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Hind of a Different Kind - Airfix 1/72 Golden Hind


Scargsy

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So here's my entry for the GB - the Golden Hind, as sailed around the world by Francis Drake.

 

I did a bit of digging and apparently during the circumnavigation she stopped in Mogador (Essaouira) in Morocco, then Santiago Island (Cape Verde Islands, off the West Coast of Africa), before heading to the Americas. On the way back (several years, a few oceans and much pirating later) stopping off at the Western Tip of Africa at what is modern day Sierra Leone.

 

It's far from my comfort zone - not something I'd usually consider but I got it as a birthday present the other year so thought I'd try build it.

 

First thing to say it's it's a big kit, the cutting mat marked area is I think A3 for reference...

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So there's at least one bit broken that doesn't appear to be in the loose bits, some odd looking components - the black thing I guess is some kind of jig for making rigging from the spools of cotton and some thin vacuform sails. 

A few very large decals and instructions in the newer Airfix format...

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Onwards...

The initial step involves attaching the two hull pieces to the deck, easier said than done. Firstly the sprue attachments were so thick I needed to use a razor saw to get the hull off, then they don't align very well, attaching 3 large badly fitting pieces together was a job for Paul the Octopus, thank god for Tamiya extra-thin, you can glue and hold a section for a minute or so before moving along to the next, and so on.

Note the bit towards the front I spent ages trying to get the upper front deck to align but then found it neatly fit under the horizontal beam (otherwise the deck didn't want to fit on the lower section, so much so I thought maybe that's some detail part, but then no - the opposite side wasn't like that at all. After the photo was taken I managed to pry the deck there back up and attach it above that part. I'm still not 100% sure if that's the intended way or not.

There were also lots of injector marks I needed to sand out to get the pieces to conform.

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Anyhow it's started now, lots of filler will be required!

 

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Hi,

 

I had forgotten Airfix made this - I have built most of their "historic ship" kits both in tiny Series 1  (including this ship) and the larger mixed scale ones such as Victory, Great Western, Prince, Royal Sovereign, Cutty Sark and St. Louis, but the nearest I ever came to this was their Revenge which I gather was 1/144 Scale. One trick I found that may be of use to you - the rigging thread can be a little difficult to keep tight all over as the masts and yards flex (though perhaps not as much in this scale!) so I found that wetting it once it is finished made it shrink and tighten up, though it is a bit "Pot Luck" how it ends up! However, as the thread (probably the Heller stuff I have a few spools of) is white(ish) you will probably want to paint it, and being water based, Acrylic paint may do the job for you😁. I seem to remember that once wet it initially stretches which looks worrying but then shrinks back.

 

Don't envy you painting it - Revenge was bad enough with the same sort of triangular pattern. This being long before the advent of coppering, I assume they tell you to paint the underside of the hull white - white lead and possibly horsehair comes to mind in an attempt to stop the Teredos or "ship" worm - if you can't stop it, then poison it I guess! 

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited by PeterB
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