Is this model a decent one to build? I’ve tried to find the 1/150 1980’s Revell version spoken about on this site and on the web but couldn’t come up with much.
Anyone have an opinion?
Mike
Looks like an old Heller model. I’ve used Bing to translate a German modeler’s build of this kit and the modeler, at least, along with other viewers seemed to like it.
The shrouds and ratlines would, of course, have to be done by hand rather than using the really silly-looking pieces supplied in the kit.
I would appreciate knowing if anyone (professor J.T. perhaps?) has any clue as to the accuracy of this particular kit.
Mike
Well, I’m now the owner of the Revell 1/150 (probably old Heller molds) Gorch Fock. I paid just under $30.00 + shipping on eBay. I think it looks like a decent kit but I’ll reserve judgement until I actually have the box in hand.
Based on this old thread I don’t think I did too badly: http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/7/t/30377.aspx
Mike
Oh an oldie but a goodie from way back in 2004. Sadly the model floated out the door with a few others when we got hit by Katrina.
Real quick here. I have not built, or do I own, that model. But, it hails from the last good run of sailing ship models sold in plastic. Heller put out quite a few sailing ship models, some better than others. IMO none are to be sneezed at, however there were some skunks in the road, but in every case it’s the master modelers who didn’t like them.
That being said, no Heller ship model I’ve ever tackled was less than intermediate-advanced. To me that means a good basic knowledge of how to replace any parts that don’t work, and to do enough basic research to correct major flaws, of which there are few. Also, the masts and yards are pretty delicate.
Read up if you will, there’s a whirlwind of ship models based on those German ships that became Eagles, Nunes, Focks, and so forth.
The more advanced ship modelers can parse the differences and the inaccuracies, but they all are good models, if not accurate.
My only major gripe in all of this was the See Adler. Von Luckner was a hero of my childhood, on account of a copy of his bio that I found in Dad’s bookshelf. Someday…
I bought the Heller kit a long, long time ago; I took it to a hobby shop for consignment when I moved out of Ohio, in 1980. So my memories of it are utterly unreliable. For what little it’s worth, though, I do remember being quite favorably impressed with it. I agree with GMorrison: I remember it as one of the best plastic sailing ships ever.
Two things need to be borne in mind by anybody tackling this kit. One - 1/150 scale is mighty, mighty small for such a model. There’s a limit to how well modern-day rigging fittings, for example, can be reproduced by the injection-molding process on that scale. (I’ve always shied away from the Heller 1/150 Pamir, Passat, and Preussen for that reason. Such fittings as Jarvis brace winches are simply beyond the capacity of the molding process on that scale. Good news: the Gorch Fock doesn’t have Jarvis brace winches.)
Two: the kit, I’m pretty sure, represents the current Gorch Fock, often referred to as the Gorch Fock II. This is not one of the former “Nazi” schoolships built during the 1930s. (The Horst Wessel, now the U.S.C.G.C. Eagle, is one of those vessels.) The Gorch Fock II dates from 1958; she looks quite similar to her predecessor, but I’m sure there are quite a few differences. Here’s a Wikepedia entry to get started on the story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorch_Fock_(1958) .
The potential for a first-rate model of an important, attractive ship is certainly there. Good luck.
Thank you John for the Wikipedia link and your usual compendious observations.
GMorrison,
Given that I’m really not advanced enough in modeling of any ilk to do scratch replacement/modification of parts that research dictates are needed for what I want to build, this kit will be down the road some distance in my “new” (I slapped together some models - Revell and Aurora as a pre-teen and teenager) hobby.
The most important advice I believe I’ve received from several modelers on this forum is that I must “practice, practice, practice”. I now have several model kits with which I can gain some practice. Some of these kits are large scale and relatively inexpensive so that, in the event I screw up - and I’m sure that will happen - I’ve not lost a small fortune or spent hundreds of hours bulding a model that may turn out to be less than wonderful. These “practice” models will, I hope, have given me some invaluable experience in the skills I must acquire to become a competent, if not a skilled, model builder. The two models that I refer to as “practice” models are the Lindberg Curtiss JN-4 and the Revell Viking ship. Hopefully they’ll turn out OK and contribute to my skill set somewhat.
Anyway, thanks Big Jake, GMorrison, and jtilley for your contribution to my query.
Mike