bought the SS Oriana from LEE recently--I ordered it as such.
After further examination I detected that this is the Modelcraft kit, in a Modelcraft box, but with LEE description.
as the tooling looks rather old, I would like to know if this is in the end a replica of the Revell kit.

Thanks, Werner

What's an Oriana? I saw on somebodys (dealer) list of kits that they had the old USS Savannah. I saw her in 1964 when we were in Bremerhaven taking the old USS Patch home from a 3 year tour my dad had

SS Oriana was launched November 3, 1959 and began her maiden voyage Southampton-Sydney December 3 1960, then via Auckland and US West Coast ports and back to Southampton. She was the fastest liner on the England-Australia route sailing from Southampton to Sydney via the Suez Canal in 21 days. In 1966 the name of the line was restyled to P & O Line. After 1973 cruising only as Australia-based cruise ship, before being sold out of the fleet.

Sold to Japanese interests in 1986 for use as an hotel, museum and restaurant ship shw moored at Beppu Bay in Japan, her funnels were painted pink. The hotel venture failed and in 1995 she was again sold, this time to Chinese interests and then towed to Chinwangtao, China where she served as Government owned accommodation center and hotel. The liner was purchased once more for $6 million in November 1998 by Qinhuangdao in North China's Hebei Province. Under tow again, ORIANA arrived in Shanghai October 1998, and was refitted in ZingHua Harbor as a floating tourist attraction funded by Hangzhou West Lake International Tourism Culture Development Co Ltd. After a US$3.5 million renovation, ORIANA opened to the public in the Pudong business district of Shanghai, February of 1999.

Hangzhou West Lake International (which held a 85 per cent stake in the ship), announced on August 15, 2000 that it would auction its stake in the liner. The remaining 15 per cent was held by Hangzhou Jiebai Group Co Ltd, a major department store operator. During ORIANA's 18-months of operation and despite more than 500,000 visitors, the attraction did not procuce desireded profits. The auction took place on September 28, 2000. Since that time the ship was closed while remaining moored on Shanghai's water front.

On June 30, 2002 ORIANA was seen arriving under tow at the Chinese port of Dalian. Looking freshly painted and dressed over all the event was covered on local television. She will undergo a refit before opening to the public in her new static role at the resort area.