Having, like yourself I suspect, a romantic attraction to the most legendary of all clipper ships (IMHO) the Flying Cloud, imagine my excitement at finding Scott Bradner's plans online. He chose to use the Mamoli kit as a point of departure as it is the only kit currently available of the ship. I had been saving an old Bluejacket pre-carved hull for the purpose. I now wish I had started with that, given the endless headaches of bashing the Mamoli offering into something close to Bradner's and the old Bluejacket plans (still available) which are far superior to what Mamoli has to offer. Bradner, as it turns out has based much of his conclusions on the Horace Boucher 1916 model, which, while beautiful, is as much a product of conjecture that subsequent models of Flying Cloud appear to be heir to. As you are aware, I have had to do an extensive amount of retro-surgery, re-modeling, re-painting and redesigning of my model to bring it into some semblance of the physical design and appearance of the ship brought to light by other contributors who have offered well researched and compelling arguments for the actual appearance, design and construction peculiar to Donald Mckay's ships
These have compelled me to depart from some critical aspects of Scott Bradner's offerings, markedly changing the look of my model from his and others I found to be compelling and attractive.
I have seen an old complete BlueJacket kit on Ebay for $400. You can still get a complete set of fittings for Flying Cloud from BlueJacket in1:96 scale including a nice figurehead which can spare you the considerable task of making your own. The old BlueJacket plans are still the best, but still require some alterations to bring them into compliance with the latest research.
rwiederrick and ClipperFan have provided the most useful and comprehensive information and advice for building a model of Flying Cloud (or pretty much any McKay clipper, for that matter) on my build log, that I have had the good fortune to become acquainted with as a result of my pursuit of modelling the ship.
A caveat: I do not recommend my own efforts as an example to follow. While some details and ideas may (I hope) prove useful, I think it best that you start from scratch and develop your own distinct approach. I am sure, that in retrospect, I will see some ideas and techniques that you arrive at, and think "Why didn't I think of that?" That is if you choose to build Flying Cloud. I also built the old 1955 Model Shipways "Young America" in gallery#12, Mis-labeled (as you will, no doubt, notice) "Issac" not William Webb as the builder. That I offered as a "builder's" style model with stub masts and very abbreviated rigging. Saved about a year of work. Scott Bradner chose to finish his Flying Cloud the same way.
