I have a diorama I built for a high school history class (about 55 years ago) utilizing three full hull plastic models, each around 5.5 inches long. I assembled, painted, strung thread rigging and ratlines and mounted them in a shadow box with a Caribbean map background. They represent the Santa Maria, the Golden Hind, and Hudson’s Half Moon (for which the Carib backdrop is inapt, I realize). I think they were Pyro kits but can’t remember back that far. The little Gowland series were a bit smaller —and less tubbby–iirc, so I am guessing they were Pyro. Does anyone have information about this series? Just an old-timer trying to reconstruct his past glories. Thanks for any reply [*-)]
According to the PYRO model catalog of 1969 they offered the “Historic Sailing Ships” series. There were 16 ships in the inventory, priced at 75 cents per model. Among the ships were the Mayflower, Constitution, Santa Maria, Golden Hind, Bon Homme Richard, Half Moon, Nina, HMS Victory, Brig of War and Barbary Pirate ship. The scale wasn’t constant as the Constitution and Mayflower were 6 1/2" and the the HMS Victory and Barbary Pirate were 7" in length. I’m guessing these plastic models date back to the early 1960’s, late 1950’s.
The ITC model catalog(1963) offered a small fleet of ships similar in size but a smaller selection…I recall building a Viking ship and a Chinese Junk, molded in black plastic.
Hope that helps…
Mike
Thanks Mike. That sounds about right. The three ships I built have very similar hulls, only the trim differing, but I guess Pyro could get away with this because they were only approximations, especially considering they only averaged out to a tad larger than 1/200 scale. I think I built them in the late 1950s which meant soon after the kits would have first been issued. Thanks again for the information.
Jim
Airfix and Heller also had series of small sailing ship kits- in 1:600 scale. I loved building those. That size seems to have disappeared, for the most part. But I loved the size. And, now either the kit or an aftermarket product could provide photo-etched shroud/ratline assemblies, which was to me the biggest drawback of that scale. I could rig up some shrouds, but never tied ratlines in that scale!
I’ll bet they looked something like these. I find them at tag sales once in a while. They are neat little ship models
Pyro also released two different kits of the Constitution and the “Barbay Pirate Ship”. The earlier releases were very fat, had sticks for masts, and in no way resembled the real ships. The second releases were completely different molds and were much more accurate, if not exact. These kits are still very common, and several have been released by Lindberg over the years.
Bill
Barbary, not Barbay! doh!
I believe I have three of the earliest models—Santa Maria, Golden Hind and Hudson’s Half Moon. They are rather tubby and it looks like Pyro kept the same basic hull for all three, providing enough difference in the trim, castles etc. to distinguish them. Although they were kind of beamy and generic, we don’t have a heck of a lot of information as to what these early exploration ships looked like. Anyhow, they were good enough for my little diorama project and when painted up give a nice appearance. I think that Lindberg even has recently re-issued the Golden Hind kit. I prefer the Revell version, which I believe is double the scale and seems to have benefited by the educated guesses of careful researchers.
The Heller kits at 1/600 had to be VERY difficult to work with, as the Renaissance era ships would only be about two inches long. I know that some wargaming model companies have even produced die-cast 1/1200 Napoleonic era kits, but my old eyes and hands are certainly not up to fiddling with those tiny bits.
Hi there Modelshipnut,
I purchased a set on-line a few weeks ago and literally just received them I thought that they would make a nice adddtiion to my stash for some future project such as you built 55 years ago. The 3 kits were sold by Lindberg as a set and also have a vacuformed ocean to display them on. The kits are from the same molds as the Pyro kits that were sold indiviually. I had purchased the Pinta some while ago and compared the kits side by side. They are identical.
The only difference between the three ships were just a few additional trim pieces. The ships are about 6 inches long overall when constucted (bowsprit incuded) so @ 1/200. I am a newbie on this site and as soon as I figure out how to post with pictures I will send them along. I had a problem with photobucket and I may have to wait unitl I get home to do a proper job of it.
They can be found quite regularly on-line between $10 to $15.
Greetings, over47. Your observation about the identical hulls for the three exploration ship models is spot-on. The tub-like hulls were repeated in all three, with just the trim pieces differing. Interesting that they are now sold as a set. When I made my diorama back in 1958, I nailed the little stands for each to the wooden base of the shadow box I made, and then pasted an illustrated map of the Caribbean from National Geographic to the back of the box, after which I fitted a plexiglass facing in to protect the models. The NG map had drawings of palm trees, dolphins, and various colorful scenes, so the diorama is quite lively. I wish they had done the vacuformed ocean 55 years ago as the full hull models could have set in them and made my diorama look more natural. Of course Henry Hudson might wonder why his Haelve Moon is coasting around Jamaica instead of New England and Canadian shores :-).
Jim
HI :
I think you can still find them online or at YES , Train shows .That’s where I got them last time .They are around as LINDBERG and PYRO releases .I liked them , not for accuracy certainly , but they were fun to build and with a little extra work could make nice gifts for folks who like ships , but have limited room .
They certainly leave a lot to be desired for scale but I last gifted a lady friend one in a model aircraft case .She summed it up best I guess " GEE , that’s cute " Tanker - builder