kit review 1:65 HMS Endeavour - Artesania Latina

[James H]

1:65 HMS Endeavour
Artesania Latina
Catalogue # 22520
Available from Artesania Latina for €231.40

 

 

History
HMS Endeavour was a British Royal Navy research vessel that Lieutenant James Cook commanded to Australia and New Zealand on his first voyage of discovery from 1768 to 1771. She was launched in 1764 as the collier Earl of Pembroke, with the Navy purchasing her in 1768 for a scientific mission to the Pacific Ocean and to explore the seas for the surmised Terra Australis Incognita or "unknown southern land". Commissioned as His Majesty's Bark Endeavour, she departed Plymouth in August 1768, rounded Cape Horn and reached Tahiti in time to observe the 1769 transit of Venus across the Sun. She then set sail into the largely uncharted ocean to the south, stopping at the islands of Huahine, Bora Bora, and Raiatea west of Tahiti to allow Cook to claim them for Great Britain. In September 1769, she anchored off New Zealand, becoming the first European vessel to reach the islands since Abel Tasman's Heemskerck 127 years earlier.

 

In April 1770, Endeavour became the first European ship to reach the east coast of Australia, with Cook going ashore at what is now known as Botany Bay. Endeavour then sailed north along the Australian coast. The ship was largely forgotten after her Pacific voyage, spending the next three years hauling troops and cargo to and from the Falkland Islands. She was renamed in 1775 after being sold into private hands and used to transport timber from the Baltic. Rehired as a British troop transport during the American War of Independence, she was finally scuttled in a blockade of Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island in 1778. Relics from Endeavour are displayed at maritime museums worldwide, including an anchor and six of her cannon. A replica of Endeavour was launched in 1994 and is berthed alongside the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney Harbour. The NASA Space Shuttle Endeavour was named after this ship, as was the command module of Apollo 15, which took a small piece of wood from Cook's ship into space, and the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule C206 was christened Endeavour during Demo-2. 
Abridged extract from Wikipedia

 

The kit

Firstly, this kit bears no relation to the Endeavour kit of years gone by. This is a totally new development in that the construction is entirely different….different parts, methodology etc. Artesania, simply put, are not the same company from those years ago, but the new owners have taken on a lot of the old inventory while also developing entirely new releases, such as Endeavour, Vasa, and Soleil Royale etc. The Endeavour kit that is available today should not be viewed with a connection to the past. Artesania Latina has designed this new kit using the research available to them, and by studying the full-size replica which resides in Australia. They have also incorporated into it the ability to fit it out with their LED lantern set, by means of adding the various holes needed to thread cables. That set is a separate purchase to the kit, but we have it here and will show it as a separate article.  

 

 

The one thing which does have the original Artesania feel to it is the glossy, tough box that these kits are still packaged in. Artesania’s on-shelf presentation is as nice as it ever was. 

 

Inside the box, all parts are initially bundled within a large, cellophane wrapping. Remove this and you’ll find the timber and metal parts are within another wrap, and all of the timber strip bundles are also wrapped, as well as held together with an elastic wrap, which I quite like. Note that the planks are supplied as half-lengths, so not full bow to stern. Also there are the familiar Artesania Latina clear plastic fittings boxes. These are just a few on-bench images before I opened things up properly. 

 

 

Timber strip

Artesania's timber strips are definitely of a nice quality, being consistent in thickness and width. As I've stated, the hull planking is supplied as halves. My measurements show this to be 2mm x 5mm x 300mm lime strip. That's quite thick stuff to get around that very bluff hull, so I suggest you soak these beforehand, or use another tool such as a plank nipper to manipulate the material. Plenty of material is supplied for this. In fact, four whole bundles. There's no apparent stringiness or rough surface. This is just as well as Endeavour is SINGLE PLANKED! In a world where POF tend to be double planked, Artesania has bucked the trend with this. The 2mm wood should give the modeller plenty of leeway when it comes to sanding things, but getting the hull fairing right is very important. I also have to say at this point that the only part of the hull in which actual timber will be shown is a band around the width, the wale, which is given another layer of 0.5mm x 5mm strip unidentified timber. The rest of the hull above and below this is entirely painted. 

The quality of the remaining timber strip and dowel are as good as the lime, with no splitting, fraying, rough cut edges or any other defect.

