Brand comparison

[Bob Ellis]

A few ways of looking at this, accuracy and true to the historic ship. Accuracy of build and methods. Material and fittings....
If these are of no interest buy anything. I assume you are interested!
A lot of the old long standing kits are screamingly...well,...wrong. Mamoli's Surprise is a joke. for example. I personally dismiss these as 'Eurotrash'
Caldercraft have a good reputation for accuracy, with some exceptions such as Pickle. "Designed from 'original' plans" And indeed they are but not the plans for Pickle, which don't exist, or have never been found. Instead they sell an unremarkable Bermudan trading schooner, not the "fastest ship in the Royal Navy"!
More subjectively companies to look at include Drydock, Vanguard, CAF, Caldercraft, Maris Stella, Pavel Nikitin... there are more but you get the drift.
My personal list of avoids are;
Billings, Mantua, Mamoli, Corel, Dusek, Dumas. Mantua, Panart, Sergal and....OcCre!!
Amati are well designed but I've had unusable materials/timber.
Low grade fittings are a common problem, cannons and carriages, blocks that look like that absorbant cat litter tray pellets.
You have to buy stocks of better timber, cannon kits, rigging line, blocks and associated tackle. Even mill your own timber with very expensive tools.
This is the road to scratch! Research becomes a way of life. How far do you want to go?

 

[Stuart Little]

Very briefly my experience so far with various manufacturers.
OcCre very clear instructions. Not keen on sapele second planking. Sails (usually included) have primitive hems. Rigging cord OK
Corel Instruction sheets not always clear or accurate. Materials excellent. Walnut second planking. Sails (extra) nicely hemmed. Rigging cord good
Artesania Latina. Instructions on CD and reasonably clear. Materials good. single planking is a plus. Sail hems not brilliant. Cord OK
Mantua As Corel comments
Amati Instructions OK. Good materials, Walnut planking. Nice cord and neatly hemmed sails.
Master Korabel. Poor quality materials. most parts pre-cut and flimsy. One plus: hull planks are pre-cut spiled.
Vanguard Models. Good instructions. But so extensively pre-cut and requiring paint that it might as well be plastic. Keel and bulkhead MDF
All the above come with generic, clunky, cuboid rigging blocks.
I would commend any of the first five on the above list with OcCre possibly as a favourite.

I would agree with you on 3 of your 5, John, but I hesitate on Corel after my experience with their Victory (I sold it as part-built), & I don't like AL's instructions being on CD. No good when ones PC is in the bedroom! As for Vanguard - I wish you'd made this comment before I chose their Granado over Caldercraft's - poor instructions, much not covered, I'm using both AotS & Caldercraft instructions, & having to make many replacement part. I'm at present building the heads from scratch - poor fitting parts & instructions. I also refer to Tanaka's log on YT.

Stuart

 

[AllanKP69]

i am enjoying this hobby that i have thought a lot about over the years but never allowed myself the time to try it.

It can be frustrating for some. Poor quality kits have probably caused many modelers to give up the hobby

My personal list of avoids are;
Billings, Mantua, Mamoli, Corel, Dusek, Dumas. Mantua, Panart, Sergal and....OcCre!! ........Low grade fittings are a common problem, cannons and carriages, blocks that look like that absorbant cat litter tray pellets.

I agree with your list but would add Caldercraft and Artesania Latina and would add reasons such as lack of research or just ignoring how a ship is planked, failure to provide or explain the taper of keel, stern post, rudder and knee of the head and providing sails that look like pieces of burlap sack materials. Other than Caldercraft I also agree with your list of kit makers to buy and would add Portland.

Allan

 

[ChrisP]

I am surprised at the absence of any mention of Chinese manufacturers

 

[AllanKP69]

I am surprised at the absence of any mention of Chinese manufacturers

You are right. I thought Drydock was referring to the distributor (our friend Zoly) for Modelship Dockyard which is from China. From the build logs, MD seems to be the best brand available. They certainly put OcCre, AL, and many others to shame when it comes to quality in every respect. CAF kits are supposed to be very good quality as well. Some ZHL kits are supposed to be good but there were rumblings about their questionable practices in the past so maybe that is why no one put up their name.

Allan

 

[AllanKP69]

The October edition of Ships in Scale magazine from SeaWatch Books has a very detailed article comparing kits. Based on the many build logs here it seems to confirm what we see posted here regarding all aspects of a kit from quality of instructions to materials. I was surprised at a couple getting ratings as high as they did, but overall this may help folks avoid wasting their money on inferior products. There are a lot of explanations in the article from which anyone looking to invest in a kit would benefit.
Allan

 

[Steve_O]

Very interesting Allan. Thank you for sharing!

 

[Roger Pellett]

Unfortunately in an attempt to be all inclusive this becomes the famous comparison of apples and oranges. Vanguard by their own admission offers only kits of Royal Navy sailing warships of the Napoleonic War era. Bluejacket specializes in American sailing working craft with some modern vessels included in the mix.

And of course there should be a separate categories for plastic modelers.

The big question is which of the kit manufacturers listed in this rating scheme consistently produce kits that will result in models that actually look like the real ships.

Roger

 

[Gandalf_The_Ship]

As to manufacturers, I built two ships from Occre (San Juan and Polaris) and currently building the HM Cutter Sherbourne from VanGuard. The latter is a good one for beginners although - as mentioned by others - the wood can be quite flimpsy. Comes with a great instruction manual. Occre has good quality wood but their instruction manuals differ in quality. For example, IMO, the manual for Polaris was good, but the manual for the San Juan very high level.

Another tip I have for you is - before buying - look whether there are good instruction videos on Youtube how to build a certain ship. Because as you will see some steps in the manual don't make sense or are confusing. Or very limited, like - which is typical - for the planking. The instuction videos show you how it can be done. For instance, for the HM Cutter Sherbourne, this is a complete overview with very detailed step by step instructions: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDmdDid03S9bYd3O5UFM8cNx1xtL8sBv7&si=-Et8z-3hwgtrbEWP

As a beginner, I would go for good quality and good instructions as it will be hard enough. At least some parts. When you gain experience, you get an idea and knowledge how to tackle certain parts. To the degree that even if the quality is not that good, you can make it work.