I see there is a lot of interest in lakers, but not a lot of kits. If folks are willing to try working with wood, lakers are an easy way to get started in scratchbuilding, since the hulls have a minimum of compound curves, especially if you make them waterline models.
1:700, or even 1:350 models are nice for the more recent lakers like the thousand footers, since the later are enormous at 1:192 or 1:200, the next smaller popular ship scale. One big drawback to the newer ships, however, are the unloading booms. I've only done one (1:192) and dread the thought of doing more of those in either 1:350 or 1:700. I sure wish we could convince some PE house to do a boom sheet in one of those scales. The booms are all pretty standard, and one PE sheet could be used for a number of different lakers. Railings and ladders are available in those scales and work well, but we need something for those booms!