Race Horse by Sergal 1/47

[mikegr]

This is my first wooden kit. I haven't built any. However I found it on a Facebook sale for half or less of the original price and decided to give it a chance. The absense of a 3rd mast calls for a significant less rigging job. This along with the interesring silhouette of the ship drew my attention immediately. The 1/47 Scale also sounded pretty satisfactory.

 

HMS Racehorse was an 18-gun ship-rigged (i.e. three-masted) sloop of the Royal Navy. Originally the French ship Marquis de Vaudreuil, she was captured by the Royal Navy in 1757 and refitted as a survey vessel for the 1773 Phipps expedition towards the North Pole. Renamed HMS Thunder in 1775, she was captured back by the French in 1778

 

Now the kit.

I don't know much about the quality of the woods but considering the price that seems like a basic kit. 

There are two illustrated booklets one presenting other models of the firm and the other some useful electric tools to work with wood.

 

There are four bunches of wood stripes. One for initial planking, one for final planking, one mixed.one (spare?) and a final one I suppose for the deck.

Next are the detailing parts like pulleys, anchors as well as nails and a British flag so big that I could stick it on my jacket(I mostly built 1/700 scale lol). Underneath this some more brass parts. No PE included. From a first point of view there is some space for improvement like adding some extra detail perhaps some barrels, a brass bell and more

Next are the parts for the hull, deck, frames, etc. These come in 2 laser cut sets, one plywood, I guess about 4mm thick and another one quite thinner from a wood unknown to me. Looks like same with the one used for final planking. Finally there is a curved brass strip which I don't know what's for, yet.

Finally there is a 2 sided sheet for instructions. It occupies half of the bed I guess model is displayed in real scale 1/47 but more experts modelers will know better. It seems pretty basic I think and without planking instructions. Fortunately there is so much info online that actually I am confused of which way I should follow if ever decide to start it

[markjay]

Good luck and

Edited March 27, 2022 by markjay

[Bill Morrison]

My father got this kit for me back in the 1990s.  It's a fun kit to build but there is one glaring error to me. It has no cannons. It is only an impression to me, but I believe that this type of ship did have some defensive armament.

 

Bill

[mikegr]

3 hours ago, Bill Morrison said:

My father got this kit for me back in the 1990s.  It's a fun kit to build but there is one glaring error to me. It has no cannons. It is only an impression to me, but I believe that this type of ship did have some defensive armament.

 

Bill

That was a small disappointment to me also, I was tricked by the gunholes later noticed that they empty. Gotta still learn a a lot.

[Bob Fraser]

Hi Mike.

These Sergal kits do have pretty limited instructions ( I have the President on hold), and they seem to have a penchant for misnaming / representing some models as real ships rather than a type.

If you do a search above for "racehorse" in the titles only you'll find some completed models, and the Articles database here has good planking tutorials.

This link shows plan details of the Racehorse 1757 and this the Granado 1742 that the model appears to be loosly based on.

Whatever you do, have fun with the build and enjoy it.

Cheers,

Bob

[mikegr]

1 hour ago, Bob Fraser said:

Hi Mike.

These Sergal kits do have pretty limited instructions ( I have the President on hold), and they seem to have a penchant for misnaming / representing some models as real ships rather than a type.

If you do a search above for "racehorse" in the titles only you'll find some completed models, and the Articles database here has good planking tutorials.

This link shows plan details of the Racehorse 1757 and this the Granado 1742 that the model appears to be loosly based on.

Whatever you do, have fun with the build and enjoy it.

Cheers,

Bob

Thanks these plans may help enhancing the model with further detail

meantime i found this building log quite useful from a guy saying that this was his first built i think. Pretty encouraging!