Being a fan of the early Model Shipways kits, I was happy to see that they just re-released their 1/64-scale Yacht America kit. I think it’s actually been a few years since they produced their America kit last. The kits that I was familiar with were solid hull kits, and this one has been “upgraded” to a full plank-on-bulkhead kit.

The original kit dates back to the old “Yellow Box” kits. I’m not sure how far back these old kits go, but they all had beautifully done plans by naval architect George Campbell. I assume, and really hope, that they continue to include these plans in their newly revised kit, though obviously there would be additional plans and instructions for constructing the hull from bulkheads.

So, this past week, I’ve been having a few conversations with Mr. Paul Reck, who’s an accomplished ship modeler that runs the Hyde Street Pier Model Shipwrights club in San Francisco. I’ve been a member of that group for at least 10 or 11 years. Paul has been talking for some time about gunboats of the Jeffersonian navy. So, 1801 through the War of 1812. And, yes, that’s technically into the Madison presidency, but we’re talking about the gunboat navy that took shape under Jefferson.

Paul has built a model of the War of Independence gunboat Philadelphia and small galley cutter Lee. Lately, his attention turned to these Jeffersonian gunboats. This is something I’ve always had an interest in, though my knowledge doesn’t really go past a couple historical books on the War of 1812 and the Barbary Wars, and Howard Chapelle’s book History of the American Sailing Navy.

A…

We just received a big shipment of products from the “new and improved” Artesania Latina, so we’re finally recovering after the holidays depleted our stocks of this long-time popular brand. In addition, we’ve receive some new kits you might want to check out, as well as the return of an old favorite, the San Juan Nepomuceno. But, the biggest news by far is the release of their brand new kit of the 17th century Swedish warship Vasa.

This spectacular kit is made for the Expert Level modeler and is produced in 1/65-scale, making it one of the largest Vasa kits available at 42″ long and 34″ high. The kit makes heavy use of die-cast and photo-etched decorations, and there are a LOT of them!

After the modification of the bulwarks, the rest of the model should look pretty much like the plans. The Woody Joe kit seems to be pretty well spot-on with the Dutch maritime museum plans as far as hull shape and deck layout. So, it’s basically the smaller details that I need to consider.

The scrollwork for the bow is a cast metal piece, which looks fine. There are a few artifacts from the casting process which need cleaning up, but this is pretty easy to do. I just used a sharp, chisel pointed blade to cut them away.

With the scrollwork cleaned up, I mounted it on the bow. The upper and lower molding of this piece are supposed to line up with the wooden molding strips applied to the hull. With the scrollwork in place, I decided to trim the stem so that it didn’t stick out beyond the…