This model was released in France more than five years ago and was recently released here in Portugal. In France it followed the kit of the Soleil Royal also by Altaya, but the Soleil was never released here as far as I know, the Ambitieux is the first experiment of Altaya here in Portugal.
It is being released in weekly issues consisting of kit parts plus a publication with detailed instructions and some articles about ships and navies. As this week the issue was number 44, this is going to be a very loooooooooong build.
The Ambitieux by Altaya is not the ship covered by Jean Boudriot's monography although it looks like Altaya based loosely his model on it. It represents a XVII century ship with the rich decorations of the time.
According to the french modellers its scale is something between 1/64 and 1/72. Altaya refers 1/59 but this seems to be wrong. The french modellers based their calculation on the size of the cannons!!!
The indicated lenght is 97cm and the hull is a bit longer than NS del Pilar, making it (by my standards) a huge model.
For what I could see in a French forum, this is a very beautiful model and even beats the Soleil Royal.
Here are two pictures that I stole from the forum Modelisme Naval Bois, made by mr. papykapi.
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A lovely model without any doubt.
Altaya got a lot a bad critics with their Soleil Royal, bad design, bad wood and bad decorations. It seems that this model is very different and much better, they took a lot of care with it, and the moulds are not ancient moulds adapted, they are new ones made specifically for the Ambitieux.
It seems that the model was designed by Occre, if it is so, what a difference for better from the NS del Pilar. Two separate worlds. I hope it is what it promises. So far, no complains.
It is an expensive model. 140 issues at €7,99 gives something near the €1200. Even comparing with the more complex chinese kits this is a very expensive kit. But being only €32 a month, who cares?
Is it worth the price? Well, I don´t know yet, but I can say that it has very good wood, very goog metal decorations and until now, compared with my other models, it is worth every euro. Let's hope it goes on this way.
The fit of the parts is perfect and it almost goes without glue. Considering that it is designed to fit A4 measures of the issues, it turns out a very solid hull.
I am still on the hull structure, no hurries, it is going to take almost 2 years to get the complete model, so now and then to change from my other builds I give it some attention and a little advance.
What you get for your money:
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Some pictures of the building
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Metal pieces (note the details on the cannons)
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And it is all for now. I don't promise very frequent updates, but I'll post as I go along.
Regards
JL
