wood clipper sea witch

I'm aware of only two wood kits of the Sea Witch- neither of them currently available. One was by Marine Models, a firm that operated out of Long Island between the 1930s and (I think) the early or mid-'70s. Their kits, based on solid hulls with "white metal" (i.e., lead alloy) fittings, varied tremendously in quality. I remember that they did a Sea Witch in 1/96 scale.

The other was by Scientific - one of a series of kits that were intended for beginners. They haven't been available for a good many years. There's an old plastic Sea Witch that was original produced by ITC, made a brief re-appearance under the Aurora label, and has been seen most recently in a Lindberg box. It's scarcely state-of-the-art; among other things, it has injection-molded "sails" that are about six scale inches thick.

I may be out of line, but I'll take the liberty of offering a general suggestion or two - based on 45+ years of ship modeling. If you're seriously interested in undertaking a wood kit, stick with the American manufacturers. Two that are generally reliable (and theirs vary in quality) are Bluejacket and Model Shipways (the latter sold by Model Expo). If you have your heart set on a clipper, Model Shipways makes a plank-on-bulkhead Flying Fish that's about as good a wood kit as you're going to find. I don't think Bluejacket has a clipper in its inventory at the moment, but the recent list of forthcoming kits in FSM mentions a Bluejacket Red Jacket. (Now there's a potential for confusion.) On the basis of the firm's most recent products, I suspect that will be a fine kit - but not cheap.

Avoid at all costs those ultra-expensive, exotic-looking wood kits from Italy and Spain. Whatever else they may be, they aren't scale models. If none of the handful of American kits appeals to your personal aesthetics, give some thought to building from scratch. If you start with a good set of plans and good materials (forget you've ever heard the term "balsa wood"), it's not as difficult as you may think.

I have the old Sicentific Seawitch kit. The hull is far from "carved" and takes a lot to shape it to scale. Unless you want to spend HOURS cutting out tiny little parts out of thin plywood on a bandsaw, then go with the Flying Fish or look into scratch building it. However, taken the time and money spent on better wood and aftermarket fittings, the Scientific kit does look really nice. I have built a number of the old Scientific and Appigoilio (sp?) (Italian) kits with the crazy chudowood formed hulls. These kits drove to scratch build from now on.
Scott

Model Expo is a good place to go for tools, too. They have plank benders and other obscure little gadgets to make your life a little easier. I bought a Baltimore Clipper from them in 1987, it was my first plank on frame model. I got it all the way done except for the rigging, when my then eight year old son knocked it over and mercifully ended my dreaded nightmare of rigging the thing. Anyway, good luck and have fun.

Thanks all I have been having a ball searching all the web sites for Model shipways in progress. I will end up with the flying fish. Thanks again. andy