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[oldtimeracer]

Please can someone help me. I am taken with the Deans Marine kit of the SS CORDENE.

Can I have some advice as to what these kits are like, whether a newbie like me would be able to build it or whether it is an "expert" only type kit.

I just love the ship itself and would dearly like to be able to build one but just don't want to jump in over my head.

All help gratefully appreciated.

Thanks

Ian

[Stan]

HI ian. p/m sent.

[bobk]

Ian,
I have just been looking at the details of this ship, and it looks similar construction to the Deans ship I am near completing, which is my first kit.  Quality of hull and fittings are usually very good, as are their large plans and instruction booklets.  She is deep draught, and it says sailing weight is 4.2kg, but ample room for a big battery etc.  Decks and superstructure are in plastic, and suggest you measure carefully before cutting.  Deans ships tend to sail well on the water.  http://www.deansmarine.co.uk/shop/product_info.php/products_id/365
I am well pleased with mine 

[DickyD]

Ian,
I have just been looking at the details of this ship, and it looks similar construction to the Deans ship I am near completing, which is my first kit.  Quality of hull and fittings are usually very good, as are their large plans and instruction booklets.  She is deep draught, and it says sailing weight is 4.2kg, but ample room for a big battery etc.  Decks and superstructure are in plastic, and suggest you measure carefully before cutting.  Deans ships tend to sail well on the water.  http://www.deansmarine.co.uk/shop/product_info.php/products_id/365
I am well pleased with mine 

Hi Bob whilst I agree Deans kits make great finished models I have made several and I and several others on the forum reckon the instructions and drawings leave a lot to be desired as do the resin and white metal fittings.
Another thing with their kits is you are best to measure everything at least twice and make sure the next bit will fit before you glue the one you are working at.
Loads of patience and head scratching and you will end up with a nice model.

[bobk]

Hi Richard.  I can only quote about the one I have just built.  For my first ever kit I found the large colour plans and 19 pages of illustrated instructions more than adequate, and my fittings needed very little cosmetic finishing.  As I said, the plastic sheets need to be measured carefully before cutting, a few profiles were a bit out.  You are right that one has to keep thinking several stages ahead before committing to epoxy.  However it’s not an “Airfix”, but vastly easier than scratch building. 

My only real head-scratchers were in going well beyond Deans design intent in terms of added detail such as deck planking litho plate rivets, twin shafts and individual stanchions etc. 

[DickyD]

You were obviously luckier than me Bob, I had one drawing and a scrappy book of instructions which was so feint I could hardly read it.

Just my opinion Bob, not arguing with you.

[Colin Bishop]

Having recently built two Deans kits and currently doing a third I would agree with Richard. The quality of fittings can be a bit hit or miss, some are good, others need some work and the instructions for all three that I have made could be considerably improved. I found all three hulls pretty good quality but it is certainly true that you need to be very careful before cutting out decks and superstructure elements. For example, on one model the deck cut out as indicated was the same and in some places slightly greater as the superstructure footprint which made fitting the recommended internal coaming rather problematical! On the latest one I have cut inside the indicated line to ensure that I have some leeway when fitting the superstructure. Plans seem to vary too, the latest one I have (which was in fact an early kit) is quite good but one of the other two was inaccurate in a number of respects.

You do have to appreciate as BobK says that these are not Airfix kits. Components are printed onto plastic sheet etc and not CNC routed so more work is needed than with some other manufacturers but this is reflected in the price. With a bit of effort, the Deans models do look very attractive and if fitted out and ballasted in accordance with the instructions they make fine sailing models, even 'difficult' subjects like destrouers which are notoriously tender. Deans also have a huge range of very attractive subjects so there is usually something to take the fancy of most modellers.

Colin

[raflaunches]

Fully agree with Bobk, DickyD and Colin Bishop, the early kits suffered from some poor quality mouldings, the one that stuck out for me was the torpedo tubes on the Solebay kit.  I often visit Ron at Deans Marine to get bits and pieces for all my warships namely my HMS Coventry and now my model of HMS Berwick, and have seen the continuous improvement in the mouldings.  I have known people criticise Deans Marine kits over the years but like Colin Bishop mentioned, where else are you going to get that huge range of attractive models?
Some of them may not be beginners kits but if you can't make a kit with some little flaws in the kit, where you can replace the parts if necessary, try scratch building.  I have and often use the Deans Marine kit part as a guide to scratch build the item, some may say thats not the point that you should have all the parts made perfectly for the price paid but I have found that the Deans Marine kits are reasonably priced and often value for money because where else are you going to find a fitting that is unique to the vessel being modelled?

Nick B

[Colin Bishop]

I think it is also only fair to mention that Deans will replace any faulty items reported to them. On my latest kit the delivery firm managed to crush the hull to the extent that the gel coat flaked off in a couple of large areas  but Ron had a replacement in the post to me the next day.

I think maybe the problem can be that with such a wide and diverse range of models they have perhaps spread themselves a bit thin in terms of final development of some of their products.

Colin

[Stan]

I have built 3 kits from Deans Marine over the years and any problems that i have had with fittings or plans have been sorted with a simple call to them. If you visit Deans marine on a regular basis you see that a lot of moulds have been replaced and some kits are now having brass etched parts supplied with them. The quality of the parts marked on the plastic card sheets is much improved and the the plans have also been improved.I think the range kits offered by Deans Marine is fine. One can find fault with most thing if you really try so lets contact the suppliers with positive feed back and get problems sorted out. Without feed back how can they make things better