Looking for info on some old ship kits (Heller etc.)

Okay, my Goto Predestinacia kit from Alanger has arrived. It is the same kit as the old Ogoniok ones. Means, 1/96 scale, and not 1/72 as the box suggests. The quality is really fine, and it has little flash and sinkings.

Going to start building it today or tomorrow. It will be waterlined and put into a scene of a port, with a few boats moving around, figures, etc.

@Lee White - Orel is also 1/96, it is also reissued by Alanger. See my posting above for shop link.

Surface_Line

I do not believe Dar Pomoza was one of the kits released.

They blew an opportunity to also kit the Romanian Mircea, another near sister built in 1938

That's eleven - weren't there a dozen?

Dar Pomorza was released as and Mircea.

There was 14 kits, i allready have 13, one left - Dar Pomorza.

Take look at Dar Pomorza kit:

http://www.modelwork.pl/viewtopic.php?t=1844

Actually , Imai had 14 sail training ships and the 1/350 Cutty Sark was added later. The missing ship was at one time the most famous of them all, the Norwegian Christian Radich. She was the star of the 1958 movie Windjammer filmed in "Cinamiracle" a one time competitor of Cinerama. It had a limited release because it needed 3 screen for projection. At the time, television had heavily cut ionto ticket sails and all sorts of attempts were made to bring peoiple back. I've heard that the movie had been restored in a single screen version and has had some special screenings. There has been talk of it coming out on DVD, but that is not certain. There is a lot of tacky 50's travelogue, including (shudder) musical numbers, but how often do you see film of a full rigged ship in action. There are some shots of some of the other training ships, I believe including Pamir shortly before she went down in a hurricane with a loss of 86 including 55 cadets. The Christian Radich is based in Oslo and is still in use as a training ship and participates in the "Tall Ship" races.I know jtilley will cringe at the term, but that is what the call them in Europe.

rcweasel

Actually , Imai had 14 sail training ships and the 1/350 Cutty Sark was added later.

I was writing only about these 14 sail training ships, that have participated in "Operation Sail" and do'nt have in mind 1:350 Cutty Sark which is 15th sailing ship at 350 scale by IMAI - but not from the same Operation Sail serie.

I have Christian Radich kit - beautifull, as and others - but Dar Pomorza is rarest and i still searching for that kit.

By the way, my todays presentation of IMAI's Christian Radich kit on Lithuanian forum:

http://kvaksiuk.com/forum-lt/viewtopic.php?f=15&p=6873#p6873

P.S.

I was on Christian Radich's board, when he participate in Tall Ships Race Y2009 and was in Klaipeda port. Not big (as Sedov, Juan Sebastian de Elcano, Esmeralda, Kruzenstern etc), but nice ship.

Thank you for posting that link. I am still looking for a Radich. It must be the second rarest. I've only seen one and was outbid for it. I am jealous that you have been able to see so many of those ships.

Hi ;

 Here's what I can tell you .I have the OPTY in my stash .It's very small size as a 1/50 kit surprised me . I believe she may be a replica of the smaller fixed keel single masted boats raced in the fifties . I have raced 12 meter boats and she doesn't come close .Oh , that is R.C. 12 meter boats !.   Tanker - Builder

EPinniger

... I'm probably going to release an incomplete "work in progress" version of the list fairly soon. If I wait until it's totally complete it could never be finished, and this way I can get feedback from other modellers on what information needs adding or revising.
As mentioned before I'm also compiling a list of warship models in larger than 1/350 scale (my other ship modelling interest). Don't know how much interest in this there would be.

Another manufacturer I'm looking for more information on is Imai, their range of 1/350 sail training ships to be precise. I don't know a huge amount about these ships so would be interested to know which of them are sister ships (hence the kits are presumably identical other than decals and flags?) and whether the kits are all accurate representations of the vessel in question.

The ones I know of are:

Amerigo Vespucci
Eagle
Esmerelda
Gorch Fock
Kaiwo Maru
Juan Sebastian de Elcano
Mircea
Nippon Maru
Sagres II
Tovarisch

I'm fairly certain there are a few more, however.

 

jtilley

The only one I can discuss on the basis of personal experience is the 1/75 La Reale.  It's not a galleon; it's a beautiful model of a seventeenth-century French galley.  In my opinion it's just about the best sailing ship kit Heller ever made.  I believe it's in the current Heller catalog.

 

Only problem with the kit is that it is huge!  I didn't realize until after I built it that I have no place to display it, and after a contest season I am now looking for a place to give it away to.  I built it with the oars deployed- a big mistake.  Long ships can still go on a long shelf, but that model, with sweeps out, is fifteen inches wide!  I have no shelves that wide :-(

Don,

      I also picked up the La Reale awhile back.  Mine is the Aurora/Heller kit 6541.   You are right; it will take up a fair amount of room. Speaking of room, Hellers Chebec,  also a great kit, but at 1/50 scale, where could I put it?  I settled on the smaller Minicraft (IMAI mould) 1/80ish Chebec. Got it cheap. It’s missing a few parts- nothing that can’t be replaced.

