- Joined
- Jan 1, 2023
- Messages
- 73
- Points
- 88
Look what I've found! I've been looking for a kit of the East Indiaman Götheborg for a while and it seemed the only kit made was the 1:100 scale version from Billing Boats, however it has been discontinued for a while and sold out in all of Europe. Switching from Google to DuckDuckGo, I found this Japanese shop with a very kind owner that still had it in stock and was willing it ship it to me.
The kit itself was produced in 2004 and is a pretty simple replica of the Götheborg III (itself a modified version of the original ship) that was put to sea the year before in 2003. It was surely produced by Billing Boats to capitalise on the hype around the Götheborg III and I can understand the kit was discontinued, with the pretty loose relation to the original ship.
Some history for those of you interested:
The original Götheborg I was commissioned in 1738 by the Swedish East India Company to trade with China. The company had 37 ships trading over its history between 1731-1813, but what gave the Götheborg I so much attention was the way it went out. Having completed its third journey back to Gothenburg from China it ran aground on a rock close to Älvsborgs Castle as it was being led in to the anchor point. The cause of the wrecking is unknown and speculations have included drunkenness, insurance fraud and the "dead water" phenomena caused by the fresh water from the river meeting with the sea. Nobody knows for sure.
The ship was fitted with 30 six-pounder cannons and carried 144 men when it launched.
We have some information in Japanese:
And some in English:
I plan to finish the HMS Fly before I start seriously on this kit, as it will take some research to get it closer to the original Götheborg I. The cannons were the first things I noticed, you will find only 14 closed cannon ports in the kit plans with no cannon models included. I will try to find out how the full 30 cannons were positioned and include them with proper models, it will surely take some research with there being no surviving plans of Swedish East Indiamen from this time period.
The kit is so old the laser cut planks have bent and I will need to replace them. I was thinking that with having to replace the laser-cut parts and making so many alterations to the plans, it wouldn't hurt to re-scale the model to 1:72 while I'm at it. That would make the full length of the model about 80 cm instead of Billings intended 58 cm and would allow for some better details. If any of you reading this has any experience with re-scaling or tips to share, please let me know if this is possible or if I'm biting off more than I can chew
.
/Jacob
The kit itself was produced in 2004 and is a pretty simple replica of the Götheborg III (itself a modified version of the original ship) that was put to sea the year before in 2003. It was surely produced by Billing Boats to capitalise on the hype around the Götheborg III and I can understand the kit was discontinued, with the pretty loose relation to the original ship.
Some history for those of you interested:
The original Götheborg I was commissioned in 1738 by the Swedish East India Company to trade with China. The company had 37 ships trading over its history between 1731-1813, but what gave the Götheborg I so much attention was the way it went out. Having completed its third journey back to Gothenburg from China it ran aground on a rock close to Älvsborgs Castle as it was being led in to the anchor point. The cause of the wrecking is unknown and speculations have included drunkenness, insurance fraud and the "dead water" phenomena caused by the fresh water from the river meeting with the sea. Nobody knows for sure.
The ship was fitted with 30 six-pounder cannons and carried 144 men when it launched.
We have some information in Japanese:
And some in English:
I plan to finish the HMS Fly before I start seriously on this kit, as it will take some research to get it closer to the original Götheborg I. The cannons were the first things I noticed, you will find only 14 closed cannon ports in the kit plans with no cannon models included. I will try to find out how the full 30 cannons were positioned and include them with proper models, it will surely take some research with there being no surviving plans of Swedish East Indiamen from this time period.
The kit is so old the laser cut planks have bent and I will need to replace them. I was thinking that with having to replace the laser-cut parts and making so many alterations to the plans, it wouldn't hurt to re-scale the model to 1:72 while I'm at it. That would make the full length of the model about 80 cm instead of Billings intended 58 cm and would allow for some better details. If any of you reading this has any experience with re-scaling or tips to share, please let me know if this is possible or if I'm biting off more than I can chew
./Jacob
I look forward to following along and learning some new tricks.