Why is it so hard to get the Zvezda's 1/72 Black Pearl? And her English Instructions.

This is definitely one kit I want. But wanting it and getting it .. well, she's proving to be as elusive as she was with Captain Jack Sparrow whenever he keeps loosing her. Rumour has it that Disney pulled the licensing from Zvezda, hence the company can't sell the Black Pearl kit in the open. I'm not sure how true this rumour is, but it is certainly hard to get this baby. My own Local Hobby Store has been waiting on my order and its coming 2 months now. In fact, I'm not really sure if he can get her at all - both hands with fingers crossed here.



So I decided to take the plunge and order her via eBay, sold by a Russian Seller whom so far have received very good reviews. I'll let you know if she's a good seller when I receive her. Be prepared as the shipping is the real killer. The kit cost USD110 and if you want the kit to come with the original box, then be prepared to pay another whopping USD120 (that's USD230 total). Otherwise do what I did, I went for the Standard Airmail option which will set me back only USD40, so that makes the kit more affordable, but you don't get that nice fancy box. Don't ask me how the kit is going to be packed as I myself am curious.

So while waiting, I realised that the instructions was going to be in Russian (says so at that eBay page). Wait a minute, I don't speak or read Russian, so this is going to be a problem. Thanks to the Internet, and to michaelstrong.com, he had posted the English instructions but they are in PDF files. I have taken the liberty to save them as bitmap so those who don't have Adobe reader can also access them.


Zvezda's 1/72 Black Pearl English Instructions

Well, I may not have the kit with me yet, but at least by looking at the instructions, I have a pretty good idea on how I'm going to build her ..... when I get her. Which brings me to another point of interest. Who exactly is currently building her?

See what others have done after the jump

My Work In Progress 1:196 Revell USS Constitution

It has been a while since I posted anything on this blog ... erm .. ahem ... I can explain. You see, at first I had issues again with blogger, then when that was solved, I was too tired to post anything (too early to work, too late when I come home), then I was midway on this project, see, then ... then .. Awww Hell, ok, they're but a bunch of excuses. So here I am before i go back to my workroom.

As you can see from my recent postings, the flavour for this season is period ships. Yeah, I got too hung on the Zvezda's 1:72 Black Pearl (which I am still waiting on my LHS to deliver - coming 2 months waiting now), that I decided to practise on other period ships first. Well, you have to understand this is totally unchartered territory for me since I have never ever worked on a ship before (out of box 1:700 scale unpainted kit not counted). I did some extensive research on this and figured the rigging was going to be the most problematic area. Of course I had to try building one first to substantiate that claim.

So off I went to purchase a few kits on this topic and wouldn't you know it, I had one in my stash all along collecting dust. So now I have like a few period ships in my collection, and suddenly they have become "precious", as in, let me test my skills on the older kit first before I work on the new ones.

What I had was a very old 1:196 USS Constitution "Old Ironside" I had bought before the Millenium, that was partially assembled and painted and haphazardly kept. I didn't take any pictures prior to today as initially I was trying this and that, testing my skills on her to discover new "challenges". And knowing my knack for details, accuracy (well, not too much on this lest I go crazy) and realism, I ended up spending two weeks on her.

First I had to take stock of the parts that was scattered all over the box, and until now, I've only managed to segregate them according to hull parts, mast, cannons and sail.

Then I started working on the deck and hull itself. There was already copper painted on the hull of the Constitution, and there were some parts glued unto the deck which I had to remove (didn't do a good job on that since they broke apart on me). Here are some image montage on my progress so far .. not much but coming along slowly.

More to come when ... erm .. there's more to show.