Is this kit any good? How accurate, buildable etc? I have seen some people on the net say its constructos best kit to datein terms of accuracy…but have also heard that constructo is an average company accuracy/parts qualitywise etc? It seems very expensive here in Australia but since I live in far north queensland not too far from where she sank (used to live in cooktown too where captain cook had to repair the endeavour after hitting the reef) it would be nice to have a ship that has a local connection.
I haven’t built this kit, or even seen it in person. I have, however, seen the illustrations in various ads for it, and I’ve looked at other Constructo ship kits (though not recently, I admit). It looks to me like a fairly typical Continental European sailing ship kit.
Those kits in general are sore subjects among ship modelers. We’ve thrashed this topic around pretty thoroughly in the Forum over the past several months. Rather than repeat my opinions (which, I suspect, other regulars are pretty sick of reading) here, I’ve moved the last thread in which we discussed the topic to this page. It’s labeled “First wooden ship kit,” and it should appear a few lines above this on on the topic list. It’s a rather long discussion, but it does eventually get down to several major points that are relevant to European wood kits in general and, I suspect, the Constructo Pandora. Please pay particular attention to the comments (from others as well as me) regarding issues of accuracy vs. the need to have fun with ship models.
thanks for that, I also found a site with a build up of the very ‘kit’ with some of its faults explained http://gallery.drydockmodels.com/pandora and a great gallery showing what she looks like when finished. It doesnt seem too bad overall and it looks nice, but this double plank on frame method seems pretty annoying to me, like picking up firewood twice before putting it in the trailer . Almost tempted to look for some plans and just build from scratch [8D]
“Double planking,” as I mentioned in that other thread, is a system that the European kit manufacturers came up with. It has nothing to do with prototype practice.
If you do decide to build a Pandora from scratch, there are some good sources. I believe there’s a volume on her in the Conway Maritime Press “Anatomy of the Ship” series. If memory serves (as it frequently doesn’t these days), that volume was done by John McKay. There is no finer nautical draftsman. I don’t think I’ve examined that particular volume, but if it’s up to his usual standards the information in it would be more than enough to build a real ship.
Good luck. It’s a great hobby. It’s also populated by some very strange people, but most of them are relatively harmless.
going to HAVE to build this ship some day now as I’ve just found the captains last name was the same as mine, two connections now…