 

 

Wooden parts
EIGHT sheets of plywood parts are supplied with Endeavour, in various thicknesses. All parts are cleanly laser cut and the material in my sample has no warping. I know some of the older AL kits had a strange spongy core to their ply, but this appears to be replaced with good quality ply in the new kits. One thing I did notice is that the single-hole rigging blocks are supplied as laser cut parts, for some reason, and you need to drill your hole in them. Not too keen on that idea. Here's the parts to show you the standard to expect in Endeavour:

These are single-hole rigging blocks (above)

There are a few things of particular note here. 

• The bulkheads are not as you would normally see. These are made up from several parts which create what is more of a frame than a bulkhead. The parts also are joined by a dovetail. 
• The stand is actually designed to accommodate, should you wish, an LED illumination module. AL have sent us one of these and I'll shortly post a review.
• All external keel parts are also in ply instead of solid timber, presumably because they completely painted.
• Two ship's boats are included, built up from frames that sit on a jig. 
• All parts are also laser etched with numbers, and a parts plan is also included in paper form.

 

 

 

Photo Etch

This single sheet of photo etch appears to be a stainless finish, or at least not nickel plated, to my eyes. The quality is pretty much what you'd expect from a contemporary manufacturer, in that the etchings are clean, detailed and the connection tabs are slight so should be easy to cut through. Just remember that any PE part will need the connection nub filing down before fitting. You are also advised to use a decent quality etching primer so your paint can get a proper grip. On here you will see parts for the stern, chainplates, windlass etc.

 

 

 

Fittings

Two trays of fittings are supplied. The larger one contains some 0.25 rigging rope, brass wire, cannon, swivel guns, cast anchors, eyelets, pins and various other cast metal parts. 

 

The smaller box contains hawse cable, turned wooden capstan, deadeyes, larger rigging blocks, metal tube, eyelets, parral beads etc. 

 

 

Flags

Endeavour also comes with some flags. These are a sort of plasticised material. You may want to source something a little thinner for your model. 

 

 

Rigging Cord
A further pack of rigging cord is supplied in a clear blister pack, in black and natural. Sizes can be seen in this photo. 

 

 

Sails
I've never been a fan of fitting sails to ships, but in case you wish to, then AL have supplied a full set for you which are nicely sewn from a material which is off-white in colour. There are no bolt ropes on these, so you may want to sew your own onto them. 

 

 

Templates
Two sheets of paper templates are included. These are to lie onto the completed hull in order to provide locations for cutouts and other details such as wales etc. 

 

 

Instructions

 

As mentioned in our Santa Maria build, AL kits do not come with any printed instructions or plans. The latter, quite frankly, isn’t needed due to the sheer depth of information in the electronic instructions. The manual comes on a DVD and is over FIVE-HUNDRED pages long! That would of course pose a logistical problem and extra cost for Artesania to include. It also poses a logistical problem for the modeller who will need the means to read the electronic manual at their workbench. Some computers, like my MacBook, don’t have a DVD drive. In instances like that, you can always go to the Artesania site and download the entire manual and save to either your internal drive or to a USB pen drive. Artesania’s instructions are very much full-on, in that nothing is left to the imagination. Every single stage is clearly illustrated and annotated with clear part numbers and symbols to declare whether something needs gluing or not. If you want to see the whole manual, click HERE. Here’s a few images from the manual, just to give you an idea:

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion
Artsania's new Endeavour kit is most definitely a different beast from the original one from many years ago, and AL obviously aren't too worried about mixing things up a little and incorporating ideas from contemporary kit designs. I would definitely not recommend this kit for a beginner, simply because of the single-planked hull. I would like to have seen that done from at least two 1mm layers, so care will be needed to make sure you prepare the hull before you start to lay any planks. There are some very nice touches, such as the windlass with its folded metal body and brass gearing. Another things I would change would be the laser-cut single rigging blocks. They really do need to be replaced with proper rigging blocks. Artesania still know hoe to play to their target market, as this kit clearly shows, and the introduction of these new designs to their range is very welcome. Other new designs are their Soleil Royale and Vasa, constructed in roughly the same manner. 

 

It's wonderful to see Artesania Latina back at being a player within our hobby. I cut my model shipwrighting teeth on AL kits, so have that fondness for them. 

 

My sincere thanks to Artesania Latina for the sample looked at here. To buy this kit, head off to the link at the top of this page, or contact your local hobby supplier for availability. 

 

 

ALSO available for this kit:

HMS Endeavour figure set
Available from Artesania Latina for €20.65

This is a set of 14 crew figures for Endeavour, comprising of crew, some with separate arms etc. and also some PE parts for ship navigation instruments and ensign. Note also the extra metal parts which contain more arm parts for holding the supplied rifles. Casting is nice for this scale, and colour notes are supplied on the reverse of packet. 

