The only grounds I have for evaluating the Corel Bellona are the photos on the Model Expo website, and it obviously wouldn't be fair or reasonable for me to attempt a serious evaluation of the kit on that basis. The illustrations of finished models built from wood kits, by nature, reflect the skills and knowledge of the people who built them. As we all know, a good modeler can make a nice model from a mediocre kit - and a lousy modeler can make a lousy model out of a good kit. That's even more true of wood kits than of plastic ones.
That said, the model in the photos certainly does look better than some of the others (the Corel H.M.S. Unicorn, for instance, which is a sorry joke). As I said in my last post, Corel kits in general don't have a good reputation - even among the HECEPOB brigade. (HECEPOB, for the benefit of the uniniated, is a term I am proud to have coined myself; it's an acronym for Hideously Expensive Continental European Plank-On-Bulkhead. A forum search on the word HECEPOB will produce all sorts of disgustingly lengthy rants about the subject, from others as well as myself.) One correspondent on another website, who generally was rather defensive of HECEPOB kits, aknowledged that "Corel tends to be lazy with its research." On the basis of what I've seen, that's an understatement. (These are the people who claim Frederick af Chapman designed a British frigate twenty years before he was born. It's also worth noting that the Wasa Museum, in Stockholm, has given its endorsement to two Wasa kits: the ones from Billing and Airfix. The Corel Wasa is conspicuous by its absence.) Corel kits, like those from the other HECEPOB companies, generally are characterized by lousy plans, hopelessly uninformative instructions, mediocre materials, irrational construction methods, and shoddy fittings that get recycled from kit to kit, regardless of accuracy.
Those companies are fond of boasting about their "double planking" system. It is, in fact, a means of compensating for bad design; it has nothing to do with how real ships are built. The walnut that they use for the outer layer of planking is not a species many serious ship modelers would pick for that purpose. Walnut is extremely stiff and brittle, and its grain is pretty coarse. (I should note, in fairness, that some European varieties of walnut seem to be of considerably finer grain that what one finds in American woodworking shops and lumber yards. I've seen some European walnut deadeyes, for example, that are quite nice.)
I can see a few things I don't like in those photos. The windows in the quartergalleries don't look right; they may be made of photo-etched metal, and haven't assumed the subtle curvature they should. (It's interesting that the photo doesn't show the transom, which would be the real test of whatever means the company used to replicate the "carved" ornamentation.) I'm not sure why the skylight on the poop is bright blue; it seems to be made of a solid material of some sort and painted. And the stern lanterns appear to have pink-tinted glass in them. (That sort of thing appears to be common in the world of the HECEPOBs. Why on earth would anybody put pink glass in a lantern on board a ship?) It's hard to tell on a monitor as small as mine, but it looks like the decks aren't cambered. And the flags don't look right.
On the other hand, this particular model looks a lot better than some. The person who rigged it apparently understood rigging. (To begin with, he got the yards in the right places. Lots of the people who build the models for those ads don't understand that a yard gets lowered when the sail is furled.) The figurehead looks reasonable - not up to Heller, Revell, or Airfix standards, but not bad. I wish I could see the guns more clearly; that's a department where the HECEPOB firms frequently screw up. The photo of the quarterdeck shows a carronade with what appears to be a slightly questionable carriage, but I can't make out any of the long guns with any clarity. In the typical HECEPB kit the gun barrels are generic parts used in many kits on many scales, and the ones on the lower decks are "dummies."
The basis for a serious scale model may well be here. All the aforementioned problems obviously could, given enough time, knowledge, and effort, be fixed. On the basis of those photos and the accompanying description I have no inclination to buy it - especially for $440.
ModelExpo apparently has quit stocking Euromodels and Artesania Latina kits. Quite a few years ago I was sent a couple of AL kits to review; on the basis of those two I would never buy one. (To be fair, that was a long time ago and I've seen some hints that the company's products have gotten somewhat better lately. On the other hand, I've also read, on other websites, quite a few complaints of unusable, damaged, or missing parts in AL kits, and the firm's reputation for customer service seems to be pretty bad. I think that's why ModelExpo dropped the line.)
I did find a photo of the Euromodel Royal William on line: https://sslrelay.com/www.euromodels.co.uk/sess/utn;jsessionid=15486e6ff085e35/shopdata/index.shopscript
Again, the picture makes it look pretty good. A friend of mine bought a Euromodel kit a few years ago (at least I think it was a Euromodel); it was pretty awful. He eventually threw out all the "carved" decorations and most of the other fittings.
Again, that isn't a fair way to evaluate another kit by the same manufacturer. But there's no way I'd buy such a thing without taking a really thorough look inside the box first.
Another HECEPOB company, Amati, apparently has seen The Light and discovered what a scale ship model is. (The evidence suggests that many of the people running HECEPOB companies don't know.) Amati has started a range called "Victory Models" that concentrates on English/British sailing warships. They're designed by a gentleman named Chris Watton who used to work for Calder/Jotika, the excellent British firm. The latest Victory Models kit is a Brtish 74, with parts included to build either the Vanguard, the Bellerophon, or the Elephant: http://onlinehobbysite.com/shop/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=152
The price is pretty staggering - close to $1,000 U.S., including shipping - but if I were in the market for such a kit that's the one I'd aspire to buy.