Anyone familiar with this model?
Bill
Oh yeah. It’s a reissue of the old Revell USCGC Eagle. That kit was originally issued, if I remember correctly, in 1958. [Later edit: I’m assuming that the kit in question is the one that’s currently in the Revell Germany catalog. For a while Revell Germany was selling a reboxed version of the Heller 1/150 kit, which is entirely different. See below.]
There’s an interesting story behind that kit; we’ve discussed it several times here in the Forum. To retell the story as briefly as I can: in the 1930s the German navy built four (or was it five) sail training ships. One was named Gorch Fock; another was the Horst Wessel. All were quite similar, but they did differ a bit - some were as much as 20 feet longer than others.
At the end of World War II, the sail training ships were seized by the allies. The Gorch Fock went to the Soviet Union, and was renamed Tovaritsch. The Horst Wessel went to the U.S., and was turned over to the Coast Guard and renamed Eagle.
In the fifties, shortly before the Revell kit was originally released, the distinguished author and draftsman Harold Underhill published a book called Sail Training and Cadet Ships. In the book was a set of plans for the Gorch Fock. In the text of the book, Underhill carefully explained that some of the ships in the class were longer than others. The Horst Wessel was about 20 feet longer than the Gorch Fock.
Unfortunately the drawings got published and sold separately from the book. The dealers in the U.S. sold them as plans of the Eagle. I don’t think anybody was trying to deceive anybody; there seems to have been a genuine lack of understanding of what Underhill’s drawings were. (The Coast Guard certainly wasn’t trying to fool anybody. I learned about this sad tale from the C.G. Historian.
At any rate, Revell decided to make an Eagle kit, and the designers based it on the Underhill plans. In other words, they made it 20 feet too short. They also gave it a bunch of modern (1958) equipment, most notably the big motor launches.
What the model builder in 1958 got, in other words, was a reasonably accurate model of the Gorch Fock/Tovaritsch, with moder U.S. Coast Guard equipment added.
Just to make matters worse, the German navy later built another sail training ship with the name Gorch Fock. That ship, sometimes called the Gorch Fock II, is similar, but far from identical, to the original (sometimes referred to as Gorch Fock I).
There will be a quiz at the end of the lecture.
Now Revell Germany is selling the same kit under the name Gorch Fock. It’s actually (by 1958 standards) a good replica of the Gorch Fock I - except for the USCG additions. The detail overall is state-of-the-art for the late '50s. The deck plank edges are countersunk, for instance. Modern modelers will say the rivets on the hull are out of scale, and won’t like the beautifully rendered blocks and coils of rope on various parts (including the pinrails). And those molded plastic guard rails have to go. The potential is certainly there, though, for a fine scale model - of the Gorch Fock I.
Heller used to make a very nice, larger-scale model of the Gorch Fock II. I don’t know whether it’s available nowadays or not, but if you’re interested it’s worth tracking down. [Later edit: as 1943mike pointed out in his post below, that Heller kit was, for a while, available in a Revell Germany box. Maybe that is, in fact, the kit wjbwjb29 has.]
So far as I know, the only Eagle kit (plastic or otherwise) that has the right scale proportions is a 1/150 one that the late, lamented, Japanese company Imai produced in the late '70s or early '80s. All the others seem to have been based on the Underhill drawings.
I suspect this post tells more about the subject than any rational person wants to know. But that’s the story as I understand it.
I’m sure JTilley and some others would be able to provide you with some pertinent information and insights regarding this model kit. I have the kit in my stash but have done little by way of research as of yet. All I have are a few web sites that contain some pictures I thought might be useful if and when I get around to building the kit.
Mike
http://forum.worldofwarships.eu/index.php?/topic/265-german-navy-gorch-fock-1933-gorch-fock-1958/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/vispillo/4927117858/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorch_Fock_(1958)
http://www.maritimequest.com/sailing_ships/02-pages/g/gorch_fock_1958_page_1.htm
http://www.wettringer-modellbauforum.de/forum/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=13151
Oops, just noticed JTilley beat me to it by two minutes! [:D]
Interesting links, Mike.
The only one that shows the Gorch Fock I is the first one. All the others show the Gorch Fock II. The two vessels are quite similar, but if you look closely you can tell one of them is 25 years younger than the other.
The modeling article may be a little confusing. The kit, on 1/150 scale, is in fact the Heller 1/150 kit, which for a while was available in a Revell Germany box. (Several Heller kits have turned up in Revell Germany packaging.) It’s a good deal bigger than the one in the current Revell Germany catalog - which, as I said earlier, is the old Revell Eagle kit (which actually is a reasonable representation of the Gorch Fock I).
wjbwjb29 - which kit do you have? If it’s the 1/150, ex-Heller version, and you want to build a model of the Gorch Fock II, you’re in great shape.
John,
I do believe it’s the old Heller kit in Revell livery. Looks like I’ll be building the Gorch Fock II if I ever get around to it.
Mike
Thanks guys for the info. Are there any aftermarket rails for this ship? Bill
The original five were the Gorch Fock, the Mircea, the unfinished Herbert Norkus and the longer Albert Leo Schlageter and Horst Wessel.
The rig from Norkus was used for the Gorch Fock II.
I’d be really surprised if there was any PE. I don’t recall seeing PE for any sailing ship model, except for a lot of really expensive and comprehensive stuff for the big Heller Victory. Even if you found something for the most popular of all, which I suspect is the Cutty Sark, there wouldn’t really be much there. She has solid bulwarks.
Dr. Tilley, I see where Imai has sold a 1/350 Gorch Fock, and a version as Tovaristsch, which would be correct, but try as I might can’t find a bigger one.
I’ve seen aftermarket parts for the Heller 1/100 Victory, the Academy 1/125 Cutty Sark, and the Revell 1/96 Alabama and Kearsarge. I think I may also have seen wood decks for the Revell 1/96 Constitution and Cutty Sark; I’m not sure about those. At any rate, so far as I know, there are no other aftermarket sets designed specifically for plastic sailing ship kits.
Wjbwjb1, which Revell Gorch Fock do you have? The ex-Heller kit (the better of the two) is on 1/150 scale, and represents the Gorch Fock II. The Revell one (the reissue of the old Revell USA Eagle) is, according to Revell, on 1/253, and represents the Gorch Fock I with, as we established earlier, a lot of 1950s-era USCG equipment.
Gold Medal Models sells railings on 1/200 and 1/350 scales. You might be able to make some of them work on either kit, if you’re not too picky. I honestly can’t predict how obvious the discrepancy in scale would be; it might not be noticeable.
When you get to the rigging you’ll be in better shape. Blocks for the 1/150 kit wouldn’t be a problem. Blocks on 1/253 scale are mighty, mighty small. Carefully doctored knots may be the best solution.
No deadeyes, though. Neither ship uses them. The heavy standing rigging is set up with rigging screws (i.e., big glorified turnbuckles).
Good luck.
GM - those 1/350 Imai kits (some of them still available from Academy) were part of a rather large series that was released to coincide with “Operation Sail 1976.” The Eagle, Sagres, Mircea, Tovaritsch, and Gorch Fock kits all use the same hull. There is, in fact, scarcely any difference between them.