I build mostly armor and want to step out of that comfort zone in to ships… only what I’m really interested in are turn of the century era warships.
All I can seem to find of this era are very expensive resin kits.
Are there any plastic kits of this era of ships at all? Why are they so under-represented in kits? Does anyone know of any plans of model companies to start making these?
You’d think there would be at least one plastic kit of the HMS Dreadnought or USS Maine.
Thanks for any feedback.
I share your pain. The Zvezda Borodino and Hasegawa Mikasa are the best I know of.
1/350 Emden/Dresden
1/400 Potemkin/Aurora
1/225 Oregon
1/240 Olympia
1/130 Gloucester
There may be others.
Thought of one more- the Zvezda 1/350 cruiser Varyag. GMM makes a great PE set for both her and the Borodino/ Orel/ Suvurov. It’s a great looking model too.
I see where Revell has just released the Olympia.
Thanks Gents… I’m on the hunt to find these!
All the googling I did did not turn up one of the items you listed
I haven’t done a ship in a good 12 years when I picked up Tamiya’s Musashi at a hobby store going out of business sale… except for a little sub I did last year.
The Russian company Combrig manufactures a huge line of 1/700 scale turn of the century ships of all major nations that are fairly inexpensive and are reasonably well detailed. Check them out at www.steelnavy.com.
Bill
Thanks Bill.
Found them for sale at Free Time Hobbies… I suppose $25-50 bucks isn’t bad for a resin kit.
I might just try one to get myself more familiar with resin before I tackle a multimedia kit I got on eBay of the USS Passaic Monitor.
Still - It would be nice to see more 1/350 or so styrene kits of this ships.
Scott
Scott,
I agree! One thing to consider is that ship modelling has undergone a huge renaissance over the past 15 years, with far more ships available in both 1/700 and 1/350 scales. The variety is incredible given the state of the hobby in the 1980’s and earlier. And, it is continuing to grow! There is no reason to believe that the ships you want won’t be available in the future. However, you need to lobby for them. Forums like this one help.
Combrig kits are quite nice. They are not complicated and they go together very well. And, their level of detail allows the builder to build a nice model out of the box with some photoetch. I have built several WWI Dreadnoughts. Check out some builds on the steelnavy site as well as kit reviews.
Good luck!
Bill
A good place to look for whether or not a kit is made that you might be interested in is the Rajens kit list on the internet. Many in the list have been reviewed and many are simply listed. It is a cooperative effort with people sending in reviews of kits they have experience with. This is especially useful when buying expensive resin kits so that you know what the differences are among competing manufacturers. WJS
Zvezda has announced a 1/350th Dreadnought (Kit 9039) but I don’t know the expected arrival date.
I will definately pre-order that kit!
Bill
I would recommend the Revell of Germany cruiser Emden. I think it is the best of those kits mentioned. Other than a bit of a glitch with the main turrets, it is a very nice kit. I’ve collected a number of awards in contests with mine.
There is also the ICM “Koenig” + sisters and the Bronco 1/350 “Chen Yuen”
Heller did do a “Maine”, but I’ve read it was not a good kit unfortunately (may even be a modefied “Olympia”)and it goes for mad money on auction sites
I’m not doubting you but are you sure it was Heller? I know that Pyro had an Olympia and a Maine that were essentially the same kit; the Maine simply had hull sponsons for the main armament while the Olympia kit had hers on the centerline. I have never heard of the Heller kits.
Don, Revell also had the sister ship to he Emden, the Dresden, in 1/350. The major difference was that the Dresden had four propellor shafts whereas the Emden had two.
Bill
Not exactly my thing (I tend toward movie-related stuff like Walt Disney’s Man in Space or War of the Worlds) HOWEVER I recently purchased War at Sea in the Ironclad Age by Richard Hill. Excellent info. Then I found out that it’s available for free:
http://ebookee.org/War-at-Sea-in-the-Ironclad-Age_367389.html
Of interest, perhaps?
The Heller kit was no. 19501 and it was a completely inaccurate dog. It had more in common with Olympia than coming anywhere near close to Maine. If you want a 1/350 cruiser stick with Varyag or the Emden/Dresden twins. There are tons of after market goodies for these ships which are pretty good to begin with. WS
Yes, I have seen it a couple of times on ebay. There was one just recently on ebay.com which went for $100 which is about half the price of the previous one I saw. I read somewhere (in this forum?) that it is the same as the Pyro kit.
I think that Zvesda’s Varyag and Hasegawa’s Mikasa are among the best plastic kits of this period. There was word of some kits of Russian subjects from this period coming from Flagman, but nothing ever appeared sadly.
Thank you all for responding. This was my first post on FSM and I’m really impressed the amount of help right away.
When I get one of these kids I’ll be coming back for tips!!!
Now - I’m off to Montreal on a mini vacation… wonder if the wife will let me hunt down a hobby store or two. Maybe I’ll find one of these kits.
[:)]
I’ve been amazed that with the invention of PE, we still haven’t seen an affordable cage-mast pre-war BB…