Our longtime friend Ron Neilson gave us his permission to share his photos of one of his early builds: Amati’s 1/60-scale Xebec kit. This was only Ron’s second wooden ship model that he built back in  2012. The completed model is about 28″ long, and he clearly put a lot of personal touches into this kit, including the red sails, the color scheme, the deck clutter, and more. He also did a beautiful job with the presentation on  its display base with customized nameplate.

As many readers here may already know, the Xebecs are a mediterranean design that was infamously used by the Algerian pirates of North Africa. The sight of these ships sent shivers down the spines of many a seafarer.  They were fast and maneuverable and armed with cannons, swivel guns, and most importantly, a pirate crew.

It’s really no coincidence that the photos remind us of the Corsairs of Umbar from the Lord of the Rings, particularly this next photo.

Ron tells us that he really liked building this kit and that he highly recommends it. Those who are interested in building this kit should have some wooden ship building experience and be comfortable with using plans that are labeled in Italian.  The included full-color instruction booklet is also printed in Italian, but all the text in English is provided on a separate insert sheet. Even so, today, those with a smart phone can simply use the Google Translate or similar app to read right off the booklet and plans.

We’d love to see and share model photos, particularly of the kits that we carry such as Amati, Mantua, Caldercraft, and others. If you have any to share, please let us know at blogger@agesofsail.com.

If you’re thinking about building this kit, get pricing and details from our listing on web shop here: https://www.agesofsail.com/ecommerce/amati-xebec-am1427.html. Ω