HMS Wolf 1754, 10-gun Brig (Snow) - Shipyard - 1/72 - CARD

[catopower]

Shipyard is a line of paper/card models from Poland, where paper models seem to be so prevalent.  Shipyard includes kits of sailing ships, world lighthouses, dockyard structures, and more. But, this review is a look at one of their higher end products – one of their kits which, rather than featuring printed paper parts that must be cut out from their sheet, instead provides laser-cut parts that must be cut loose from their sheets and painted. 

 

The range includes the small schooner Berbice, the Santa Maria, the cutter HMS Alert, all the way up in size to the 28-gun frigate HMS Mercury. The HMS Wolf kit, released around 2015, is about as close as one can get in size and complexity to the HMS Mercury kit, though their kit of the Dutch pinnace Papegojan is probably just about as detailed and complex.

 

All of Shipyard's laser-cut card kits are made in 1/72 scale. They all come in large, flat boxes that contain all the laser-cut components, plus color printed instructions, some plan sheets that are mostly for the rigging, laser-cut and etched sails, color printed flag sheets, wooden dowels for masts and yards, laser-cut blocks and deadeyes kits, white linen rigging cord, turned brass cannon and swivel gun barrels, cast resin decorative pieces, several jars of acrylic paint, a couple nice paint brushes, and more.

 

Everything comes pretty neatly packed with various components stored in separate cardboard boxes, which helps protect all the parts during shipping.

 

 

 

 

The instruction book is 32-pages in full color, including the cover, and is mostly photos at each stage, with the significant parts labeled by their part numbers. There is some text, but not much. What there is is in Polish, with German and English translations also given.

 

The Instruction Booklet

The one thing that is not included that I think would be really helpful, is a parts list that shows the numbers, where in the instructions the part is called for, and on what sheet to find the part. I'll come back to this later.

 

 

The Plan Sheets

Masting and rigging is detailed in the separate plans sheets. There is no one overall profile plan sheet, these are all just detail sheets. But, if you look closely, you'll notice that some assemblies, like the gun carriage are more fully detailed in the plans sheets. Also, the metal parts that you need to make, like hooks and eyebolts and such, are identified on one of these sheets, not in the instruction booklet. So, it's a very good idea to study these sheets to see what's described on them.

The kit contains no eyebolts, split rings, hooks or things of that nature. Instead, a couple sizes of copper wire are provided, and the plan sheet below identifies the small metal parts you must make in various sizes. These are all identified in the plans with the letter 'Z' as a prefix. The instruction manual will call for these parts, and you will find no part with this number. Again, that's because you have to make all the Z parts yourself from wire.

If you prefer to make your own sails out of, say, paper, some nicely detailed patterns are provided, showing locations of reinforcements, cringles, reef bands, etc.

 

The Parts

As you can see here, there are a lot of parts sheets, and on each of those there are a lot of parts. There's a LOT of detail here, and just seeing how much detail there is in the kit makes the kit really exciting to work on.

 

By the way, my apologies – these photos are on the blue background of my cutting mat and the photos were taken with an iPhone, which does it's own automatic color balance, so all the sheets look kind of yellowish here, which they are not.

 

The only color printed parts in this kit include the flags sheet, which is printed double-sided, and the decorative friezes. I don't know if this was intentional, but my kit included two copies of this sheet.

Apologies too for the bad focus on this photo – I don't know what happened here. In a sharper world, you'd see all the bulkhead parts and hull stiffeners. Those who've built Shipyard's paper models probably know already about how well these laser-cut parts fit together, and form a very stable hull structure. 

 

This odd, brownish looking sheet is actually dead black. But, at least here you can see that the part numbers are there. When I looked at this sheet, I had to hold it at an angle, under a bright light in order to see the number or to even identify the part.

There is one small sheet of clear acetate for the windows and the stern lantern. 

Note that the deck planking is engraved onto the card pieces, with nicely located butt joints, nibbed plank ends, proper scarf joints, and treenails.

Lots of parts make for lots of details and lots of work. But there's no shaping, drilling, milling, filing, sanding, carving, required. it's all mostly cutting, gluing, and painting.

 

Sorry, I didn't take pics of the cannon barrels, resin "carvings", brushes, rigging line, or the paint jars. But, I will mention that earlier kits of this line had jars of paint that could easily dry up. I'd mentioned this problem to Shipyard years ago. They have since gotten jars with rubber grommets in the lids to create a better seal, and this seems to have alleviated the problem.

