Another Vintage Kit from Storage: Revisiting Revell's Stag Hound - A Build Log

Modeling Subjects Ships
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Another partially assembled model unpacked from long term storage - and that would be over forty years! In truth I’m amazed that I kept the model that long, and that it was undamaged considering how many moving trucks it has been on over the years. As it says in the title, the model is the Clipper Stag Hound by Revell. Based on the box art I had saved, the kit dates back to 1962.

Now right up front it is not my intent to rehash all of the issues with this kit and the fiction Revell created when they modified the base kit that was the Clipper Flying Cloud issued a few years before in 1957. A quick search of the FSM Forum will quickly identify earlier posts regarding the kit and its issues. Instead, this is simply about the build as an exercise in developing skills (ok, I did try to removed the forward deckhouse at the bow - the most offending fiction - with the intent of fabricating a forecastle deck, but my teenage self did a pretty good job with the model glue, lol). I had been thinking to toss the model as a result, but instead I placed it on a book shelf until this past week when I thought to use it for a practice run on rigging before getting to some other kits on the build schedule. And so I dusted off the assembled hull and got to work on the masts. The pictures below are of the progress I have made so far: masts and yards with a base coat of paint, bowsprit and jib boom fitted, figure head painted and glued in place, and anchors rigged to the catheads, one catted and still hanging, the other secured for getting under way . This coming week I’ll finish painting, assembling, and installing the masts. Then the real fun begins with the standing and running rigging. Below are some pictures of the build so far.

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Above: The kit just unpacked from storage

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One observation regarding what Revell did well with this kit (and the Flying Cloud for that matter, the hulls are from the same mold): as the photo above shows, the planking and copper sheathing detail is very well done considering the small scale.

All for now.

Eddie

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Eddie, I just responded to your other posting for this build and now I know the history of the Stag Hound/Flying Cloud kits. Didn’t Revell do this with a lot of their kits back in the day, HMS Bounty/HMS Beagle, Cutty Sark/Thermoplyae? You are correct about the fine copper plating/wood planking molded into this kit. I also like your box art mounted on the wall behind your work station. The box top art work from the 60’s was outstanding. Finally, I have to say that your workbench is immaculate and precise! I worked as an operating room assistant and your placement of tools and supplies reminded me of my work stand and tables for surgery.

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Thanks for the comments. You are correct so far as I know. A kind of economy in reproducing similar historic vessels from the same base kits. I happen to have the Flying Cloud kit and compared the hulls and other major components of the two kits, most parts are exactly the same. The unfortunate differences/modifications can be frustrating for the modeler looking for greater historical accuracy in the model. Not sure why Revell made the decision to modify the deck layout to the extent they did with the Stag Hound; better had they simply repackaged without modification the Flying Cloud kit with the Stag Hound name.

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