 

 

 

[Artesania Latina]

Thank you for this excellent review!

[mtaylor]

That looks impressive and it's great see how far AL has come compared to about 15 years or so when I built my first one.

[puckotred]

I bought this model a couple of months ago, and the LED light works well. Even in daylight:

 

 

Edited April 5, 2022 by puckotred
spelling

[James H]

@puckotred I'd love to see a build log if you can do one?

[puckotred]

@James H Me too, but I'm building the R.C. and only did the stand and frames because I was curious how it would look. And have no photos of what I've done so far (except these two I took today). Maybe in the future if I ever finish R.C.

[puckotred]

Well, I slept on it and decided I will start a build log within a couple of days.... Just because you asked so nicely James... 😋

[James H]

3 hours ago, puckotred said:

Well, I slept on it and decided I will start a build log within a couple of days.... Just because you asked so nicely James... 😋

You know it makes sense 🤣

[Peter6172]

On 4/5/2022 at 9:58 PM, James H said:

 I'd love to see a build log if you can do one?

I've been building this model since Feb 2022.  The Build Log is on this forum (not sure how to create a link to it though).  I have almost completed the hull work, some detail and transom work to complete.  I have fabricated much of the deck structures/fitting and just placed them to see where everything goes while waiting for the varnish to dry. 

[Peter6172]

Its a great kit but like all kits there have been quite a few compromises.  The instructions are the first real concern.  500+ pdf pages is difficult to manage even on a current i7 computer with 32Gb of RAM.

The kit is based on the Replica of the Endeavour so there are marked differences between the replica and the drawings by Marquardt and Parkin which are based on the admiralty drawings and image/sketches of the time.

The stern profile and planking are incorrect, however the material provided for the planking is very forgiving and while id di not smile, I was able to bend and twist planking to follow the lines of Marquardt's drawings rather than the basic bluff bow planking in the instructions.

The etch appears to be stainless steel which is a shame as it is very difficult to work with compared to brass.  While the etches do provide some 3D in the stern/window embellishments, 3D printed resin would prove a far superior (and likely cheaper) option.  There is a good deal of clean up needed on the cast metal parts also with obvious parting lines.  Again, these could have been supplied as 3D resin prints instead which would make them easier to work with.

Four identical anchors are supplied; unfortunately ENDEAVOUR had two different types/size of anchors.

Not sure the colour scheme is authentic for the period model either; again base don the colours used by the replica.  Endeavour certainly did not have a white hull and I am not sure that yellow paint would have been used on ships as it would have quickly bleached to white.  The yellow may have been used as a representation of varnished teak embellishments?

There are a few shortcuts in the standing/running rigging and fittings on masts, yards and gaffs but then its a level 3 so not sure if the square and hexagonal details of the topmasts in particular are relevant.

If you want to replicate the authentic masts then you need to procure dowel 2mm in diameter larger than shown: a 6mm square section requires an 8mm dowel and does not seamlessly transition to 6mm diameter as indicated in the instructions.  Artesania is not the only manufacturer who seems to have flawed mast/ yard/ gaff geometrics in their instructions.

I have also chosen to discard all the Artesania thread and blocks as they are poor representation of the real thing.  I feel that Artesania should supply kits without thread and blocks making them an optional extra should someone wish to use their products.

 

Agree that this version of ENDEAVOUR is a great improvement on Artesania's previous offering but there are many improvements that could still be made.

 

Edited April 11, 2022 by Peter6172

[allanyed]

Peter

Many thanks for sharing your first hand honest observations.  It will be interesting to see how the issues you have pointed out will be fixed.

Allan

 

[Peter6172]

On 4/12/2022 at 1:01 AM, allanyed said:

Peter

Many thanks for sharing your first hand honest observations.  It will be interesting to see how the issues you have pointed out will be fixed.

Allan

 

Covered in my build log Allan.

[catopower]

Nice kit review James. I'm glad to see AL back at it under the new ownership.

 

I know that some people are concerned about instructions on DVD. I don't have a DVD drive on my main computers either, but downloading the 500-page pdf shouldn't take very long for most of us. My download was just about one minute. Viewing it doesn't require top hardware either. My computer is 9 years old, has 16GB of RAM, and it flies through the pages without a hitch. 

 

However, DVD drives are very slow, and accessing the pdf on it could be a lot less enjoyable unless you copy the file to your hard drive and view it from there.

 

Viewing the file where your doing your building might be more of an issue for some.

[puckotred]

I had just bought a new HP printer and got 6 months of free ink so I could print the whole thing at the cost of paper, about 3€ 😁