HMS Prince 1670 by John Clements - Airfix - 1:168 - PLASTIC

[John Clements]

This is my new project which is temporarily replacing my build of the Heller Soleil Royal whilst I get back into large scale scale ship modelling (large scale compared to 1:700). I have made rapid progress since I began only a couple of months ago, but this is the easy bit.

I found this second hand kit at a good price. I guess the retailer hadn't realised that the box contained all the sprues for two kits; only the major hull parts were not duplicated. This is fortunate as some parts are broken and many have come detached from their sprues and so difficult to identify whilst other have become distorted. The plastic is also quite brittle.

So why this ship? Partly because I made it myself over fifty years ago, but for someone else, and partly because it will make a good companion by size and comparison of change in warship design over time with my Heller Glorieux which currently has pride of place in my living room. That does mean that I hope to make it to the same standard so the first step was to cut out all the gunports and, with the help of Radimir at HisModel, replace all the plastic gunbarrels with brass ones.

The photos below show where I have got to. I am awaiting delivery of the material for the standing rigging in the next few days.

 

 

[Chapman]

I like the model, I'm looking forward to seeing your rigging come to life.

 

A small scale Prince but well implemented by Airfix, especially when you consider the year of manufacture, 1966, when plastic model making was still in its infancy. And I was just one year old.👶

 

 

[John Clements]

It is a nice kit but lacks some important parts which do not appear on the model in the Scince Museum (like the bitts by the foremast). It would have been 1969 or 1970 when I made the kit for someone else who lacked the skills to do so, although I only rigged it according to the kit instructions with 'blocks' made out of slices of plastic rod (!). I have started with the stays and already come across differences between the old model and the guidance in Mondfeld's book; I tend to prefer the latter. Also, I think the flimsy nature of the masts will make it difficult to ensure they remain straight whilst the rigging is applied. As you can see from the photo, some masts are already bowed! An exercise in patience, really.

[shipman]

Considering the kit was a 'pocket money' item, introduced in 1968 for a youth market, it's remarkable how well molded it is, as are the rest of the then sailing ship range.

Personally, I'm grateful Airfix did them when they did, which means one way or another most can still be found.

Kids pockets must be a lot deeper these days.

Any deficiencies with the kit are straightforward scratch projects for the now more experienced modeller, but the kit does provide the basis for a fine build.

Having had the pleasure of seeing the original model many times in London's Science Museum i can assert another feature missed by Airfix are the many woodworm holes!

Sadly (to my knowledge) the original is no longer on public display.

[John Clements]

Slow and careful progress. I decided to get back into practice by doing some of the stays first. They are only loosely tied on and I will move them when I do the shrouds. Further reading showed that the rigging diagrams I have are incomplete. They do not show the tackles which need to be installed before the shrounds and require the channels to be in place first, and some belaying pins. Luckily, I am able to raid my stock of blocks intended for the Soleil Royal for the ones I need for this but looking at the channels, and drilling holes to take the pins, made me realise how much more difficult it is to work in this smaller scale. Parts are so vulnerable and so small that tricks I used on larger ships don't work here, and my hands just feel far too big. But then if it wasn't a challenge, would it be worth doing?

[John Clements]

Progress is very slow - for two reasons. The main one is having to do the tackles which, as I pointed out above, are not on the original model (which was re-rigged at various times) and hence not in the usual diagrams, and in this small scale use 3mm and 2mm blocks of which I've had to order more than I thought I had in stock - and when the 2mm ones pop out of my fat fingers, they really do disappear. Top marks to Radimir at HisModel for turning my orders round quickly but postal delays have been frustrating.

The other is that the age of the kit shows in the brittlenesss of the plastic and during normal handling both the foremast and mizzen have snapped off at the deck level and had to be pinned in place. I suspect this will prove a problem with the other spars too when it comes to tensioning the rigging, or even cutting the smaller ones off the sprues without breaking.