 

Speaking of paints, those included in the kit are apparently some decent quality artist's acrylics. They go on dead flat and have some transparency to them, so you should be able to see some of the laser-etched details through the paint. The paint is a Polish brand called Renesans. I like them, but they hard to find, except on some European online art supply stores.

 

Summing it Up

This is a pretty well detailed looking kit. It, and the entire line of Shipyard laser-cut kits, are very different from most paper model kits, given that nearly every paper model kit is mostly paper that has to be cut, rolled, folded, or curved, and may have a laser-cut skeleton for strength. This kit is entirely laser-cut, but includes parts using other materials for best appearance or easiest construction.

 

The heavy use of laser cutting comes at a cost, and these laser cut kits are a lot more expensive than traditional paper models, and this kit is no exception. This kit has a cost that's somewhere in the neighborhood of $200, give or take, depending on where you purchase it. That's a lot more than a traditional paper kit, but not really much different from a comparable wooden kit, and there's a lot more to it than a box of wood with some laser-cut pieces.

 

The kit is available from a number of online shops, including Ages of Sail, where I got mine, Cornwall, Shipyard's online shop, and maybe someone will chime in about a Canadian shop.

 

Did I miss anything?

 

 

 

[ccoyle]

Great to see an unboxing of one of these kits.

[Tim Moore]

Wow! Looks like a tremendous amount of detail and comprehensive inclusions in this kit, and that a lot of effort has gone into the plans and instructions. An enticing prospect!  Thanks for putting this together Clare.

[BenD]

I have mine still on the shelf. I was going to do a review but you beat me to it!

 

I'll be looking into your build log.

[catopower]

Hi Ben, when you get around to it, maybe you can add to this review and include the contents of the boxes and things I didn't take photos of and post here?

[GrandpaPhil]

I have the just the basic version of a couple Shipyard kits.

 

I have never seen the kind of detail that are in those kits in any other kit that I’ve ever bought before, in any medium.

 

I bought one of the 30th Anniversary combo sets.

 

I would happily buy more of them.

Edited September 15, 2022 by GrandpaPhil

[BenD]

On 9/14/2022 at 6:02 PM, catopower said:

Hi Ben, when you get around to it, maybe you can add to this review and include the contents of the boxes and things I didn't take photos of and post here?

I sure can!

 

You were only missing the accessories boxes and the paints. I'll get around to that soon.

 

[BenD]

Here are the contents of the accessory boxes. 

 

The paints look decent but they are rather thick and will need a lot of thinning. The jars have a rubber seal so you don't need to worry about them drying out.  

Next box has the resin castings, brushes, and various thicknesses of wire. The castings will need some careful work, the head piece looks great.

Here we have the guns, chain, belay pins, and a part for rigging Crow's feet apparently called a Euphroe. The cannons are really small! I had a lot of trouble with my camera focusing on them. They have a lot of detail for such small parts.

Next up is the dowels, rigging thread, and the rigging blocks. The dowels are pretty standard, They did manage to stay strait. The rigging thread only comes in this light natural color, I guess they expect the modeler to dye or paint them. There is quite the array of blocks in this kit, totaling 492 pieces!

That sums up the rest of the parts in this kit.

 

I can't wait to start this build!

 

Cheers guys

 

[catopower]

Very nice BenD!

 

Interestingly enough, I must have an older kit. Mine still has brass cannons, and while the figurehead and carvings are cast resin, mine came pre-painted!

 

My swivel guns need to have the handles made for them, but the instructions really don't make it clear just how to do that. I guess it won't matter for the new crop of kits anyway.

 

By the way, you're right about paint needing thinning. But, on the upside, there's WAY more paint provided than you'll need for this kit.

[JohnAB]

Really great review on box contents. I’m amazed at the high level of detail these kits have. The instructions look very clear and understandable. I’m definitely smitten

[catopower]

Hi JohnAB,

 

The instructions are pretty clear, but I've found that you really have to be careful with them. They will sometimes not label all of the parts you require in one photo. You just have to be cautious and look at a few of the photos to make sure you got everything you need. I'm currently up to 6 "extra" parts! Nothing serious and no one but me would ever notice.

 

But, I still love the kit and the way it's coming along.