Bounty: HM Armed Vessel 1787 (ShipCraft 30) by Kerry Jang

Author:Kerry Jang [Kerry Jang]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781399022897
Google: Dhk-zwEACAAJ
Publisher: Seafort Publishing
Published: 2023-03-14T21:00:00+00:00

Each month’s selection of parts is wrapped in plastic. Just a few months’ collection is shown here.

Typical selection of laser cut components. At the top are the stem and stern pieces, and below that four of the nearly one hundred (!) sheets containing the frame components.

Today’s technology has put this type model within reach of all modellers by lofting the thousands of timbers with 3D modelling techniques. The ship’s timbers are cut using lasers with figureheads and decorative sculptures carved using 3D routers. Cast brass and resin parts, often supplemented with 3D printed parts provide high-definition fittings, with etched brass components providing rudder hinges, brackets, chains and strops. In many kits, even the rigging blocks are milled in wood using 3D designs giving each block the proper shape, scored for strops, and realistic sheave detail.

DeAgostini have created a framed model of Bounty but be aware that no such model of Bounty ever existed. The McKay drawings appear to be the basis for the structural timbers but the model differs in a number of details. For example, the number of frames is half of what was used to frame Bounty’s hull so the model’s interior and breadfruit pot racks can be more readily seen. The kit parts are split into 12 ‘chapters’ that are purchased by monthly subscription. Each chapter is structured in a way to provide you with enough varied tasks to keep you from getting bored until the next month’s instalment arrives. For example, in the first few sets you assemble and paint a swivel gun, build the keel parts, and make a start on the elaborate building jig that holds everything together.

No scale plans or printed instructions of the ship are provided and must be downloaded from DeAgostini’s website. The lack of scale plans is a problem because there is no real way of checking if your construction is accurate. For example, the fit of the model into the building jig is quite slack and there is no way of knowing if this slackness is deliberate to facilitate taking the model in and out of the jig or if your construction of the hull is somehow undersized. Similarly, with the deck beams: some of them are cut to approximately the correct length being just a little over-long, but some are much too long. It makes you wonder if the parts were cut correctly or your hull is too narrow. At the bow some of the beam notches are clearly in the wrong place, and there is no way to check where they should be except in situ.

The downloadable instructions are very well illustrated with lengthy step-by-step illustrations, but working from them on a computer or tablet at the workbench can be annoying. Printing off the hundreds of pages – many of which unnecessarily show the same assembly instructions for a single timber from several perspectives – is a waste of paper. A set of scale drawings would have been infinitely preferable.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.