Cybermodel Kearsarge Review cut off???

The butler did it! :-D

Sorry... couldn't resist. However, the review *does* seem to be cut off in mid sentence, so it's not just you.

I posted the review here several days back. Not sure why it got cut off but here is the original text I sent to Mike.

Cookie Sewell Kit Review: Revell GmbH 1/96 Scale Model Kit No. 05603; Civil War Steam Ship U.S.S. Kearsarge; 741 parts (681 in reddish brown styrene, 40 in white styrene, 10 pre-formed ratlines, 3 paper flags, 2 in black styrene, 2 cards of tan thread, 1 bobbin of black thread, 1 lenght of steel chain, 1 length of copper chain); retail price $121.95

Advantages: relatively clean redo of the original kit from 1961, now provides double figure set and two kinds of chain

Disadvantages: some modelers will balk at paying 1200% markup over 1961 prices (BUT beats the eBay alternative!); new instructions are awful in regards to painting

Rating: Recommended

Recommendation: to Civil War ship fans and nostalgic =93baby boomers=94 who grew up with Revell

I can recall the circumstances surrounding getting several very big and very unique Revell kits when I was a kid. I got the CSS Alabama as a reward for spending an entire Sunday cleaning up after a fire in a department store, and got the =93coffee can=94 Space Station for moving from elementary school to junior high in 1960. The USS Kearsarge was one I did not get so lightly, and after finding one at the local department store (where as family we got a 33% discount on toys and models) I decided to earn the money for it.

My grandmother was more or less a =93soft touch=94 and would give us small jobs to do around her house for a few bucks, but my grandfather was Alsatian German and would not put up with anything short of a full day=92s work. It took me a good six weeks to earn enough to buy the last remaining Kearsarge for a then princely sum of $6.65 so I was thrilled the day I got it. I put it together over the rest of the summer, but alas, the next year I dropped it and could never get it to look quite the same. After stripping off all of the =93good bits=94 it went down in a local pond under a hailstorm of fire from a Daisy Model 111. I still have a few of them even after 42 years.

Needless to say I remember this kit fondly, and was delighted when Revell re-released the Alabama. But shortly thereafter, the word went out on numerous websites that the Kearsarge would not be joining it. Even the unofficial Revell biography (=93Remembering Revell Model Kits=94 by Thomas Graham, Schiffer Publishing 2002) notes that in 1962 the same molds were used. But others indicated that the Kearsarge molds were modified to create the Alabama kit (and the reworking tooling can still be seen if you look closely inside the hull) and thus the Kearsarge was no more. As a result, prices for an unbuilt Kearsarge skyrocketed over the years, with some kits demanding well over $300 on the Internet. Even one half-build and rather gluey mess I saw about a year ago in a hobby shop went on consignment for $95.

Happily, Revell of Germany has now solved the problem and re-released the Kearsarge. I have heard several stories as to how they did this (one being they duplicated and then re-re-cut the Alabama molds, so there is now a set of each one in existence) but the result is the same, and other than some flash on this kit it looks very much the same as the original.

Now there are some differences to this kit, such as the fact that the number of parts and colors of plastic have changed and the hull no longer comes pre-coppered. Whereas the original kit came in four colors =96 black for the hull and metal work items (e.g. guns, anchors and stacks), white figures and mast details, reddish brown wooden parts, and a yellowish tan color for the decks and boat details, now it comes with only the hull halves in black, the figures in white, and the rest in the reddish brown color styrene. Also, the directions have been redone (were the originals lost?) in the rather insipid =93point and stick=94 style of all other Revellogram kits, one thing I have never found very impressive. (One thing Revell seems to have forgotten is that many of us learned the basics of machines from their directions as all parts were called out by number AND name =96makes it easy to remember which is the main, mizzen and foremast, and which yards are which. Very helpful when you=92re 13 and a lot more when you=92re 56!)

The parts come oddly bagged, with the hull haves doubled bagged in a separate insert that fits into a diagonal shelf inside the box. (Which is about 15 x 36 x 5, not a small object!) The rest of the parts are below the insert and all but the former yellow tan parts are in one big bag; those parts (e.g. the decks, boat floors, and some upper masts and yards) are in a separate bag inside the big bag. The thread and ratlines, as well as the two types of chain, are inside another separate bag.

I had forgotten how much different from the Alabama this kit was. Alabama=92s parts breakdown looked like this: 653 parts (2 in black styrene, 20 in creme styrene, 41 in white styrene, 570 in dark grey styrene, 10 vacuformed off-white sails, 6 pre-formed ratlines/shrouds,

But overall the instructions are the kit=92s weak spot, as they are very hard to read and find the color flags for the various parts of the ship, and that lets it down. The boxtop art appears correct for the Civil War paint job on the ship (and matches the 1961 version of the kit) but the ones in this kit appear to be from a later date. Admittedly, at least one website notes the Kearsarge kit was done from later plans and may be as she was about 1885 and not 1864. The rigging part is about as clear now as it was then, so I am assuming that is unchanged!

Overall, flaws and all, this kit is an old friend and one I am glad to see re-released at what is a much more affordable price than the original versions go for today. (Note that I picked up my kit from D&J Hobby & Crafts out of California for $93 plus $6.95 for domestic US UPS shipping, so it can be found at less than retail. But not for $6.65!)

=09

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If you look down about 40 posts Cookies review is right there in its full entirety.

John H.

If its along the same quality as most of the Heller kits then it just

John

"Admittedly, at least one website notes the Kearsarge kit was done from

later plans and may be as she was about 1885 and not 1864. The rigging part is about as clear now as it was then, so I am assuming that is unchanged!"

The 1861-1874 Kearsarge was a pretty homely ship--extreme sheer, large cutwater, tall bulky stack and a forecastle that looked like it was dropped on afterwards--if you saw a model of it, you'd think the guy didn't read the instructions. The rebuilt Kearsarge is the one Revell kitted, and looks a lot better. The plans in Donald Canney's book are from the rebuild, and no wonder Revell used them. So you have a kit of her in the state she spent most of her life in, and the better looking part at that.