Ocean Exploration Vessel, Revell 1/125th scale Options

[Jon Kunac-Tabino...]

Ocean Exploration Vessel
1:125 Revell

Revell's 1/125th scale model is rather blandly entitled "Ocean Exploration Vessel".

But if I was to say; "An so, wiz our scuba gear readee, Phillipe and I entered ze underzee realm once more - you might just get a clue as the real identity of this model.

What Revell have done is reissue their 1976 model of the famous RV Calypso, floating home and laboratory to famed oceanologist Jaques Cousteau. However, I guess due to licensing issues, they have released it under this generic title, with decals for a ship named, "Neptun".

The original Calypso was a minesweeper, BYMS-26 (British Yard Minesweeper) built for the British Royal Navy by the Ballard Marine Railway Co, Seattle, in the US. As hull number J-826 she was launched on March 21, 1942, and after acceptance and commissioning by the UK was assigned to the Mediterranean. After the war she became a ferry between Malta and the island of Gozo, and was renamed Calypso because, according to Homer, Calypso, a nymph, lived on the island of Gozo. The Irish entrepreneur Loel Guinness bought her while it was doing service as a Maltese ferry, and leased it to Cousteau for a symbolic one franc a year. Cousteau, restructured and transformed her into an expedition vessel, to provide support for immediate oceanographic analysis and diving and filming.

In 1996 a barge accidentally rammed Calypso and sank her in the port of Singapore. It was raised, and towed to the Maritime Museum of La Rochelle in 1998, where it was intended to be an exhibit. But after languishing and rusting at La Rochelle for six years, Calypso was sold to Carnival Cruise Lines for the symbolic sum of one Euro. Carnival state that they intend to give the vessel a 1.3 million dollar restoration, and then likely moor it in the Bahamas as an exhibit.

The model is moulded in a white hard plastic, and has just three large sprues with a total of 125 parts, plus a clear sprue for windows for the bridge and the little helicopter. The clear parts are quite thick, and a bit distorted, but short of crash moulding the canopy for the chopper, I don't think you are going to find any aftermarket replacements!

As usual Revell tag their own colours for painting details, most of which are generic colours and so easily found using your own preferred paints. A quick image Google for RV Calypso will reveal the colour scheme anyway, which is useful as Revell seem to have forgotten the painting guide in this sample.

The decals are nicely printed and there's a selection of paper flags to add to the rigging too. Whether a boat named Neptun exists I don't know (certainly it didn't appear on a Google search, so my guess is it's a fictional name) The use of a faux-ancient Greek script for the name certainly adds a bit of charm to the markings, as does the Trident motif for the chopper floats. Nice to see someone at Revell has got an overactive imagination.

1/125th scale seems an unusual scale to me, though not being fully equated with the etiquette of model boat scales, I don't know if it's a normal marine model scale. However in this scale you get a hull that's 13" long, so it will build into a nicely mantelpieced size replica. 1/125th scale is very close to 15mm wargaming scale too - if you fancy storming the ship with Marines, you're in luck.

Revell did a good job of capturing the unique features of the Calypso; the observation chamber at the bottom of the bow is there (you could drill out the portholes and glaze them if you wanted to), as is the helipad and diving platform on the stern. The portholes on the hull sides are also solid - so again, will need to be opened up if you want them glazed.

The parts are well detailed for a 35 year old model, but there is a reasonable amount of flash to be cleaned up, which given the nature of some of the parts, such as railings, crane derricks, ladders etc is going to be time consuming, but not unachievable.

In true Cousteau-esque spirit, Revell provide a plethora of diving bells, submersibles, dinghies and tenders for your ocean safari. There's even a shark cage, with 2 sharks, and some mini frogmen to utilise all the kit! A little Hughes 300 chopper model is also provided which looks very good and takes 16 parts to complete. Another nice little touch is the ships bell - delicately moulded as part of the bridge front.

The model also has a display stand included on the sprues, which is useful for holding the kit while its under construction too.

I cut out the main parts and taped and tacked them together to check the fit.For a model of this age, the parts fit very well. There are a couple of things to watch out for though. Firstly the sprue attachment points are quite quick, and the plastic seems a little brittle. I used side cutters on my model, as my scalpel wasn't up to the task. The bridge sides and internal superstructure walls locate via lugs into holes in the decks. On my model these holes needed enlarging to get a good fit. The 2 parts which make up the front of the bridge don't fit together well - you'll need to back the parts with some plastic card, I think, then fill the gap.

Overall this seems like a very nice kit. It's a shame about the flash on the detail parts, but I guess that's the age of the moulds showing. The model sells for around the £15 mark, which I think is pretty good value for what you get.

If you are prepared to clean up that flash, then you'll be rewarded with an unusual model of a famous ship, and if you have a few kits tucked under your modelling belt, this one shouldn't present too many difficulties at all.

Just don't let the sharks escape...


Jonners

Review sample courtesy of