The Black Pearl

 This one looks a lot like the Black Pearl and made of wood.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sanantonyu94/3809240383/

Actually yes, here is a very nice card model of the Black Pearl.

http://uhu02.way-nifty.com/photos/kansei/a2.html

Hope you enjoy...you do need to be a pro at models though to construct this.

 Best of luck

'Buccaneers' DOES come from the French 'Boucan,' which is a form of smoked beef (think beef jerky).  Originally, these 'Boucaniers' were French colonists (many of them Huguenots) that had been kicked out of their homes and settlements in Western Hispaniola by the Spanish.  Retreating in very small groups into the uninhabited wilderness of Eastern Hispaniola, these evicted men survived by hunting wild cattle for beef, which they cut into thin strips, smoked, and sold to passing ships as opportunity allowed (beef jerky tastes better and has a longer 'shelf-life' than salt beef!).  Others joined them, including Dutchmen, English and others, making the Boucaniers a true mix of all kinds of ne'er do wells eking out a rough, but independent life in the wilderness. 

The Spanish made periodic forays into the interior to eliminate these Boucaniers, but these were quite small expeditions that did little more than hone the marksmanship of the Boucaniers, who would ambush the Spanish at every opportunity.  The society of these Boucaniers was very strange from a contemporary point of view, in that they practiced a form of quite socialist democracy among themselves, sharing all property (even wives!) in common.  As the Boucaniers primary customers for their jerky were passing ships, they soon began to build small and very fast boats to deliver the goods and escape the Spanish Costa Garda who were always looking to intercept them.  As time went by, the Boucaniers became Buccaneers in truth, by joining together in larger groups and attacking and looting some of the passing Spanish ships in revenge for their own losses.  The depredations of these 'Bretheren of the Coast' eventually caused the Spanish to launch a large-scale expedition to crush these buccaneers once and for all.  To a large extent, the Spanish succeeded in clearing Hispaniola of these pirates, but instead of destroying them, the buccaneers simply fled to the island of Tortuga just to the Northwest of Hispaniola, re-established themselves as a quite powerful and unified force for their own defense, and began their new trade as full-blown pirates of the type now well known in film and fable...... But even the egalitarian pirates of the Caribbean had their own hierarchy, and those that could claim some connection with the old buccaneers of Hispaniola generally were rated of higher status than late-comers to the trade.

From the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (my favorite):  "curmudgeon:...n.  An ill-tempered person, full of resentment and stubborn opinions.  (Origin unknown.)  - curmudgeonly adj.  - curmudgeonry n."  A note on "word history" explains that the editors of the dictionary haven't been able to figure out where the term originated, but "although its origin is unknown, curmudgeon has been around for some time, being first recorded in a work published in 1577."

My students and colleagues will confirm that it's extemely applicable in this case.

Drake may actually have deserved the label "pirate" more than Kidd did.  It's worth noting that the latest major scholarly biography, by Harry Kelsey, is titled Sir Francis Drake:  The Queen's Pirate.  Kelsey paints a considerably less attractive picture of the man than most earlier writers have.  There is, on the other hand, a fairly general consensus that William Kidd never committed a genuine act of piracy in his life.  (There's some room for doubt about some of his behavior in the latter part of his famous voyage, but certainly no firm evidence that any of it was illegal - and there's plenty of evidence that the evidence used to convict and hang him was bogus.)

Dan Cooper - I probably would be considerably less curmudgeonly if half my students (nearly all of whom are supposedly native English speakers) wrote English half as well as you do.  I'm continually amazed, and embarrassed, at how well European schools teach English as a second language.  If I ever tried to communicate in a web forum like this in French or German (both of which I studied - briefly - in college), I undoubtedly would either make a fool of myself or accidentally get into some serious legal trouble.

jtilley wrote:

Actually those people are, in many ways, wrong.  One of my favorite books on the history of piracy (I don't have many; it's not a subject in which I've ever been particularly interested) is David Cordingly's Under the Black Flag. ...

