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Sovereign of the Seas - Mantua by Brian

Jacapa412 said:
Same hereI haven't started my SOAT build yet, but I opened the box and was struck by the terrible quality of the fittings; I completely agree with you Mike the quality is poor considering the kit's high price. You can tell the parts are made of a really bad alloy with a coating of who-knows-what; I’m not sure if they can be painted, I’ll have to experiment first.
Click to expand...
That IS the issue with current product - Bronze OR not - the small details of the castings are much worse, as well as the quality of the metal - looks under-par for a product of this price IMO -- than from those from the vintage kit that had the solid bronze castings -

Current kit has had, from several other forums the same complaints.

IMG_1847 copy.jpgIMG_1587.jpg13 copy 2.JPGIMG_2696 copy 3.jpeg

I do apologize for also adding images of my kit - I try not to add those to other member's logs, but within this context and thread I thought that it would be ok - BTW you are doing a very nice build of this kit. Please PM me and I will delete those images

Regards,
 
Bri62 said:
Thanks Charles but to be honest given my time over I would have picked a different manufacturer, Manuta is a very poor choice on my part :(
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But you find what you can within your budget, like I WANT to purchase the Sergal kit of the Sovereign of the Seas, however Sergal doesn't exist any more? So I would be stuck buying the kit from EBay for around $900.00, who knows what parts be missing there. I do agree with you on the quality and construction instructions of the Mantua kits, my first purchase was the Mantua Santa Maria, I learned a lot about this hobby with that kit.

My favorite manufacturer so far is OcCre, followed by Mamoli, (now Mamoli / Dusek). I see some fantastic modelers here that do supurb jobs on any of thier kits, of which I am trying attain the same expertise.
 
Bri62 said:
Thanks Charles but to be honest given my time over I would have picked a different manufacturer, Manuta is a very poor choice on my part :(
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I agree with you Brian ,the problem is that there are no other manufacturers, since Amati doesn't make them anymore; now you can only find them from Mantua Sergal, and honestly, they haven't improved the quality yet and the price remains extremely high.
 
Jack, as mentioned I think I got lucky with the quality of the bronze castings as mine are fine and also solid bronze on the other hand the instructions and plans are so poor I don't use them also where the wood says it's walnut it is actually cheap white wood.
Brian
 
oldflyer said:
That IS the issue with current product - Bronze OR not - the small details of the castings are much worse, as well as the quality of the metal - looks under-par for a product of this price IMO -- than from those from the vintage kit that had the solid bronze castings -

Current kit has had, from several other forums the same complaints.

View attachment 628565View attachment 628566View attachment 628567View attachment 628568

I do apologize for also adding images of my kit - I try not to add those to other member's logs, but within this context and thread I thought that it would be ok - BTW you are doing a very nice build of this kit. Please PM me and I will delete those images

Regards,
Click to expand...
Hi John,
I followed your entire post and noticed that you bought the extra bronze parts to upgrade the kit. It sounds like the molds are worn out and the metal alloy they use is losing definition within the old grooves; just look at the roofs of the quarter galleries, they have holes in them, but they’re actually supposed to be tiles. That’s something I don’t like, but it’s too late to fix it now.
 
I would find it intriguing and interesting. I am want to NOT waste expensive model ship wood stock, never know when you could use leftover scrap parts.
 
You will hate me but, isn't the verticalish strip nearest the front needing to be swapped with the second along? I know they don't on my attempt but I think the knobbly bit is supposed to be above the bulwalky thing.
 
Mike Dowling said:
You will hate me but, isn't the verticalish strip nearest the front needing to be swapped with the second along? I know they don't on my attempt but I think the knobbly bit is supposed to be above the bulwalky thing.
Click to expand...
Not according to my instruction manual but hey not that bothered :)

IMG20260823140239.jpgIMG20260823140541.jpgIMG20260823141344.jpg


Also one of them snapped when trying to bend with no heat lol
 
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