Sovereign of the Seas - Sergal 1:78 (with hopefully many added details)

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

Other bits of info regarding the excellent Czech forum, and their criticism of Sergal’s out-of-the-box product. Posting only as an FYI for anyone interested.
I am way beyond angstIng over these (my) hundreds of mistakes. And I've spent a lot of time Google translating many of these notifications letter-by-letter haha...

Still Hats of to You Kurt for you’re choosing the DeAgostini arguably a better starting choice. The conundrum is, of course, how to recreate the many hundreds of gold metal bits (as you want to do Kurt). Though with the DeAgostini one could use gold foil over the decorative bits as opposed to just painting them with gold paint?



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The choice to start with the DeAgostini model was based on the hull shape, and at that time, I was actually looking to build an accurate model right out of the box without major changes. I thought the kit would be fairly accurate historically... THAT DIDN'T LAST LONG! The kit is very expensive. After learning that all those nice decorations were wrong, and after gathering better research information on the Sovereign, It was apparent that major changes and replacements of parts were necessary. Everything was going to be changed. The Mantua Sovereign has beautiful decorations, and more accurate than DeAgostini. I even bought a set of SotS decorations from Amati, hoping they would be better, but even though they're more detailed, the figures are not correct on the ship's sides, just like the other kits. So, they have to be made from scratch. With my luck, someone with Chris Watton's devotion will build an accurate kit just as I finish my model years from now.

 

[oldflyer]

Kurt,
So, DeAgostini also misses the mark - And Amati no longer produces this product. That leaves Sergal - that arguably "owns" this particular example for builders and they keep continually lowering the quality of the kit's contents. YIKES

(I had to order some extra wood parts for my kit ($50.00) - Sergal UK sent me the lazer cut wood panel - not even a match much cheaper wood - (I did not post this particular rant in this log) but so it goes.
Sergal UK did reach out saying that the particular wood panel that I needed had to be replaced with a cheaper type of wood. Tossed it into waste bin.

Regarding Chris Watton - it's been many years and builders are still waiting for what looks to be the "Rolls Royce" quality kit of the HMS Victory for its release from Amati in 1/64th.

If you are interested here is a link to this Amati project over at MSW from Chris Watton. That said Vanguard Models are far-and-away the best kits available on the market IMO

Amati 1:64 HMS Victory - LATEST NEWS

Hi all, I was just wondering, is Caldrcraft (1:72 version) the go to kit for Victory freaks? Is it the most detailed/accurate on the market? Indeed, is it the largest? Anyone know of any others to rival Caldercraft's version or any planned by other manufacturers in the pipeline? Cheers Chris

modelshipworld.com

Regards,

 

[Maarten]

Hi John,

Nice progress on the SotS, like the test you did on the chain wales.

Regarding the Victory kit that seems to be at a complete hold for the moment. A pity for such a nice kit.