And actually the "original" "Pirates"-flag was blood-red   Only later came the black (and even later the "Jolly Roger") flag.

Sorry just had to say this, I'm fully aware that mister Tilley has a degree in maritime history, while I'm just a simple train engineer, but with an edge on maritime stuff

jtilley wrote:

My wife has a slight crush on Johnny Depp;

How bizarre, my wife has the same crush....

One more remark though...

Who one considers a  patriot might be considered a pirate in the eyes of another...

Ok, the spelleing may be waaaaaay wrong (hey my mother language isn't english) but, chars lile "Sir" Francis Drake are considered patriots by the English, but were not more than pirates, with the exception of course that they did not attack ships of friendly nations, but besides that, there is absolutely no difference between Captain Kidd and Francis Drake... (ok, this remark maybe a bit political loaded, but it's the truth, isn't it)  This leading of course to the fact that the Navy with the most honored history in the world, is actually "founded" by a "pirate", however, this being said, not all pirates ended at the swinging end of a rope... one former pirate (too bad I don't recall the name at the moment... I'll have to dig in my books for that) ended up being Her Majesty's Gouvernour on Jamaica.... (again... sorry for the spelling, I know I wright it wrong, but somehow I don't know how to write it  right )

Oh, and when on the subject of pirates, you will find that "Caribian" pirates will somtimes be referred to as "Buccaneers", now this is an interesting word when looked at closely.

"Buccaneers" seems to come from the French word "boucain", which in turn means dried (and mostly smoked) lard (ok, I'm not exactly sure if the word "lard" exist in English, but it's to be compared with "bacon"), so the first buccaneers were definately French, and had some kind of fame on thair dried, smoked bacon (lucky for my family, I don't base my coocking on the "famous" french "cuisine" )

Oh btw, my english may be ok to blabber a bit, but... ok, I can't compete with a professor... so : what does the word "curmudgeonly" mean ??? please, please, pretty please ...

Yup, I agree with most of what has been said.  Another point that I have always found somewhat bizarre is the idea that pirates somehow disappeared after about 1725, when of course, nothing could be further from the truth!  In fact, the major construction of warships by the US Navy shortly after the 1812 war was specifically focussed on pirate hunting in the Caribbean, as the independence movements of a number of South and Central American countries spawned the usual horde of privateers that were for the most part simple pirates.  Pirates were in most cases spawned from privateers, who worked as auxilliaries for one navy or another during the interminable wars of the 17th and 18th centuries.  The piracy problem would invariably arise once peace was signed, as suddenly hundreds, if not thousands of formerly gainfully employed sailors and small warships were suddenly unemployed.  'Stick with what you know' was the motto, and many of these men turned to piracy as a way of staying dubiously employed until the next war would come along. 

If you want to make a model of something approaching either a historic type of pirate craft (and pirate hunter), you might try something like the 'Roger B. Taney,' or the 'Sandpiper.'  Think small, fast and well-armed schooners!  You might also wish to investigate the various Chebec models around to represent a Barbary Corsair (and these guys raided far and wide, not just the Mediterranean, even once all the way to Iceland!).  If you want a ship from the 'golden age' of piracy, the old Aurora 'Black Falcon' kit isn't too far off (though pretty weak on detail because of its age).  As Professor Tilley suggests, even in the 'golden age' of piracy, most pirate ships were quite small, though in a number of cases they got together into sizeable fleets to take large objectives, such as Cartegena, Porto Bello and Panama.  That said, there WERE a few individual pirate ships that were a fair bit larger, such as the aforementioned 'Queen Annes' Revenge' of Blackbeard, and of course Bartholemew Roberts flagship, 'Royal Fortune' were both sizeable French Indiamen captured out of the slave trade and modified to carry up to 50 guns (for one of these you might consider the old 'Dutch Man o' War Gouda' as a good baseline).  But in both cases, these acted primarily as flagships/motherships to a pirate squadron of smaller and more agile ships that did most of the pirating work.....

