On a model that size pre formed shrouds will not look right. Making them up is a bit of a pain but will look much better.

No. 4, released in 1972, was the "Cutty Sark Wall Plaque," part of another Revell marketing ploy that looks kind of silly now. It consisted of No. 3 with part of its hull missing, mounted on a plastic plaque with an "antique" map on it. The box contained a bottle of "gold antiquing wax." Ugh. The instruction suggest to use thread for the railing but I don’t like this solution. I opted instead for thin copper wire, twisted around the poles and painted in white. The bowsprit is quite weak. The innermost part is provided in two pieces, while the outermost spar is in one piece as shown below: As mentioned before, the kit has a really nice level of detail but it suffers from flashes, extraction pins and warping, maybe due to old molds.All said and done this is a lovely kit to build and she will make a beautiful finished model. Read full review

Just a word though. like the plastic ones the wood ones are not accurate to scale, and roughly only half the number of planks are shown as well as plugs for fixing which look terrible and would not be seen at 1/96. I decided to show the lifeboat covered, so the interior was not detailed that much. On the outside I added the holders for the rudder.I’m trying the Vallejo ‘Old & New Wood’ paint set used by Bill as I really like that look. Air-brushing has still been a bit hit and miss with clogging mid-spray. Thinning solves it but I think I’ve been over-thinning the Vallejo model air paints and what works best is the plain paint plus a few drops of flow improver. The canvas cover of the boats was a big headache: I didn’t want to use real canvas, the fabric texture was out of scale. After many tests, one evening I was looking my daughters eating her preferred yogurt and the metallic foil used as cover captured my attention. The forked outrigger visible in this picture is the one provided by the kit but it is out of scale and it was replaced with a scratch build one later on.

I too got those decorative photo-etch thingies and also worried about glue everywhere. You made a tidy job of them. One is by C. Nepean Longridge describing how he built the London Science Museum model published by Model and Allied Publications. (MAP)

Revell | No. 05409 | 1:350

A well presented rendition of this basically good kit (with a bit of time and money) is a worthwhile endeavour and in my humble opinion is far more accurate than any of the wooden kits on the market. I was tempted too, but at that time I had zero experience in wood modelling, and I was afraid to make major mistakes in a such important area. Gluing the fife rail at this stage (as suggested by the instruction) was a big mistake. They are very close to the masts and this area will be really crowded on the rigging phase. It would have been a better decision to add them later. Stupid move… At least I was smart enough to clear all the holes in the fife rail legs. This will prove to be very important later on.