This is a kit review of the Artesania Latina Swift 1805
The Swift was an early 19th century Virginia pilot boat. She was a light-weight and over powered twin masted ship used to safely guide larger vessels into port.
The kit is well packaged in a strong cardboard box. The contents are cellophaned down onto a strong cardboard base which prevents any movement of the parts during transit and has the added benefit of keeping the plywood frets nice and flat.
On opening the cellophane you find that the individual packs of parts are again wrapped in cellophane and taped to the cardboard base.
The contents comprise of:-
A DVD containing the instructions, parts list, video tutorials and pictures of the completed model.
A clear plastic compartmented box containing the fittings, rigging thread etc.
A pack of pre-cut plywood frets.
A pack of strip timber and dowel
A small brass fret containing the name plate and rudder hinges.
A parts diagram for the plywood sheets
Sails
A 1:1 poster showing various views of the ship.
The wooden parts are all of excellent quality with no warping of the plywood parts, probably due to the excellent packaging. A few of the fittings will require some clean up to remove casting seams but this is confined mainly to just the anchor castings and is very minor.
The instructions on the DVD are in both pdf and jpeg formats so can be viewed on either a computer or a normal TV via a dvd player which I thought is a great idea – no paper to clutter up the workspace. The instruction pdf’s can also be downloaded from the ModelSpace web site.
All in all I think this is an excellent, well packaged little kit of superb quality and at a reasonable price.
I will be starting a build diary of this kit very shortly and am looking forward to the build.
It would make a great entry level kit for anyone just getting into modelling wooden ships.
Graeme
pemberg attached the following image(s):
US
