I see in the latest Squadron Flyer some ship offerings from a company called Ark Models. One of their offerings is the Shell Welder, which I suspect is a repop. Anyone know about the other kits? Anyone know how their quality is?
the lightship is also a an old eastern express kit. i picked one up at an auction. they tried to do rubber railings which don’t work but at that scale scratchbuilding new ones isn’t a problem. will also hae to rebuild the railings on the light platform and add some steel stays to the masts. my house deck is lsightly warped but easy to fix. portholes need to be drilled out and glass added. tghe decals, assuming they don’t fall apart, have cutouts for the portholes… just begs for some lighting.
I was curious about Ark myself.Especially that 1/500 Royal Sovereign kit.
I saw the same ad. It looks to me as though most of the ships (including the lightship and the Royal Sovereign) are old Frog kits. Frog was one of the pioneer British model companies; it was producing kits before WWII. It went out of business in, if I remember right, the early eighties. The molds apparently have traveled around a lot since. For a while they were sold by a Russian company called Novo, and some of them did appear under the Eastern Express label. The old Frog ships aren’t bad kits - considering their age. They were similar to what Airfix was making at the same time.
The Aurora on 1/400 is almost certainly the one that I first saw many years ago in a Heller box; I think Heller got it from a Russian company. It’s a nice kit. The God’s Predestination kit has knocked around for a long time; I forget what company sold it first, but it was another Russian one. I’ve never seen it “in the flesh,” but those who have say it’s not bad - though pretty basic.
Freetime Hobbies is advertising (as “coming soon”) an Ark Models Type VII U-boat on 1/48 scale. (http://www.freetimehobbies.com/ ) Pretty mind-boggling. Where this one came from I have no idea.
I know for 1/48 aircraft most of their kits are ICM re-boxings. They are releasing a new tool I-16, but haven’t heard about the quality yet.
When I read “Ark Models”, I thought you guys were referring to the first ship that tankerbuilder served on.
[;)]
Ha! Knee slapper! He only does Commercial ships though[H] But I guess then Noah was working for God??
The mind boggles. I remember–as well as time and age permit–advertizements for a 1/32 U-Boot. The kit, IIRC, was sold in parts, so that a person might only buy the conning tower, the like. (I want to remember Loren Perry’s magazine detailed the making of the kit into an RC submarine, too).
Mostly. I remember this for thinking that I could buy the island, and kitbash it with one of the several Flakvierlings I had on hand, and mount this on a black-melamine shelf of 6" x 48" and do a dio of a hull-down U-boot.
Will be interesting to see if Ark Models has an inventory off all things, two-by-two . . .
AW !
Hey you guys
I do Tankers and yes , NOAH and I had a great time figuring out what a CUBIT was ![8-|][:^)] Also that got me to thinking Subfixer , Was that you in the picture putting a plank on the Turtle ?
Oh That One !
You know the biggest problem was where do I put Wooden water and lamp oil tanks[:|] .There were just so many animals underfoot .[:S] You do know that a shipwright didn’t exist back then ? You shoulda seen how hard it was to bend planks back then .
Hi , Mr Tilley !
Now I will say this much , I have the Russian release of the " SHELL WELDER " and it is definitely showing it’s age mold wise .But I got one thing with it from the person that sent it to me and that was a set of P.E. which I did NOT know existed for that well worn model . My first build of that one is when it was an ICM kit . Proff . Tilley , this kit brings back a lot of memories and that is why I had to have it . My first Command for the company was one like her that traveled the Mediterranian in the time period .Great little ship and didn’t break often , although her keel had been laid three years after I was born . I was in my late thirties then , when I walked aboard . The Ship was well kept , and I thought her Handsome , if that is the right word .Well Proportioned comes to mind too …
Recognized me, eh?
There were two 1/32 Type VII kits that I am aware of:
The first was by a now-gone company called 32nd Parallel and was designed for RC. They offered the basic kit as well as running gear and working torpedoes. They also produced a schnellboot, a German military hydroplane that was either fictional or a proposed design that never reached production, and (if MY memory serves) a Gato class US sub - all in 1/32 scale. They were multi-media kits that featured ABS hulls, vacuformed parts and cast metal detail sets.
The second, more recent, Type VII was a very expensive resin kit produced by Andrea Miniatures of Spain. They also offered a separate kit of the conning tower.
I think that there was also a 1/35 waterline resin model produced a few years ago.
VLS/Verlinden had a 1/35 “U-Boat” conning tower, if creaky memory serves. I also want to remember that it was a VII, a VIIB, maybe. But, in near-solid resin would be a pain to bash into different varieties of U-Boot.
YES !
And if you look carefully at any really good picture of the Langley You will see me , big smile in place next to the lady swinging the champagne at her launch ! He! He! He!