Jo Tika "surprise"

I've never built a Jotika/Calder kit - or even seen one "in the flesh."  They're hard to find in the U.S., though that situation seems to be improving.  I have, however, read quite a few reviews of them and spent some time studying the company's website.  It's pretty clear that the kits are extremely well researched, intelligently designed (in the literal sense - not the religious one), made of good materials, and, unfortunately, extremely high priced.  (That 1/72 H.M.S. Victory goes for over $1,000.  I'm not sure what the price of the Surprise is going to be.)  This quite clearly is a company that genuinely understands what scale ship modeling is - and high quality costs money. 

At the present time, though, these kits are simply beyond my budget.  I might - just might - be able to justify such a purchase if I could honestly tell myself that I was going to take the kit home, start on it right away, and devote most of my spare time to it for several months or a year.  Retirement is a few years down the road; maybe then....

I have not aquired any of their kits ( Caldercraft ) but they have an excellent reputation.. 

http://www.jotika-ltd.com/Pages/1024768/index.htm 

 Their ' Victory ' is very popular ..

 Look through the gallery at DDM for some of the Caldercraft Victories..

http://gallery.drydockmodels.com/victory 

Here is a gallery with lots of pics of the Victory kit contents .. 

 http://gallery.drydockmodels.com/album400

I don't believe the Surprise kit is available for sale yet ..

Here is a link to the prototype info .. Lots of build pictures.. 

 http://www.jotika-ltd.com/Pages/1024768/Surprise_Front.htm