Background

The Half Moon, captained by Englishman Henry Hudson under commission to the Dutch Republic, was charged with covertly finding a westerly passage to China in the early 1600s. In 1609, Half Moon sailed into what is now New York Harbor and later sailed and explored the mid-Atlantic region as far south as the Chesapeake Bay.

The Kit

Originally released by Pyro in the 1960s, Half Moon later found her way into the Lindberg Line portfolio, and finally into Round 2 Models’ fold in 2014 (still bearing the Lindberg brand). Comprised of 22 parts molded in white styrene on hefty sprue trees, instructions, and full color decals, this classic kit has weathered its 50-year life surprisingly well. Conspicuously absent, however, are ratlines and rigging diagrams. Although detail is coarse by modern standards, the basics are present for a decent beginner or nostalgia build.

The Build

Assembly was quick and very straight-forward, as one would expect with such a low part count. A fair amount of time was needed to clean up mold parting lines and remove some minor flash left from the venerable tooling. Hull halves and the deck assembly led off the sequence, with some modest filling between the deck edges and hull sides.

With all parts cleaned up and the basic hull assembled, the model was primed with Walmart gray primer and then painted with Tamiya, Italeri, and Testors Model Master acrylics. After applying a coat of Future to areas to be decaled, decals were applied using the Microscale system. Despite the relative thickness of the decals, they did settle well around surface detail. A coat of Model Master Acryl Flat toned down the decals sufficiently. Finally, with the flat coat dry, masts, sails, and anchors were added.

Recommendation

Although not on par with modern kits from a fit and finish point of view, Half Moon provides a very fun and easy build for kids, beginning modelers, and folks looking to relive some nostalgia and the days of sitting at the kitchen table building models with their dad. For that reason, I heartily recommend Half Moon to such modelers looking for just a fun and somewhat unique build.

Many thanks to Round 2 Models for the review sample and to IPMS/USA for the privilege of reviewing the kit.