Artesanía Latina 22135. Wooden ship model Virginia American Schooner 1/41

Other than what seems to be the usual maladies of AL kits, this one is great. As a second build (the 1st one was AL's HMS Endeavour Longboat), this one took me about 150 hours, and I've enjoyed every bit of it.Instructions are fairly rudimentary, and as usual, there's nothing on techniques, so you need to do the research if you haven't done something like this before. However, there's a big (A0 or something) two-sided 1:1 plan, which makes things way easier. Still could do with a fair bit more of clarity - you can't always see things clearly enough, so you have to guess/adlib/go by what you know about real ships. It looks like pictures in the booklet and on the plan are from different builds - that's just confusing. Some things on the pictures are not mentioned in the instructions, e.g., drain holes in bulwarks, whatever the right term for them is. Some bits (especially the metal ones) actually need painting - they are nice bronze on pictures, but cheap grey alloy in the kit, which doesn't look nice at all; acrylic won't work on it, but Hammerite does it. There are some errors on the plan - e.g., the same bit of rigging could be indicated as different diameters on different pictures. One of the pictures, the one that looks spaghettified - you'll know what I mean when you see it - is so baffling, I still have no idea what it was supposed to show. Thread, unlike with my first kit, is plentiful - I've got loads left over - but wire isn't. I would have ran out if I didn't discover that the brass one you can get off Rioja bottles works a treat and looks better (especially after Rioja). I got a few single blocks left, but one double short. The most baffling thing was that although I followed the instructions to the letter, and it's generally hard to get things wrong with laser-cut pieces, the stern worked out half an inch too tall, and I had to extend the rudder at the bottom. I will gladly accept I managed to get something wrong, but what? Everything else is OK.There were a couple more minor things like mis-numbered parts or the use of thick ply on curved parts such as the coachroof. In case of the latter, it wouldn't bend enough, and you can't soak it; so I ended up just doing a double-planked roof with leftover wood.Having said this, these are niggles rather than serious issues, and the kit is something like 95% good. I wouldn't recommend it for a complete beginner, though - the techniques aren't much more difficult, but the confusion around plans etc. might make it too complicated.

I bought this for my husband. Sadly he found that the parts were so tiny he couldn't manage them without tweezers and sometimes a magnifying glass. Such a shame as I think someone much younger would have found it more manageable. I am sure that fully made up it would have been great to see and be proud of.

This is an excellent kit if you like clear well illustrated instructions and very nice fittings. Frankly I wished I had started my modeling hobby with this kit instead of with the obscenely obtuse instructions included with my Billings Bluenose kit.This would be great for a mature beginner given its smaller size, colour photographs and well marked plans. As with all Artesania Latina kits, they can be more expensive but if you get a bargain on this one then it is well worth the money.

A complex build, it was the perfect present for my dad's seventieth birthday. Well packaged, arrived in time. Good condition, and will take him months to build! Just right! Would use again.

Bought this for my grandfather as a gift. He is still busy with it as can be seen in the photo but it's been incredibly frustrating for him. None of the sails fit, they are actually 3cm too short and he's had to find someone to make him ones that fit as well as soak them in black tea for a few seconds to get the brown colour of the sails. Alot of the pieces have been troublesome for him not fitting properly or aligning as they should. The instructions also leave alot to be desired. It's been really disappointing for me that a gift I bought him had caused so much frustration. He has built many models but none that have caused this amount of frustration.

Reading the reviews, I purchased this model as my first project.If you are not a wood worker, look for an easier first project.If you do not know anything about model ship building, look for an easer start project.If you do not know anything about rigging sails, look for an easier project.The directions are in several languages, only two pages per language.It does contain a large poster with several different views of the ship, rigging, etc.It also contains a small book with pictures on different finished portions.As for how to lay out the planks or cut them to size, there is no help.

The illustration does not completely match the model. Many of the parts are shown sending made of brass but are made of a low cost grey metal. The instructions were a little vague, you had to make your own decisions,