Deagostini Bounty-admiralty style

[Wahka_est]

Hi

 

Anyone has ordered new Deagostiny new 1:48 admiralty style Bounty? Hows the quality etc?

 

It seems to be real eyecatcher.

12x80 pounds a month seems quite expensive even with 1st month discount.

 

[ccoyle]

It might simply be a matter of general unfamiliarity with the product. I don't personally have any experience with DeAgostini, and I don't think we have all that many build log or gallery entries for them, either.

[JeffT]

The Deagostini bounty is a new kit. Its possible that no one has ordered one yet. I know its not available here in the USA.

 

I would suggest looking at the Deagostini forums on their website. Their may be some build logs there.

[BLACK VIKING]

4 hours ago, Altima211 said:

I ask some question about DeAgostiny, and have several view, but no response. May be we can't ask this kind of question ?

Hi if you search Model Space forum it's the Deag forum site and all the information is there. Hope this helps 

Martyn

 

[JeffT]

It does look like a nice kit though. I do like the admiralty style.

[Wahka_est]

It is a nice kit but very expensive. I would say too expensive...

[JeffT]

There are a couple of deagostini build logs on-site here also. Here are a couple. If you use the search feature you'll find a few more:

 

 

 

[Matt H]

I can't speak to that specific kit and I am still relatively new at this hobby but I'll give my input regarding DeAgostini. I started their subscription service for the Sovereign of the Seas almost a year ago. After month 1 there were some apparent issues with payment and I stopped receiving several months, once that was corrected I began receiving month 2 and so on. I am due to receive month 5 here soon, it just shipped.

 

I have put the keel and bulk heads together and part of the stern and bow. I have put together a couple of the cannons. I should have waited until I was ready to move forward with the entire build before doing this as now I have to store the assembled frame until then. I intend on this being something I complete years down the road after I get more experience with some other models. My knowledge of materials is limited in experience, but from what i have seen so far I have not had any problems with the quality of materials. The only issue I have found is that the rib frames and bulkheads are sometimes warped a little to where they curve fore or aft. I considered ordering replacements, but I'll get into their customer service or communication in a minute, but I realized that I can flex them back into position by hand. Forgive my inexperience and lack of correct terms, but the horizontal braces between bulkhead/rib frames, that will frame out the gun ports will eventually be placed and straighten those frames out to vertical. So I am confident that that slight warping issue won't be a problem down the road. As far as straight and true the keel seems to be fine.

 

I will say the SotS kit is very well organized. As I said I have put together a couple of the cannons because they like to spread the work out in various areas of the ship from month to month. So instead of at some point down the road building 100 cannons, you get a few cannons every shipment to put together and give you something else to work on besides the typical order presented in instruction manuals. Back to their organization, each month I believe has 12 steps and each step has it's own bagged package of parts. So instead of getting a box full of parts for the whole month, you get 12 different bags of parts unique to that specific step. I haven't put much together, but I have yet to see anything missing. Each bag is numbered with the numbered step and at a quick glance you can take inventory of the bagged step of parts. 

 

One of the selling points for me on this kit was the instruction manual. Despite my inexperience I think someone with little experience, a bit of internet know how, this forum, and these instructions could put this kit together quite well. The instructions are full color, English, and the first half of each months issue has historical information about the ship and era. You can look up pdf versions of the SotS instructions on their website. 

 

The problem I have had with them so far, is communication, or lack their of. My first month arrived without any instructions. I found out soon after that they may be phasing out those printed instructions and going to digital only. I was told this was on specific kits, and the SotS is still advertising physical, fully colored, instructions. There isn't much in the way of contact info on their website, a contact form, but no email address. I used the form and got nothing back for several days. I went to the forums and posted a question on the SotS section. It disappeared one day, and I assumed it was deleted, which made me mad. So I finally called them. That's when I was told about the digital instructions. I explained I didn't want digital, I don't want to use my phone to look at instructions, nor do I have a computer that can sit near my work area. I forget exactly how the sequence of events went from there, but I got the first month free, only paid shipping. I was considering canceling after all this. Finally I found my post on the forums had been moved to a complaint forum instead of the SotS forum. I believe I was given an email to contact. I did, was still several days, then I finally got a response that it was an error with their US shipping department or it was out of stock at the time. They would send a replacement out. 

 

Long story short, I don't usually get a response from anyone before at least a week has past. I have since also not received the instructions for month 3. I emailed that same email from before, was told a new one would ship on April 19th, and would take 2-3 weeks to arrive. I then received month 4 early May, still no instructions for month 3. Finally on June 1st I emailed them back. Was told the month 3 instructions are out of stock and that the order is in the system and would be sent out when available. 

 

At this point I am 5 months into this payment wise, I am not going to cancel now and have parts to a ship I can't finish and waste that money. It may be possible to send it all back and get a refund, but who knows what that process would be like. I still want the kit, and will deal with the missing instructions from time to time. I think it is a good quality kit, good accuracy, comparable price to other SotS kits, and when present, great instructions. If they can improve their customer service, response times, sending everything that is supposed to be sent, etc I think they could be a good company.

