INTRODUCTION: This is the first post of what will be a build log for my Revell kit of the Flying Cloud. Rather than repeat the history of the ship and observations of the kit, I have posted a few links below for those interested. Given everything I have going on now and into the near future, I don’t expect this will be a rapid build.
As for the kit itself, below are some photos of the one I have pulled from my stash to build.
As has become a habit for the kits in my stash, I take inventory of the parts and then carefully repack the kit to ensure no further breakage will occur whether in storage or boxed for the next move. This particular kit, sourced from eBay, is missing a part and has some minor breakage to the chainplates (something I have found that is common among older sailing ship models I have purchased lately); otherwise, the kit is complete including assembly instructions, decals, the sail set and instructions, and preformed ratlines.
The vintage of the kit is suggested by the box art and copyright stamp on the hull that reads “Revell, Inc 1962” (the instruction sheet has a copyright date of 1957). The kit itself, based on my own research, is a decent presentation of the historic Flying Cloud, to the extent that contemporary plans and other information sources exist. The Revell issue is getting harder and harder to find, with eBay being the most likely source; however, Heller does have a reissue on the market that can be found online from a number of hobby retailers.
BACKGROUND: I have previously been working on a similar Revell kit of the Stag Hound (that kit based in large part on this kit with some unfortunate and arbitrary changes for the purpose of marketing). That effort (Build Log: Revisiting Revell's STAG HOUND - Another Partially Assembled Kit from Storage), particularly my attempt at rigging, will largely inform my effort with this kit. And it was that effort that sidetracked me into an interest in Clipper Ships as a subject and away from my build of the Airfix Royal Sovereign and the Revell HMS Bounty.
As I did with the Stag Hound, my efforts at historical accuracy will be informed by the published research done by Scott Bradner whose extensive work pertaining to the Flying Cloud can be found here: https://www.sobco.com/ship_model/fc/Flying_Cloud-index.html. Additional references that address the Flying Cloud, and Clipper Ships in general, include:
-Flying Cloud: The True Story . . . by David W. Shaw;
-Greyhounds of the Sea by Carl C. Cutler;
-The American-Built Clipper Ship by William L. Crothers;
-Masting & Rigging the Clipper Ship and Ocean Carrier by Harold A. Underhill; and,
-The Clipper Ships , part of The Seafarers series from Time-Life Books
The overall objective for this build is a model that will be worthy of a display case. And if I don’t achieve that with this kit, I have a couple others in the stash.
All for now. Eddie