Trying to identify the manufacturer of this Santa Maria kit***SOLVED!***

[JerseyCity Frankie]

I may be asked to restore and complete this twenty year old kit of the Santa Maria. I am told it is 1:50 scale and 29" long. All I have seen is photos so far, not the actual kit. I am doing some legwork trying to figure out who made the kit and am hitting a snag.

I see that Mantua has a 1:50 scale Santa Maria and I though my problem was solved until I took a closer look and could see that there is a decorative row of stern windows on all versions of the Santa Maria, and few kits agree with each other on the number of these windows.

Here are three photos. One of the uncompleted ship and a shot of the plans for the uncompleted ship, each showing six decorative windows.

The third photo is of a competed 1:50 scale mantua kit with ten decorative windows.

 

Artisana Latina makes a 1:65 scale Santa Maria but with NO windows aft.

 

 Is it possible that it IS a Mantua kit but twenty years ago their kits had only six windows and now they have ten?

Can anyone enlighten me on who made this kit? 

Edited October 3, 2015 by JerseyCity Frankie

[JerseyCity Frankie]

I asked for photos of the instruction sheets, assuming the manufacturers name would be found there, but nothing obvious is visible, just the cryptic legend "nr 8017"

Edited October 3, 2015 by JerseyCity Frankie

[marktiedens]

I have the Mamoli kit which shows 6 windows,however the plan sheet looks a little different & has no nr8017 on it.The mamoli kit is 1/50 scale. The date on the plans is 1988 so maybe yours are older or newer. I don`t know anything about the other Santa Maria kits.

 

 

/Mark

[NMBROOK]

Pretty confident this is the long discontinued Billings kit 

 

Kind Regards

 

Nigel

[amateur]

The drawing is definitvely a Billings drawing. Also, the basic hulli comstruction is Billings, so Billings it is.

 

Jan

[JerseyCity Frankie]

Thanks guys that was fast, the power of Model Ship World! I googled "Billings Boats Santa Maria" and after poking around and sipping coffee, I found this UK site with a set of plans on sale   :http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/billing-boats-santa-maria-plans-513208631

The graphic matches exactly the photos of the plans I was sent. You guys are right, this is clearly a Billings Boat model kit.

Some back story on this project: I was put in touch with a man who's ship model building father had passed away and who was looking to have this uncompleted Santa Maria model finished. I was sent about eight photos of the model about 70% complete. The model had sat around for many years, as these old uncompleted models do, getting dusty, and it is time to finish the model!

[grsjax]

Not to high jack the thread but those are not windows but decorative panels.