Many kits produced by classic ship model kit manufacturers are well known, so it’s relatively easy to find examples of them under construction on the Internet, or to know of someone else who has built or is building the kit. But, for kits produced by relatively new manufacturers with a limited distribution network, it’s pretty hard to know what construction is like. So, it was nice to find a build of the Statenjacht kit, produced by the Dutch wooden ship model kit manufacturer Kolderstok.

Image from Kolderstok’s website.

The Statenyacht was a Dutch transport that was used in the 17th through 19th centuries, designed to carry and entertain VIPs. This from the manufacturer:

“Evolved from the war yachts as used in the 80-year war, it had developed into a convenient, fast and above all comfortable means of transport. The Statenjacht was the ideal way to travel at a time when…

Good news for scratch modelers! Seawatch Books, which brought us amazing titles by David Antscherl, Rob Napier, Gilbert McArdle, and others is back up and running under new ownership.

The previous owner, Bob Friedman, has been talking about his retirement for some time now, and earlier this year, the store went off-line pending sale to a new owner. Apparently, the early attempts at selling the company didn’t work out. But, then ship modeler Mike Ellison came along and saved the day, and the site just officially went live.

Perhaps one of the best known titles from Seawatch Books is the 4-volume series, The Fully Framed Model, HMN Swan Class Sloops 1767-1780.

To celebrate and to offer my support, I’ll probably pick up a title. Right now, I’m leaning toward either the book on building HMS Sussex, by Gilbert McArdle, or the two-volume series The Ketch Rigged Sloop Speedwell of 1752…

Recently, I was looking at some offerings from the Chinese kit manufacturer CAF Model. They are one of the few Chinese kit manufacturers that have worked their way off the piracy/do not buy list that’s maintained by the Nautical Research Guild and followed by many ship model clubs. What caught my attention, specifically, was a heavily engineered kit of a 1/48-scale cross-section of the bomb vessel HMS Granado.

This weekend, I just ran across a model boat kit manufacturer on the Internet. Their website shows that they have quite a large number of kits of American workboats in large scales of 1/4″=1′ and larger.

Looks like they have 15 different kits, including: Box Stern, Chesapeake Bay Bugeye, Chesapeake Bay Buy Boat, the charter fishing boat Breein Thru, a Hooper Island Drake Tail, a Chesapeake Bay Log Canoe, and many others. The prices are very nice too. Of the 15 kits they offer, only five of them list at over $100.

Wye River Models’ Chesapeake Bay Bugeye, 1/4″=1′ scale (1:48)

Wye River Models’ Smith Island Crabbing Boat, 3/4″=1′ scale (1:16)

Wye Rivers Models’ “Virginia” Round Stern Workboat, 1/2″=1′ scale (1:24)

Never having built, or even seen one of these kits, I can’t vouch for them, but from here, they look really nice. Until I’ve actually seen one of their kits…

Updates on the progress of the Atakebune model are long overdue. The project has been continuing, and I’ve done quite a bit. But, I’ve been quite slow on writing posts. So, I’ll try to get partially caught up here, but I’ll probably need to write another post soon to finish catching up.

Stern structure added to the model. Note that all the doors have been added to the model. I simply taped them into place from the inside at this stage.

It’s always a pleasure when customers send us photos of their completed models, so we were particularly happy to start off the new year when customer tomsimon of Chino Hills, CA, shared with us the final photos of the wooden ship model he just completed, the Lady Eleanor from Vanguard Models. He gave us permission to share these photos on our social media sites, so we’re happy to post them here for you.

Tomsimon tells us that this Lady Eleanor is his first ever wooden ship model, and we think he’s done a wonderful job!

Lady Eleanor is a 1/64 scale wooden model kit of a Scottish fishing boat type called a Fifie. It’s described as a type that was commonly seen off the east coast of Scotland from the 1850s through the 1950s, and was known as a workhorse in the fishing community.