Hi Steve,
Actually, having seen some of those ebay pre-builds in person, I can tell you they're usually nowhere near as detailed as one of these kits built to a high standard (or even the standard I build my kits to
). Lots of things are generally simplified, such as the copper on the hull. On this kit, every one of those plates is an individual plate, mounted as on the real thing-- often times, the pre-builts will have the plates overscale or simplistic, or not on there at all (like a certain build of the Victory I've seen). Sometimes the planking is only single layer, while these are double. The pre-builds can look nice in photos on ebay, but get up close in real life and often times, things don't look so hot. With these kits, if they turn out lousy, I can only blame myself. Besides, nobody does the Bellerophon pre-built.
Hey Jorge,
I will be sure to make a build log. There are a couple of plank-on builds floating around the internet, and even one here at MSW that gets updated once in a while. But as with the Kongo, I want to share my experiences with my friends here.
Hi Karl,
With this kit, I was in luck, as it comes with the parts (castings; figureheads; armament; etc.) to make one of three: Vanguard, Elephant, or Bellerophon.
This makes sense as the three were sisters of Slade's Arrogant Class and were launched within a year of each other. So thankfully, no tedious conversion work for this...
I do believe that within a couple years we may just see a revival of the plastic sailing ship model like the good old days of Heller (I have their 1/100 Victory). Just a hunch though...
