. I need to be looking for the Aurora Bohomme Dick then. Thanks for the clarification.

Peewee

I just saw the latest POTC and am thinking of building a Black Pearl. I've got an old Lindberg Wappon Von Hamberg. She looks like the closest kit to me. I simply can't afford the Aurora Bon   Home Richard from the prices I've seen on ebay. She would be better though. modelbob@hotmail.com

modelbob wrote:

I just saw the latest POTC and am thinking of building a Black Pearl. I've got an old Lindberg Wappon Von Hamberg. She looks like the closest kit to me. I simply can't afford the Aurora Bon   Home Richard from the prices I've seen on ebay. She would be better though. modelbob@hotmail.com

I would pay the price for the Aurora B H R if I could find it. I have viewed POTC part 2 5 times. Twice in one week!  I have a pretty good idea of how the PB looks. I noted the patches on the sales and thought how I could replicate those patched sails. If you find another Wappon Von Hamberg let me know, if you can.

Peewee

Peewee,

The Lindberg Wappon Von Hamberg has been reboxed as the "Captain Kidd" pirate ship. One is on ebay right now for $9.99. Go for it! modelbob@hotmail.com

modelbob wrote:

Peewee, The Lindberg Wappon Von Hamberg has been reboxed as the "Captain Kidd" pirate ship. One is on ebay right now for $9.99. Go for it! modelbob@hotmail.com

Holy Wappon, mate! There be two of 'em thar. I bought 'em both just in case I screw one up or if another mate is a lookin' fer one. Then I be havin' it for 'im.

Thanks, mate. Arrrrrrrgh!

Peewee

Sorry to revive this thread (new here, just joined, I'm a long time plastic model kit fan/builder of all types in my late 40s).

I've been looking into which kits are the best to convert to POTC plastic model ships.

I currently have (unbuild) kits of most of the old plastic lindberg and heller model ships and when comparing them, in my opinion, the one that is most closest physically to the Black Pearl is the Heller "La Sirene" ship model. Especially the front and rear of the ships, the "sirene" figure is much like the woman in front of the Black Pearl.

The Lindberg "Captain Kidd" (Wappon Van Hamburg) kit is very close to it as well.

 The Lindberg "Blackbeard" kit is very obviously the most like the Flying Dutchman as well.

I think that the POTC film people who drew up plans / drawings for these ships used these plastic model ships as inspiration. The "Blackbeard" (Soverign of the Seas) is so much like the Flying Dutchman as far as the hull goes and the front and rear portion of the ship matches (the sails not so much).

If you were to kitbash, those are the ones, as has been discussed in this thread, to work with. 

I am going to do a crazy blasphemous (ha, ha) experiment and (since these are purely fantasy ship from POTC) I am going to take all the parts needed from the megablocks toy kits of the Black Pearl and Flying Dutchman and after puttying and glueing the seams, etc, changing the fake looking masts and decks with those from the Lindberg ships.

These Megablocks toys are very close to the movie versions, and the amount of detail is great for the odd parts. Why reinvent the wheel? Especially since these are fantasy ships that don't exist outside the movies. The front and back parts of the ships especially are already there for the taking in plastic and very close to scale to the Lindberg ships (which are inaccurate anyways).

 If you want to do that, Amazon.com has a crazy sale where you can get the huge megablocks set that combines the Black Pearl and Flying Dutchman together in one box for a fraction of the price of getting them seperate! It was like 1/4 of the price! I think they made a mistake in the price, but I ordered it and was really pleased at how great the parts looked in comparison to the movie versions of the ships.

Any opinions? thanks 

While there is no kit that really is close to the Pearl, I know of one outfit that makes and excellent repro in wood that is periodically for sale on Ebay, and at a pretty cheap price too!  Last time this one came up, it went for $179, and you can see it at

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=300164889388&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:VRI

If you want to 'kit-bash,' you might do well to have a look at either the 'Wappen Von Hamburg,' which also released as a pirate ship by Lindberg called 'Captain Kidd' (there's one on ebay now for about $20).  There is also an excellent French frigate called 'La Flore' on Ebay at the moment as well.  Finally, if you want to kit-bash something to get something similar to the Flying Dutchman, you might want to look at the Royal Sovereign, which is also marketed as a pirate ship by Lindberg called 'Black Beard Pirate Ship.  It has the right lines and bow, but will require a lot of tweaking to get it right (but a lot less than the Ark Royal).

As for the Interceptor, the movie used the Lady Washington, and the Dauntless appears to be pretty much based on HMS Victory.  As an aside, I happened to be sailing in the Grenadines when the first POTC movie was being made, and imagine my surprise and delight upon rounding the point of Wallilabou Bay, to find the actual Black Pearl wreathed in clouds of smoke and cannon fire while they were filming the attack on the town sequence!  As the bay was given over entirely for shooting the film, I anchored the next bay around (Cumberland Bay), and got to watch the Interceptor sailing back and forth as they filmed the chase scene (no Pearl, just the Interceptor).  Very cool!

Seems that Amazon realized they made a mistake, the double set is now $95.99, I only paid $28 for the big set that had both the Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman.

Here's a link to a photo of their Flying Dutchman ship toy: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FGSMKdtLL._SS500_.jpg

It's better than most plastic model kits, all you have to do is putty and seal it well, repaint it, change the masts to real plastic model ship masts, and change the decks as well, etc.

Here's a link to where you can see the details to their Black Pearl ship:

http://www.millionaireplayboy.com/toys/mega_blackpearl.php

You can click on the images and enlargen them there.

To me, they are worth getting and saving weeks of aggravation, at the very least they can be used as a base to make a very authentic looking kitbash.

Pictures when possible please.

I am now buried in models. My son, little Peewee Junior, and I took a trip to Bangkok just prior to Christmas. I left the store unattended for 10 days. When I returned I had cases of models stacked up and I  have not yet been able to unpack them and get them listed for sale. It was a dumb move on my part to take a vacation right at the end of the Christmas shopping frenzy, I do believe.

Peewee