Which San Felipe?

I always prefer to go straight to manuf page to make sure that I am reading it all. This is the link to ZHL Model San Felipe. I might be mistaken, but, I think you will be ok with this kit. They have the entire list of contents on their site. I personally would not try to make any kind of educated guess based off of any eBay product page. Yes, even thought it is the same product. eBay seems to either dismiss or add info. This is the kit that I should have gotten instead of the panart.

San Felipe 1690

www.zhlmodel.com www.zhlmodel.com
 
Built the sovereign over 20 years ago. THEN a good kit with plenty of decorations-good castings, but can't say about current kits. However, the ZHL pictures look good and the site details impressive, but I have no experience with them -only personal experience from other RECENT builders can guide you
 
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is the zhl kit worth the money? i love to build large kits. does zhl have a large kit of it? can someone let me know about this kit
 
terry said:
is the zhl kit worth the money? i love to build large kits. does zhl have a large kit of it? can someone let me know about this kit
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Check this two build logs

San Felipe (ZHL) 1:50

Hello, i couldn't wait til my birthday and my family gave me the "permission" to start with my birthday present. The San Felipe from ZHL is a very nice model kit with colored and detailed instructions. The ship size is: 1200mm x 930mm x 475mm. Yesterday i started building and so far there are no...
shipsofscale.com

San felipe 1690 zhl kit 1:50

Oké gonna try a build log from this kit. Started to take out the keel parts. Didn't have to do anything with it. It fits needless. All the parts are laser cut with big numbers on it. The drawings are a bit different from the drawings from other kits. They are A4 and there are 2 a0 drawings. I am...
shipsofscale.com
 
Hallo @Stargazer ,
we wish you all the BEST and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Enjoy your day
Birthday-Cake
PS: When ever you decided which one of the San Felipes you want to build, or any other project, we hope to see here a building log of your model :cool:
 
The old Mantua/Panart kits were nice. However, the newer versions with laser cut decks and parts are cheaply made and the wood is not that good. The parts are made in 3 layers and some come apart when you try to remove them from the sheets or try to put them on the ship. Their rigging drawings are generic and usually grossly wrong. They have improved the instructions tremendously, (I believe they are trying to compete with the ZHL instructions) where they detail each step. In some cases, like the Cutty Sark kit, they do not supply a lot the parts they provided in the older kits and you have to figure out what is missing and special order what has been left out. All the decking was in the wrong scale and I had to order wood to do the decking and the cabins. Many other items had to be bought also.
Thus, if you want to build a ship that is anything close to right, you need to do a lot of research. Each kit is a generic copy of some ship. Decking sizes change over tie and so did the rigging. Mantua does not have a large staff so research is not something they spend much time on. When the finish making one kit, they must retooling for the next kit. They design the kits to keep this to a minimum.
 
GaryM said:
The old Mantua/Panart kits were nice. However, the newer versions with laser cut decks and parts are cheaply made and the wood is not that good. The parts are made in 3 layers and some come apart when you try to remove them from the sheets or try to put them on the ship. Their rigging drawings are generic and usually grossly wrong. They have improved the instructions tremendously, (I believe they are trying to compete with the ZHL instructions) where they detail each step. In some cases, like the Cutty Sark kit, they do not supply a lot the parts they provided in the older kits and you have to figure out what is missing and special order what has been left out. All the decking was in the wrong scale and I had to order wood to do the decking and the cabins. Many other items had to be bought also.
Thus, if you want to build a ship that is anything close to right, you need to do a lot of research. Each kit is a generic copy of some ship. Decking sizes change over tie and so did the rigging. Mantua does not have a large staff so research is not something they spend much time on. When the finish making one kit, they must retooling for the next kit. They design the kits to keep this to a minimum.
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I'm sorry to read this. About 22 years ago on a driving holiday with wife son and daughter-in-law, I persuaded them that a scenic route from Padua to Rome via Mantova (Mantua) was worthwhile. Poorly by coincidence I stopped by the address of the kit company. Literally a cottage industry with a large reception room with examples of all there models on display. I needed a part, some clear plastic for the 1250 Amerigo Vespucci I was building. I was interested in buying the Wasa, but disappointed in the finished model as displayed. I bought the Sovereign of the Seas instead. The kit was "made up" for me while I waited- less than an half an hour. Their enlish was poor , my italian was non existent, but they were nice and enthusiastic and charged me about half the discounted price advertised . Its sad that ?moving with times or economic demands or just fading enthusiasm, causes changes for the worse. I must say however that armed launch that I built and made 2 years ago was good and the Victory bow I purchased last year remains boxed so I hope not to be disappointed. Generally speaking , I found European kits the instructions are poor and the wood better than than those from larger manufactures in USA but maybe I limited my choice. Overall I would rather the better wood and use the references I have built up than have a poor finished product.
 
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