26 foot Hard Top Motor Whaleboat MK.1 (X2)

AC350028b

Black Cat Models, 1/350th Scale, Resin

Reviewed by Devin Poore, July 2019
 
If you've ever visited a warship museum, or built a model of a 20th century US warship, then you've seen a 26 foot whaleboat. They're ubiquitous. Diesel powered, they carried a crew of 3 and up to 22 passengers. This version by Black Cat is the hard topped version, with a solid canopy over the forward third of the boat. 

The full size boat measured 26' 8", which at 1/350th scale comes out at .9" or 23mm. Going between the verticals, minus the rudder, on the Black Cat whaleboat, I get .88". That's just a little short, but close enough in my book.
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PARTS
You get two boats in this set, both attached via many print supports to a common printing block/platform. I've been extremely careful with the other Black Cat Models printed accessories I've reviewed in the past, to the point of leaving them on their printing blocks, as I didn't want to risk damaging them. This boat, however, is so festooned with supports that I needed to remove it to get a better look. Keeping in mind that a lot of liquid resin printers' support materials can be problematic to remove -- the connections can be larger than necessary, they can touch areas of high detail, or they can be brittle and easily chip and damage the print when they are removed -- I was extremely pleased with the ease with which the Black Cat Models parts came off of the supports. The connection points are extremely fine and snipped very easily with a sprue cutter, and I have no doubt that even finer cutting devices, such as fly tying scissors, would work just as well, and allow one to get in even closer. There was no chipping of the resin at all, and a quick test of cleanup showed that most of the support material left behind can be scraped away with a scalpel/X-Acto blade.

The detail on the boats is very well done. The canopy and rudder are appropriately thin. I think the strakes along the hull sides and the engine bulkheads may be a bit thick, but no more so than white metal, cast resin, or injected styrene counterparts. the hull surface is extremely smooth, no print lines at all, and the handrails around the tiller are finely printed, show no print lines, and are sturdy enough to hold up to a bit of handling. The printed prop looks the part. The only point of caution I would offer is to be very careful cutting free and cleaning up the rudder. It's fine to the point of translucence.
CONCLUSIONS
Another winning bit of resin from Black Cat Models. These boats come out of the package nearly ready to paint and install. There's cleanup of support material to do, but nowhere near what other printed resin requires. My only concern is that having everything as one piece, especially the forward canopy, may make painting the bow area difficult, especially if one is painting the cowl and hull different colors. I would like to see the cowl as a separate piece for that reason. Otherwise, this should be a fantastic upgrade to any ship kit.

Highly recommended.

Thank you to Black Cat Models for the review sample. 


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