Museum quality?
The ship just did not seem right the more I looked at it and added detail. Thus, I started comparing it to the museum model. The side angle of the stern was 10 degrees on the museum model, 14 on mine. The extended 3 decks were to have the same angle. The side walkways on the stern galleries were slanted forward about 8 degrees on the museum model and Mantua shows them to around 30 degrees. I made mine 10 degrees and things still did not seem right. My last cannon on the main deck was still about 12 mm to low when compared with the museum models.
Checking further. I found that the main gun deck in the middle was to low also. Going forward to the bow, the same thing was true. This explains why the forecastle deck has such a sway in it. It should be about 15 mm higher. This also, explains why the last deck in the stern have such as strong rake that it would be almost impossible to walk on when the ship was underway. There is two versions of the trim on the back and I chose the one that seems logical and seems to be the one that would best fit the kit design, which is different than the Mantua version. The back window was also raised and relocated closer to the the galleries like all the museum models.
Mantua shows that there were 15 guns on the main deck, one of which would shoot through the side stern wall of the gallery. It also shows 15 on the next lower deck, which would do the same thing. The museum models have 14 guns on the all three gun decks.
What does all this mean? Because of the casting and detail that this Mantua model contains, it is a museum quality model but is not museum worthy and does matter how good you assemble the model. However, it still is a very nice simulation and makes a marvelous model.
Other discrepancies.
I already mentioned the omission of the stern gallery inside wall decorations. The cast rope x decorations are located wrong and there are not enough of them. The fleur de Lis are incorrectly cast and there are not enough of these either. There was also fleur de Lis on the cannon port doors that are exposed when the ports are open. There is not enough trim material to decorate the area and I had to purchase and extra 1000 mm piece. The supports for the lanterns on the each side had gold decorations and these are not included. The cannon ports in the back were stated as being 12 by 20 mm. The museum models differ, but indication is more like 12 by 12 or 12 by 15 mm. The gratings are out of scale and had to be replaced (typical in almost all kits). Also, typical of most kits, only a couple of sizes of block and deadeyes were included. There are only 3 sizes of rigging line, 0.5 mm, 1.0 mm and 1.75 mm.
One model indicates that the deadeye were the older style heart shape deadeyes. Some countries supposedly discontinued these in the earlier part of the previous century. However, when changes occurred, countries adopted these changes slower than others. Thus, even though unlikely, there might be a reason this vessel used the older style.
Current stage
At this time, I have spent 950 hours constructing this vessel and it contains over 3,400 pieces.
