Dr. Tilley wrote this on December 3, 2013, in reference to both the Revell kit and the identical Zvezda Black Swan kit:
"What we're talking about here is a question that we've discussed several times before in this Forum. Whether you like that kit or not really depends on your approach to modeling. The kit obviously is not intended as a scale model of a real, eighteenth-century prototype; there was no real Black Swan. And the idea of a mast growing out of the middle of a capstan is, in terms of scale modeling, ridiculous.
On the other hand, the ship in the movies did have that feature. If you're trying to build a replica of the movie ship, it makes sense to include the capstan around the mast.
On the other hand again, though I've never had the kit in my hands, I've seen pictures of it (in the box, in progress, and completed), and it looks to me like an extraordinarily well-detailed and ingeniously-designed kit. The hull looks as though it's based on a genuine design for an early-eighteenth-century warship (probably English), the detailing appears to be excellent, and some of the rigging components look like some of the best the industry has produced yet. I personally can't live with injection-molded sails and shroud/ratline assemblies, or molded deadeye lanyards, but otherwise that aspect of the kit looks as good as any I've seen.
To each his/her own. Lots of science fiction enthusiasts put tons of skill and effort into models of objects that never actually existed; ship modelers surely have every right to do the same thing. (I do think every purchaser of that kit is entitled to know that that's what he's buying - not a scale model of a real ship.) My own fervent wish is that Zvezda would direct some of its obviously ingenious and knowledgeable efforts toward some genuine scale sailing ship kits. I suspect the company has made a lot of money from this one."
He's unfortunately not with us any more.