Tanker, if you go to Shapeways.com and look up “sapguy”, he’s advertising a Enterprise beehive island in 1:350. Cost is $109.00.
I tried to post the link but my phone isn’t cooperating.
Several posts above refer to the U.S.S. “G.W. Bush.” There is no such ship. There is, however, a carrier named U.S.S. George H.W. Bush.
We need to get in the habit of being careful about those names. George H.W. Bush is the father; George W. Bush is the son.
I’d like to see Trumpeter, Zvezda, Revell, Heller, or any plastic ship kit maker come up with a 1/96 or 1/100 74 gun French ship of the line that would be well researched, heavy with correct blocks, dead eyes, etc., and have literate, easy to read and understand instructions in English. Even with my optivisor I find working with small scales extremely challenging these days. I have Heller’s 1/150 Le Gorieux in my stash but because of several problems with that kit that have been discussed several times before on this site I may never get around to attempting to build her.
Am I wishing for too much?
An example of the type of ship to which I refer:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventy-four_(ship)#/media/File:Achille_mp3h9307.jpg
Sorry if this is a bit off topic.
Mike
Mike, I agree with you completely - and I’ve got quite a list of sailing vessels I’d like to see kitted in large scales. (American clipper, American whaler, seventeenth-century English warship, any American frigate other than the Constitution, etc., etc.) But I’m afraid the chances of getting our wishes fulfilled are slim to none. If I’m not mistaken, the Heller Victory was the last large-scale (and large-sized) plastic sailing ship to come on the market - and it was initially released more than thirty years ago. Heller hasn’t released a genuinely new sailing ship since. Revell USA has been out of the sailing ship business for about forty years (about twice as long as it was ever in it). Revell and Heller, remember, are the only companies that have ever produced three-foot-long sailing ships. And they only made a handful: the Revell Cutty Sark, Kearsarge, and Constitution, and the Heller Soleil Royal, La Reale, and Victory. All the other big Revell kits (Thermopylae, Pedro Nunes, Alabama, and United States) are modified reissues. (I’m not counting that “Spanish Galleon,” which isn’t a scale model of anything.) I think Imai may have made one or two that approached that size, but Imai’s been out of business for well over thirty years.
Revell Germany has released a few smaller sailing ships since Revell USA got out of the game (the Pamir and Wasa, for instance), but those have been few, far between, and, apparently not exactly big sellers. Trumpeter, apart from a couple that, as I understand it, were reissues of kits from some other Chinese company, has never made a sailing ship kit. Zvezda made a couple a few years ago, but seems to have dropped out of the market.
I’m afraid the plastic sailing ship market is just about dead. Anybody who wants to get into the sailing ship model hobby needs to look carefully at switching over to wood. The number of good wood kits isn’t exactly overwhelming either, but there are enough out there to keep people like you and me busy for the rest of our lives.
Actually John, remember Aurora had a few too. The BHR and the Wanderer, I think?
You are entirely forgiven if you’ve managed to put those out of your mind.
Egad!
Those two were considerably smaller - and cheaper. Ditto the other two in that Aurora series, the Hartford and Sea Witch.
One more that probably does belong on the list of big sailing ship kits: the Marx/Lindbergh Sea Witch.
I would like to see a model of the Moshulu in Philadelphia.
Our friend Raider Hall is building a Constellation from the kit.
See his WIP
GM, you lost me. What’s the connection between an early-twentieth-century merchantman and a modern aircraft carrier? I must have missed something.
With regards to any new plastic sailing ships kits. Zvezda has released a wonderful series of Elizabethan/Armada era warships. Sadly, they are proper 1/350. I built their new little “Santa Maria”, and was plain giddy that somebody did a model ot the ship based on recent studies, but again, 1/350 (and based upon the smallest Santa Maria interpretation, so downright tiny). I was hoping that Zvezda was planning on doing a larger model. Sadly, apparently not in the cards.
You didnt miss anything, I just tortured the language. Musing about big sailing ship models while feeling guilty about hijacking threads…
WE Carrier Modellers are blessed with new Kits and if like me, not enough room. With Trumpeter announcing a 1-350 Ark Royal and Dragon with their 1-700 1965 USS Enterprise we are indeed in happy times…Cheers mark