 

Also as a side note, there is no way to cancel online, you must call them. The online account is very lacking in details. When I look at my past orders, all I have is an order for the SotS monthly subscription for $9.99. The first month was free so all I paid was $9.99 shipping. There are no details on monthly shipments, monthly payments, dates, nothing. You do get an email when they take a payment and ship a month, but no tracking and nothing in the account records from the customer perspective. So don't delete your emails, those are your best source of information.

[JeffT]

The step by step instructions they provide are very good.

[Dakwinner]

I purchased the admiralty Bounty kit by subscription. I has also bought their IJN Akagi previously. Their kits hold their own against any other reputable manufacturer and the instructions are very good. The only point I can complain about is the lack of plans. They rely solely on the instruction book and do not provide any plan sheets.

 

I do have to praise their customer service. After I received my first four Bounty installments, they ran a 25% off sale. I called and asked if I was eligible. To my surprise, the reduced the price on all future installments by 25% AND refunded me 25% on all previously delivered installments. Can't complain about that!

 

The wood frets on the Bounty appear to be a type of mahogany which is fine but a bit bland. The cuts are clean and precise. It should be a fun model to build. someday!

[grsjax]

What do you get for the high cost of  the monthly installments.  I saw the instruction PDFs on the website but not much about the actual packs of parts.  How many packs do you get each month?

[Bob Fraser]

7 hours ago, grsjax said:

What do you get for the high cost of  the monthly installments. 

It looks like there are 12 packs - 96 installments at 8 packs a delivery hence the high monthly cost. NO magazines, just the PDF downloads.

Here's a link to the finished version on thier modelspace forum, what they call an Official Build , of only 3 builds

It's done by a subscriber and is itself a modified build.

Hope this helps.

[kljang]

I have purchased and built the kit.  The model is featured in my new book ShipCraft 30: Bounty to be released in the UK on March 30, a little later in the US.

 

The model was fun and certainly is impressive, but there are some issues that are easily corrected.  It is the only Bounty model in frame.

 

I purchased all the instalments at once, and for me made building easier as I could say, make all the guns at once.  
 

Cheers,

 

Kerry Jang

[allanyed]

Kerry

Congratulations on your new book!   

Allan

[kljang]

Thanks Allan,

 

The BOUNTY book was a lot of interesting work because virtually all kits are based on the movie replicas, so a lot of work went into sorting what her colour scheme actually was.  Also, John McKay worked out as best he could the actual mast and yard sizes.  Bounty was converted from Bethia and her existing rig was altered by the Navy Yard and then by Bligh.  It’s all in a large table in the book.

 

Back to the DeAgostini kit, as I note in the book, the frame construction follows the usual practice of the day, but the kit includes only half of them so you can see the interior.  John McKay’s Bounty book and plans were used as an inspiration but the kit differs from them in some important ways - actually most kits extant differ from his drawings.  But, there are no contemporary illustrations of the ship given her short life so any kit and drawings must be reconstructed from her draughts (which exist) and written log entries.

 

Writing this book was a challenge as the mutiny story is so well known and bringing the reader back to the actual ship herself was an interesting task.  I really did not want to retell the story of the mutiny but you have to because it is central to this ship. 
 

‘Fingers crossed’ I got the balance right!

 

warm regards,

 

Kerry

 

 

[allanyed]

Hi Kerry

Did you make your own launch and/or cutter and jolly boats that Bounty carried?   The reason I ask is that in looking at photos on-line at this kit the boat that is shown looks more like a pinnace than a launch and the her scantlings are pretty far off from those based on contemporary information.   

Allan

 

Edited February 1, 2023 by allanyed

[kljang]

Hi Allan,

 

I didn’t finish building the launch because as you say, didn’t look quite right and left it off.  The thing about Bounty kits in general as they include generic boat parts, or the wrong boats, or boats that were never carried.  
 

The book reproduces the NMM draughts of a standard launch such as that ordered for Bounty so the modeller can modify the kit parts to a more authentic representation.

 

In general, the biggest issue I had with the DeAgostini model is that there are no plans so you must build it blind - we are a bunch of modellers that work from plans, so building it like a plastic kit is a bit disconcerting.  However, after building it I must say it went together well with little problem and looks great. I followed the instructions until the end when I decided to plank it differently to show off more of the frames.  If you follow the instructions for example, virtually the entire deck id planked covering up all the intricate beam work.  Same with the hull.  Planking covers up so much of the frames I left off a lot.  I added paint work to bring in some colour. 
 

Overall, the kit is a very easy way of building a model in frame.  I am not sure of the wood species, mine was a medium hard flecked wood.  It had a nice warm colour too it. 
 

Warm regards,

 

kerry