221
people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #138,603 most helpful
out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★★★☆
Worth the effort
I built this ship 35 years ago. There is very little bad about the kit. It takes time and patience to build and is not for someone who wants to be finished in one day. You should have some experience with building plastic models but you do not need to be an expert.
Pros:
1. It is detailed and when completed looks very good.
2. It is large enough to be fairly easy to work on.
3. The plastic, for the most part, has few defects.
Cons:
1. It is plastic and not wood, but you can make it look like wood if made right.
2. The sails are plastic with some type of fuzz glued onto them. They make the ship look cheap, to me.
3. You need tools and some experience to make it.
For what it is worth, I recommend:
1. Paint everything, it will make the kit look like wood.
2. Take the time to trim off all the flash (extra bits of plastic created when making the parts). Use an emory board, sand paper, small files to clean it up.
3. Very lightly sand the smooth plastic parts, since this will help the glue and paint to stick better.
4. Use as much glue as you need, but not too much. The hull needs more glue.
5. Make sure you have clamps, laundry clips, rubber bands, paper clips and tape to hold the parts together while the glue dries.
6. Get good paint. The lower hull was copper plated. You can get tarnished copper color paint that makes the model really look good. Don't leave the black hull black. Paint it. It will look better.
7. For rigging, do not glue anything or cut anything until you have all the standing rigging in then tighten or loosen as needed. Usually, super glue works pretty well, put a drop on each knot.
8. Run all the lines through a little bees wax. It will keep the line from looking hairy and unreal.
9. Do not twist off the plastic pieces, cut them off. You will need a small cutter for this.
10.You will need tweezers and paper clips that you can bend to the right shape to help you with the rigging.
Have fun and take the time to get the right tools, glue and paint. The result will look better. It will be a lot of fun but the ship will take weeks to complete.