At the risk of appearing curmudgeonly (not for the first time), I agree with Dan Cooper.  The public, spurred on by novelists and Hollywood, seems to suffer from a highly romanticized conception of piracy that's taken leave of reality.  Historically, people referred to as "pirates" were a collection of unsavory criminals who shared one major thing in common:  a desire for an easy way to make money.  Piracy, like most forms of criminal activity over the centuries, had (and continues to have) money at its root.

I'm aware of one vessel that actually may have been built as what could be called a "pirate ship."  In 1717 a wealthy businessman named Stede Bonnet decided, for reasons now unclear, to take up piracy.  He apparently had a two-masted sloop, which he called the Revenge, built for the purpose.  Here's a version of the story:  http://www.thewayofthepirates.com/famous-pirates/stede-bonnet.php

But the vast majority of people who resorted to piracy did so with ships they took from the legitimate owners.  The ideal pirate vessel, so far as most practitioners were concerned, was small, fast, and maneuverable, and carried a few guns so as to overpower unarmed or lightly armed merchantmen.  The pirate ship had to be small, because (among other considerations) the people who operated it got paid out of the proceeds of their criminal activity.  "Blackbeard's" Queen Anne's Revenge, the remains of which may (or may not) have been found recently near Beaufort, NC, appears to have been one of the largest vesels used for the purpose.  The notion of a huge, clumsy, expensive warship like the Wappen von Hamburg, the Sovereign of the Seas, the St. Louis, or even La Flore serving as a pirate vessel is utterly absurd; it makes about as much sense as a group of modern pirates (they're out there, all right - in considerable numbers) operating the U.S.S. Nimitz or the QE2.  Those Lindberg kits are, in terms of historical reality, sheer nonsense - a marketing ploy (or, perhaps we could say, modern corporate piracy) with a gullible public as its target.

Professional maritime historians and museum curators tend to roll their eyes or grimace when the subject of piracy comes up.  I don't exactly blame them.  I can remember, during my brief museum career, getting mighty tired of visitors who walked right by some of the most interesting and important maritime artifacts in the world, saying "ok, but where are the pirate cutlasses?" 

People who are serious about maritime and naval history tend to blame the current "piracy" fad on Disney.  Actually those people are, in many ways, wrong.  One of my favorite books on the history of piracy (I don't have many; it's not a subject in which I've ever been particularly interested) is David Cordingly's Under the Black Flag.  Mr. Cordingly was the curator at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich who organized a blockbuster exhibition about the history of piracy there in the early1990s.  Visitors flocked to see such things as the coat Dustin Hoffman wore in the movie "Hook."  Few of them noticed that the exhibition contained scarcely any genuine historical artifacts connected with piracy - for the simple reason that such artifacts don't exist.  But it was a terrific show.  I walked out of the gift shop with an inflatable plastic parrot on my shoulder.  (I still don't know which of my kids, or their friends, eventually absconded with that parrot.)  Mr. Cordingly's book not only reviews the actual history of piracy but considers in some detail the public's fascination with it down the centuries.  The Disney people are, in a real sense, just carrying on a tradition that goes back to Daniel Defoe, James Barrie, and Robert Louis Stephenson - among others.

The word "pirate" seems to have a near-magnetic force as far as the public is concerned - and there's no point in trying to resist it.  I do hope at least some of the people who go to those movies will be inspired to pick up a genuine maritime history book.  Or at least dig into the fictional literature about the subject.  It's as enticing as it ever was.  A few months ago I spent some hours at my workbench with an unabridged audiobook version of Treasure Island.  My wife has a slight crush on Johnny Depp; I think he's an interesting and extremely talented actor.  And Captain Jack Sparrow certainly is an interesting creation.  But as far as pirates go, there's just no way he can play in the same league as Long John Silver.

Lord_Dreagen wrote:

To bad the Greeks did not invent photography, a photographic history of old wooden ships would go along way to settling a lot of questions.

I believe the Arabs did invent some sort of primitive "photography" somewhere in the 12th century.

