| Korean
Turtle Ship
AH87006
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| The Korean Turtle Ships were around,
in one form or another, from the 15th to 19th century A.D. Powered by both
oars and sails, they were reportedly deceptively fast for their times.
Armament consisted mostly of canon, with the dragon's head on some ships
being also fitted with either a canon, various flame throwing devices,
or smoke generators. While these ships were some of the first "armored",
meaning that the ship's crew was protected by the overhead deck, I've never
found conclusive proof that this armor was any sort of metal, and may have
been reinforced timbers. Metal spikes were placed on the exposed upper
decks, to deter an enemy grappling and boarding the ships; the presence
of these metal spikes in archeological sites has not helped with the question
as to whether these ships had any metal armor plating.
Sources state varying lengths for these ships, as one would expect of non-standardized construction of the period. Most sources, however, agree on a typical length of 100'-200'. The hull in the kit comes in right at 2 1/4" in length, overall, which in 1/700 scale is a little long, but with a subject this obscure and old, that's an acceptable margin for error in my book. |
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| HULL and RESIN PARTS | ||||
| The kit's resin parts come in two small plastic bags inside of a plastic box, which is sandwiched between two sheets of foam in the kit's cardboard box. Everything is very nicely packed, no parts touch each other, and there's no space for rattling around to damage the resin. Very nicely packaged. There are only two resin pieces in the kit: the hull and the dragon's head. Both are on simple casting sprues that should cut or sand off easily, with no damage to the attached components. The pieces show great detail, with the fine lines of the upper shields on the hull very consistent and even, and the details of the dragon's head quite clearly visible. There are no air bubbles at all in either casting. |
to enlarge |
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| PHOTOETCH PARTS and INSTRUCTIONS | ||||
| A single sheet of photo etch contains the rest of the components of
the kit. Most notable on the sheet are the sails, each made up of two pieces
that sandwich around the masts. The masts are also included here, to be
folded from three lengths of brass. It may be worth further study of the
ships to see if they mounted standard rounded pole masts, and replace these
pieces with tapered brass rod. Other components on the brass sheet include
a multitude of oars, the ship's anchor, and several bow and hull insignia/plates.
Instructions consist of a single 4" x 6" sheet, double-sided, printed in color. There are only 3 steps depicted in the assembly sequence, but every component in resin and brass are called out, so they should be sufficient. |
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| CONCLUSIONS | ||||
 Artist
Hobby has quite a few of these old ship kits in their lineup, everything
from these Turtle Ships, to Roman galleys, and Greek triremes. With subjects
this old, and with the amount of variations that surely occurred in the
real-world examples, these make for great "I'm going to build it the way
I want and nobody can tell me I'm wrong (but someone still will)" kits.
The kit components are well-made, and it looks as if these will be quick,
fun builds.
I purchased my Turtle Ship for $18, plus shipping, late last year, via eBay. Since then, Freetime Hobbies has also begun carrying the Artist Hobby line. |
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