     When I finally feel confident to build these big kits maybe I could suspend them from the ceiling like I did with my model planes when I was 9.  Oh yea, that didn't work. My Dad would walk into them as I hung them low so I could see them.

     The Professor had a bunch of kits he felt were real good replicas so I started my Sailing Ship stash based on that. This Post and a few like it were why I made a "list".  It kept me straight on which kits were really which.  Saved me Money Too!

      Jim.

I have a small, three bedroom ranch style house. However, my wife agreed that the fully-finished basement would be my "museum".  That is where my ship displays live, including the old Chebec, several large plank-on-bulkhead ships-of-the-line, the Heller Le Soleil Royal, their HMS Victory, plus the Revell 1/96 USS Constitution and USS Kearsarge.  I also have displayed there quite a few 1/350 battleships and carriers.  There is something so appropriate about ships models in large scale.  God bless an understanding wife!

Bill

Bill,

     I've got the Big House, I've got the Big rooms. The wife is Very, Very, Understanding.  I may have crossed the line though with my Stash. It takes up a 72sq ft space (Floor to ceiling).  I did not realize how much I would need for storage/building vs how much might get used up in displays.  For me the good news is I really enjoy the building. Displays were never my intention. 

    One other thought…

     More and More I find the research is the most fun. God Bless the Internet, Free Libraries and the Almighty Good Forums and their Members. ( Long live Bondoman!)

   And another…

     I added a few more entries to my Sailing Ship Kit List. It’s up to 394 kits.  Many are Duplicates due to re-boxing by other manufactures but that is still a lot of kits.  Wish the Scales were more consistent.

     Thanks for the discussion.

       Jim.

P.S.  I was too embarrassed to say how many kits. I’ve got Lists made up so that I don’t re-buy the same kit. (Doesn’t always help though)

I also like the ability to conduct research from my den.  Recently, I was in a discussion on another site about the accuracy of Panart's model of the San Felipe.  My friend was stating that the kit could not be accurate because there was no Spanish ship of the line in 1690 called by that name.  I was able to counter that kit manufacturers often get their histories incorrect, and that there was such a ship built in 1732 by the name Real Felipe that was often called San Felipe.  I also found the drawings of the ship that showed that the Panart model is nearly identical.  The drawings are confirmed by several contemporary paintings that I found online as well.

This becomes germane to this thread in that the Heller kit of the Le Soleil Royal has been widely criticized as not being accurate based on the famous paintings by Berain.  However, I have found quite a few contemporary references online that convince me that the model is actually based on the second ship by that name.  Granted, the kit designers made several mistakes when they made their patterns after the model in the Musee de la Marine in Paris, such as leaving the quarter galleries closed instead of open, and leaving that big slot in the knee of the head, but those are imminently fixable.  I believe the Heller kit to be far more accurate than it has been given credit for.  Even the question of the kit's shallow draft seems accurate when matched by a French book entitled Les Vasseaus du Louis XIV.  The draft is correct if a given builder raises the waterline to the lowest wale as shown in Les Vasseaus. I love the model.

Bill

Don Stauffer

I am now looking for a place to give it away to.

Had a bro, who had an in-law in the display case business, so he could get acrylic cases (sorta) on the cheap.  Anything that would not fit i nthe house got a case and was donated entire to whichevet public library that had not been leaned on recently for a display (metro area allowed for many suburban library districts).

Cremé de la cremé was, after befriending a nearby univerisyt professor, who was also keen on research, he set up a display of models produced from the research as a "temporary" installation.  To my knowledge, more than a decade later, he still hasn't collected those back up, and they are still on display.

Don Stauffer

 

Only problem with the kit is that it is huge!  I didn't realize until after I built it that I have no place to display it, and after a contest season I am now looking for a place to give it away to.  I built it with the oars deployed- a big mistake.  Long ships can still go on a long shelf, but that model, with sweeps out, is fifteen inches wide!  I have no shelves that wide :-(

 

 

Nino,

I concur with your view of Dave's Le Soleil Royal.  He did a masterful job.  I also agree with you about this being perhaps the most beautiful sailing ship model out there.

I have had an ongoing discussion for the past eleven years with the manufacturers about extending their lines of true historic sailing ships with little effect.  My discussions have centered on my belief that sailing ships could become a respected hobby again if the manufacturers would only offer variety.  After all, how many kits of the Victory, Cutty Sark, and Constitution do we builders need to purchase. They will not listen.

Heller was once considering manufacturing a 1/100 HMS Sovereign of the Seas but  then went into financial difficulties.  I wish they would reconsider now.

Bill Morrison

Bill,

      I've only done a few "sail-powered" kits. I want to build more.  My stash proves it!  I will gladly buy more new kits.

     I had written to Heller several years ago. My response to new ship kits was “ we still have all the original molds… including the Admiral Hipper.”

   I’m gonna put my soap box back under my painting table now.

                  Jim.

 (Edited/condensed 10/11/17  for clarity.)