Hello and welcome to everyone who has been following my build of HMS Blandford by Modelship Dockyard and thank you for your encouragement along the way. This will be my final post on this enjoyable and successful build. It was completed fairly quickly, not because it was easy with little to do but because it became like a drug, I had to have my daily fix and always felt that I wanted to move noticeably forward each day, resulting in long hours at the bench, fortunately being winter there wasn’t the motivation to do much else.
This was my first POF build, I haven’t anything to compare it with so take this into consideration.
This kit was well thought out, the pear wood was all excellent quality, the parts were mostly cleanly cut and very accurate and it all went together well. I don’t think that it was the most accurate version of an actual ship and some purists wouldn’t be satisfied but it did make up mostly out of the box a very nice display model and one that most would be proud of. I would recommend it to most modellers with experience, but not for beginners.
As with many kits this was not perfect so for a balanced verdict I’ll give my dislikes.
First, this I believe is an issue with all POF builds, DUST, and more dust. The amount of sanding and cleaning up of char I found was unpleasant, like many I build in my house not having a dedicated workshop, this caused friction with my wife, but once the bulk of this sanding was done relations improved and the build became fun.
Secondly and most important was the lack of clear instructions and very little in the way of plans/illustrations, relying mostly on computer created images with no measurements or detail, often you had to guess exactly where parts went, if even a couple of cm. out it could have a knock on effect. There was quite an issue with the quarter deck, with no plans or drawing you couldn’t see the problem and plan ahead to avoid, it was only after completing that section that it could be seen to be wrong and then had to be corrected.
I also disliked the sheets with laser engraved decking, it's quick to fit but looks tacky, unrealistic and completely at odds with the rest of the planking, give me plain planks and let me do them myself, it wouldn’t cost any more.
The photo etch was pretty much useless, I think it was supplied as this is now expected, I would have preferred just lettering for the transom, that would have been nice.
These are just my personal thoughts and shouldn’t detract from what is a good kit. I would add that any issue that I had regarding the build was answered usually within hours by Modelship Dockyard, they do care about there product, they are fairly new to the market and are looking to improve on what are good kits to start with, I would definitely buy another of their kits without reservation.
You may like to follow my next build, a Sopwith Camel, an interlude from ship modelling.
Now just the final photos, a lot I’m afraid but I couldn’t decide which to show so I just put them all in, enjoy.
