Should I, shouldn't I? —Advice needed for purchase of very old Revell model

Nino, the Haven class hospital ship model is actually 1/482.484 scale not around 1/470 scale.

http://www.modelerjoe.net/shipmodellist.html#RevellHaven

Lindbergs 1/520 Neches tanker can still be gotten as USS Kennebec 1/501.4 scale from Lindberg\Round2models

BUY IT! 

(If too expensive, I bet you'll find a better price in the near future. keep watching.)

  It is around a 1/470 scale.  A whole bunch of 1/440 thru 1/520 scale model ships are still out there and could look great together.  

I love the 1/500ish scale.  Not too big to display and not too small so details are easy to add.

A few ideas for the future:

  NS Savannah  (some say 1/445, so close.)

  Revell Yorktown class CV's ( 1/487)

  Revell Pittsburg/ Helena CA  ( 1/480)

  Revell Canberra/ Boston CG (1/480)

  And then you have the 1/500 stuff by Nichimo, Monogram, Mastercraft, Frog,  and Renwal.

The old Revell 1/509 Longbeach  and Lindbergs 1/520 Neches tanker round out the similar or "almost close" in-scale stuff.

Sorry that these kits are OOP except for the Atlantis re-pop of Revell and a Renwal kit. 

Enjoy your Hospital Ship.  Personal attachments make for the best choices in models.

     Nino

Bob, ouch on the $65 not including shipping as i think you can find a better deal then that & i live east of you in Ontario. right now i have 2 those Haven class kits being built but not out of the box. the reason i say that is the decks make the hull wider then the lower half of the hull. the hull bottom is correct shape except for missing keel bulges but the hull sides are supposed to be vertical not sloped away from the decks which means all new decks. cutoff all the railings as should not see them at that scale.

http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=165137

http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=165105

http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=183327

Agreed, yes you should go for it.

However, before going for a high-priced item on eBay, you should be open-minded about substitutes.  Since 1954, that same set of moldings has been released by Revell as as USS Haven (in 1954), USS Repose (1960), SS HOPE (1961 and USS Repose (1967) - all the same set of moldings.  (The HOPE kit was a civilian charter, so it doesn't have the decals for the green stripes and red crosses.)  Also, you may find it packaged by AHM or possibly Advent in the US, or Lodella (Mexican Revell) or Brazillian Revell, the proper name of which escapes me.  In my experience, the plastic of the earlier release was more brittle, but your mileage may vary.  I hate to screw up somebody's sale, but $65 seems exhorbitant for that kit.  I'd be happy to pull one out of the stash and give it to you for a more reasonable price, but as you say, postage from the US can be a bear.

Build-wise, just besides the kit's age, the biggest considerations are that it has the molded-in railings and flat bottom that were characteristic of 1950's Revell ships.

You can see examples of a really nice build at http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/service/other/haven-480-dc/dc-index.html and another at http://www.modelships.info/debrisfield/gallery/atle-haven.html.

Even if you don't get carried away with surgery (no pun intended, but I like it) and photo-etch, you can fix the model up nicely with a paintbrush.  Just look at the various bumps and lumps on the decks and paint them the way they should appear, rather than vanilla like the instructions.

This is a great opportunity to build a model of something that has real meaning for you.  Guess I need to get hot and start building kits of the ships I served on, to take my own medicine.  Enjoy!

Best regards
Rick

There’s a little bit about the Haven/Repose on this compilation of older ship kit reviews. It is definitely going to be clunky by today’s standards; the kit is over 60 years old now! Given your personal connection, you should get it and build it anyway.

http://www.modelerjoe.net/shipmodellist.html#RevellHaven

GMorrison

Oh, considering your personal connection, you should buy it.

Short answer, I'm with Bill.

Longer answer if you're interested:

With your history, I don't see how you can not buy this kit, even it were the worst kit ever produced.

Personally, when I stumble across a kit that brings back a memory from builiding as a kid, my credit card tends to come out long before my brain engages. I've not regretted a purchase yet.

I also don't think it matters if you were to build it or not. Display it in a the box somewhere you can see it often. Or build it if you want. The 'memory' kits I've bought bring me joy everytime I look at them sitting in my small stash. Might build them someday, might not.

And thank you for serving.

Oh, considering your personal connection, you should buy it. I remember some years back our member Fred (Onyxman) backdated one into it's original C4 cargo ship.

It has a flat bottom and it's box scale, somewhere around 1/480.

Gold Medal Models makes a great PE set for a group of those kits, including things you'd need specific to the Haven/ Repose/ Hope kits.

http://www.goldmm.com/ships/gms500-5.htm

I can't comment on the price, but these things aren't easy to find. I hope the postage is reasonable.

I'd be prepared for issues with the decals, but the kit on eBay looks clean, sealed and well taken care of.

I've never built this one, but I have built the other models from that group like the T2 tanker, the Hawaiian Pilot and the Montrose APA. They are nice, detailed, old fashiony kits.

Using PE on these will involve cutting off a lot of plastic railing. I am just finishing my 1955 vintage Midway. 

Bill