Status of Orel Kits...

[Jsk]

Does anyone know the status of Orel in Ukraine? I think I saw somewhere that they were not fulfilling orders due to the current situation. However, on February 13th I impulsively ordered HMS Captain off Amazon. I thought I was buying it directly from Orel but upon digging a little deeper it looks like Paper Model Company (also in Ukraine) was the vendor. There's a long delivery window (March 5 - March 27) which is fine since I'm in no hurry. But I keep going back to the Orel site and finding more and shiny things I need.  Just curious.

[GrandpaPhil]

I’ve bought multiple kits from them, even since the invasion, and had no problems.  The kits took about a month to get to me.

 

That particular store is located in Kyiv.

 

My most recent order was last July, but I get their newsletter every month and they said that they were okay as of February 13.

 

Orel is one of two of my favorite brand of model kits so I’ve been following them pretty closely.

 

My absolute favorite brand of kit is Seahorse.

Edited February 29 by GrandpaPhil

[ccoyle]

2 minutes ago, GrandpaPhil said:

I’ve bought multiple kits from them and had no problems.

 

Yes, but he's talking about recent activity. That I can't vouch for, but perhaps some of our European connections, such as @0Seahorse, can shed more light.

[Jsk]

Well, the vendor (Plastic Model Company, not Paper Model Company as I typed in the OP) came through. The HMS Captain kit arrived March 2nd. So not bad timing. The Captain has got to be one of the ugliest ships in history. That's part of the charm of these late Victorian, transitional ships. They always remind me of over exuberant Gothic Revival architectural styles. 

 

Still, I think the kit's a bit beyond my skill level for now. Certainly a nice addition to the stash, though.

 

 

[GrandpaPhil]

You’ll enjoy the build!

 

The kit looks similar to the Solferino.

 

The instructions are in the same format and the pieces look like the same design.

 

Those ship’s boats pieces are nearly identical to the ones I had in my kit.

 

The hardest part for me was dealing with the transition era fittings that are similar to the sailing navy ones at 1/200 scale, because they are so small.

 

I enjoyed that build enough that I bought 5 or 6 more Orel ironclad and pre-dreadnought kits and have them in my stash.

 

 

Edited March 3 by GrandpaPhil

[mtaylor]

My first thought on seeing the "Captain" was "steam punk but the "over exuberant Gothic Revival" does sound better. 

[0Seahorse]

On 2/29/2024 at 11:39 PM, ccoyle said:

 

Yes, but he's talking about recent activity. That I can't vouch for, but perhaps some of our European connections, such as @0Seahorse, can shed more light.

I don't know exactly how Bumażnoje Modelirowanie currently works. I heard that they print in Poland and the current internet address is probably/maybe/perhaps/not sure https://papermodeling.net/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=4. Many stores in Poland (Orlik, WAK, GPM) have their models, so you can alternatively look here.