I bought this kit before I learned of a controversy regarding piracy of wooden ship model kits by Chinese manufacturers. I doubt that this kit falls in that category and I have no way of knowing whether those who manufactured this kit engage in such practices. I bought it because it was inexpensive and I wanted to get some experience planking hulls before proceeding on one of my more expensive kits. It has a few good points and several not so good points. All the laser cut parts were easy to detach from the plywood sheet and the framework assembled without any problems. Everything in this kit is either wood or string including the cannon barrels, capstan, anchors and etc. It comes without fittings, no blocks, cleats, bollards etc and it had insufficient strips of wood for the planking. Assembly instructions are pictorial only, unless you can read chinese. There are no instructions about assembling the masts or yards. I have several other kits of ships of this type so stepping the masts and making the yards shouldn't be much of a challenge. I actually didn't anticipate going much beyond planking the hull as that was my goal for this kit. But since I now have adequate supplies of everything I need to continue to completion I probably will finish the model. I now have the hull planked and I learned a lot in the process. I wasn't afraid to experiment since my monetary investment was small.