Ok, on to ships, I keep having little problems when people talk about "pirate ships" as a specific type of ship.  Pirates used whatever ship they could lay there hands (obviously, mostly small vessels) on (or on rare occasion, was trusted to them (of course, that would have been before they turned to piracy)).

As for the legendary "Flying Dutchman", the legend itself is pretty old but if one would take the legend seriously and build a "replica" of the Dutchman, than the appropriate model would be a mid 15th century Dutch merchand.

 Agreed. There has been a lot of dispute as what these ships looked like exactly, as not many reliable sketches or descriptions exist and descriptions and sketches often contradict each other. With the discovery of the supposed remains of certain Pirate ships a general picture can be constructed as to armament, masting, and other hardware but the wood in most cases is long gone and any reconstruction of its configuration is well educated speculation at best and details are transitory. When it comes to wooden ship from 300 + years ago you are kind of screwed when it comes to true and historical detail. To bad the Greeks did not invent photography, a photographic history of old wooden ships would go along way to settling a lot of questions. Since there is no photographic evidence tough the use of words like, possibly, supposedly, allegedly, may have, and other non specific phrases and words show up a lot in discussions about these old ships. 

 That Lindberg is cleverly reselling models is with out a doubt. That they may be close on some and way off on others is an unknown. I however do not fault them as the details of the actual ships are lost to the relentless march of time and the literature that comes with the models is vague and does not claim historical accuracy. 

Thank you for you welcome and the information.

Lord D

Lord_Dreagon - Welcome to the Forum!  I think you'll find it an interesting, friendly place.  It's inhabited by some rather strange people, but most of us seem to be relatively harmless.

We've had quite a few discussions about "pirate ships."  Here's a link to a thread in which (several posts down from the top) we took up the "Captain Kidd" connection:  /forums/615846/ShowPost.aspx

The kit Lindberg is currently selling with the name "Captain Kidd" on it is in fact a reasonably accurate model of the late-seventeenth-century German warship Wappen von Hamburg.  That kit originated in the early or mid-1960s.  For its time it wasn't a bad kit; it still holds up pretty well in comparison with most plastic sailing ship kits (and, for that matter, most wood ones).  In labeling it a "pirate ship," however, Lindberg is just pulling a marketing stunt.  So far as I can tell, the only thing the company changed when it applied the new label is the nameplate on the mounting stand.

The kit Lindberg calls "Jolly Roger" is a reissue of the French eighteenth-century frigate La Flore - again, a reasonably competent 1960s-vintage kit with no actual connection to piracy.  I think the Lindberg "Flying Dutchman" was/is another incarnation of the Wappen von Hamburg kit, in a different color of plastic.  (For a while Revell was also selling its excellent Golden Hind kit as a "Flying Dutchman."  It glowed in the dark.)  Lindberg has been selling two other old kits with piratical names.  The one with the name "Blackbeard" is the old Pyro Sovereign of the Seas, and the one labeled "Sir Henry Morgan" used to be Pyro's version of the French warship St. Louis.  Again, no genuine pirate connection except what originated in the minds of Lindberg's marketing people.  The idea of a pirate operating a ship of the size - and cost - of either of those enormous vessels is, of course, preposterous. 

The movies, of course, are nothing more or less than fantasies - and great fun when perceived as such.  I do get a tiny bit (only a tiny bit) uncomfortable when viewers (including some of my students) get the notion that the movies have anything to do with actual maritime history.  (In fact they have as much to do with history as Star Wars has to do with NASA - maybe less.)  I have no quarrel with anybody who uses an existing plastic kit to represent a completely imaginary object (which all the ships in those movies are).  I do, however, have some reservations about model companies that try to recyle their products by putting new, slightly deceptive labels on them.  Somewhere in there is a line between good clean fun and false advertising.

So much for curmudgeonly caveats.  The movies are fun entertainment - and if they inspire a few people to read some genuine maritime history, so much the better.

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

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.

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!

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 

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

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:

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

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

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

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

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

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.
 

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

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 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