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I love pirate lore especially Blackbeard's and what better way show the love than having Queen Anne's Revenge. This model in intricate and extremely detailed down the cannon ports and rigging on the masts. I loved the challenge of this model. However this is not for the faint of heart. This an expert hobby build. So there are some things you need to know. One, the tools that come with it aren't all great. The bending rods are pretty worthless. I suggest going to hobby lobby and purchasing a jewelry bender. You will have much better control and better bends. As far as the nippers and needle nose pliers. Those are the perfect size for this build so for starters it's worth it to buy them one time. Tip two, buy the magnifier headset. A good one with a light. You can get one relatively cheap a hobby store. It's worth it. Tip three though you can see slight imperfections in your bends in the magnifier don't worry about them the naked eye can't see them. Tip four, take your time. Read the steps. If you get ahead of yourself things will be off. These prices are extremely small. If you rush you will break them. When you break them you will get frustrated. Tip five, have some super glue on hand. If you break a tab it's no biggie a dab of glue will hold it in place. Tip six. Build the stand first. Then go step by step. I say build the stand first because it's a great place to keep the ship on when needed and when you are not working on it. Tip seven. Do one piece at a time. One step at a time. These are small pieces and you will drop them. If you cut a bunch of them out you will loose them and you will spend tons of time looking for them. Final tip. Have fun. If you are older or younger this will definitely help with fine motor skills and concentration. Trust me you need both for this build. In the end it is very impressive. For hobbyists like modelers and lego builders this is a great challenge. I gave it four stars for not being giftible. This isn't a good gift for a novice period. This is for an expert hobbyist. If you gift this to a novice it will get bad reviews. I gave it one star for easy to assemble. Let's not lie to people. For a seasoned model builder this is a beast. I gave five stars for instructions. The guides are great, but pay attention.

I bought the model without reading reviews. There were no surprises as i expected it to be intricate and difficult and it is all of that. I have it half done and decided to read the reviews to see what others thought of it. Those that gave it ones didn't know what they were getting into. It is an incredibly detailed and beautiful model. The pieces can be tiny and difficult to handle. Definitely purchase the tools that they recommend for assembly. You WILL NOT be disappointed. They are definitely necessary. All of the other 5 star reviews are accurate in the recommendations they give. Word to the wise though. If you aren't sure whether you can build it or not, I suggest you buy a different, smaller, easier one to start out with but this model definitely gives you a sense of accomplishment when it's done. Buy the tools, get a good magnifier (hands free). You will drop pieces or they will bounce out of your tweezers if you squeeze to tightly and fly. Work somewhere where there isn't a lot of things in the area that will make it difficult to see those pieces. A work bench is ideal. I used the top of a copy paper box to work in while sitting at my work bench. When you hold pieces with tweezers, don't squeeze too hard or part will fly out. If this happens, listen to see where it goes, move slowly and look everywhere you can see from where you are sitting. Hopefully it will be close but they can bounce and fly farther than you might think. Go slow and study instructions to make sure you are bending the correct way. It is forgiving if bent wrong but not too many times. Be very careful with the main deck. The forward part will snap off if you flex it too much. Great model and I will definitely be getting more.

This was my first metal model. Firstly - even though it says no tool required, don't even attempt it. You NEED the proper tools to build this. Luckily I bought the tools ahead of time. I soon found out that the parts are so small that a good magnifier of some sort is beneficial. So I bought a magnifying ring light which made a huge difference. Highly recommend one of those, or a head mounted jewelers magnifier. The parts are very fragile. You need to really make sure you understand every bend in the instructions because if you bend the wrong way, you likely will break the part when you attempt to bend back the other way (I had to use super glue to fix parts 5 times). The hull is super hard to get the right shape, and there's lots of stuff attaching to it so it must be correct or other stuff won't align. There are some parts that get ridiculously monotonous though - like building 18 canons, each canon is made of 3 separate parts, each part has to be hand bent into specific shape. So that is 54 parts that have to be shaped, which becomes a tedious process that makes you feel so glad when you get those done LOL It really tests your patience! But if you just go slow, take your time, complete focus... Making this becomes a very zen like hobby. Hours would just fly by as I worked on this. I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent building it. I have already committed to building more metal models in the future. It's a great hobby.

It ended up looking good, but it was no thanks to the instructions that were provided. These were the worst instructions I’ve ever seen from this company. It really needed some close-ups or some direct angles and it just didn’t have them. It was tough to make out some of the alignment features they wanted you to use as the pictures we’re just too small and not colored well. Prepared to use superglue on the ribs of the ship body before you assemble the two bottom decks. It will be loose and wobbly otherwise. It is very hard to pin those ribs down tight without glue. This was a very tedious model to put together. Lots of the same types of parts just got monotonous.

Why did you pick this product vs others?: This model is super detailed and SUPER tiny. Pay attention to the measurements in the pictures. But understand that this also means that the pieces you need to manipulate are VERY tiny. You will absolutely need a magnifying glass with a light on a stand to do this model. And nimble fingers. Since you need to bend and manipulate each tiny piece. But it’s very detailed and fun to do if you have that type of patience.

After getting back to doing models after some time I wanted something to test my patience.... and man this did not disappoint. Like others have said if you don't have the proper tools, don't even attempt it. Need a good modeling kit and a decent magnifier. I got through the first 16 steps without a magnifier and it was rough at times, even trying to understand the directions which are as small as the pieces. You will also need some good glue on hand as a few of the tabs just don't do the trick when securing some pieces. Looctot high performance glue works great. About half way through now and very excited to see the final product. If you're new to building models this is not for you but if you're experienced and like a challenge, this will make you pull your hair out. Will likely purchase another one of these soon.

The pieces are a bit smaller than we thought they would be and can be hard to handle. Otherwise it looks pretty cool. Still trying to put it together the small pieces make it frustrating and breaks are needed.

This was my “first” metal model. I had made three bug brooches, which was fun same company…So then I was ready to take on the big guns. Do this model with no fear. If you are afraid, it will never make it out of the box. It’s all pix with very little written instructions. It will help to review ALL the pix before you start. I cut up the into fours to make it easier to manage. Then you cross reference the metal sheet to the corresponding paper reference to cut out the right part. I would also suggest that when you get to the rigging…you might be tempted to cut more than one piece at a time. Don’t. Do it, one piece at a time. The pix can be a little confusing, but look at the end of the rig piece, and follow it down. That’s where it goes. A magnifier is a must, along with really really good bright light. However, you will learn quickly how to hold it because it will blind you. It is metal after all. Beens this was my first, I made a few boo boos…but the bottom line is, if you boo boo, have a plan to fix it. Case in point: I bent one of the masts the wrong way, and when I bent it back the right way, it broke completely at the seam. Without a plan, it’s game over. You can use anything really….a piece of fabric….I had some silk clay on hand. The part needed to be folded was at a 90 degree angle. I made a template to hold that 90 degree angle. I made a scored piece of cardboard and bent it and laid the two pieces in and tilted it so the “point” was facing down. So, either fabric or silk clay (which will dry hard), but you need a binder. I used super glue. It worked really good and the repair was invisible. And because I repaired it at that 90 degree angle, I didn’t have to bend it. 95 steps. To bend the tabs, use a wooden stick. If you slip, it won’t scratch. I will make a suggestion. When you bend the hull and get it into the right shape, I would reinforce the inside with your superglue fabric, in slits. You will understand when you get to that point. It does get dicey when doing the rigging. You have to manipulate it around without bending the parts you have already placed. I will say that one night it was on the table, work in progress and it fell on the floor…and I stepped on it. I sat down and it did my best to get it back into shape. Bottom line. It was fun and I learned a lot. Yes, I would make another one….probably the Flying Dutchman.