Good news indeed! I've never built or bought an A.J. Fisher kit; as a matter of fact I can't recall ever having seen one in the flesh. But the firm always had a fine reputation for quality, accuracy, and service.
The new website implies that, though the
Dancing Feather is the only kit available so far, the new management is selling copies of all the A.J. Fisher plans. I just may order one or two of them. I suspect they're excellent.
There seems to be something of a minor boom in old-fashioned, solid-hull ship model kits at the moment. Model Shipways has just reissued its grand old
Sultana, and has reissued its pilot boat
Phantom with a machine-carved wood hull. (I guess I'm one of the few who bought - and enjoyed building - that kit in its last incarnation, with a resin hull.) As I understand it some of the other old Model Shipways solid-hull kits are slated for reincarnation as well. Apparently the parent company, Model Expo, has found a company that can do a good job of carving the hulls.
Machine-carved hulls have always had their problems, the big one being the question of measurement. (Just where is the centerline of a machine-carved hull? How do you tell when the masts are vertical?) But that system has been responsible for giving thousands of people a sound introduction to serious scale ship modeling over the years. If the machine-carved hull catches on again and, with its combination of reasonable construction time and reasonable price, hauls more people into the hobby, I'll be happy. And if competition from American solid-hull kits has the effect of driving some of those gawdawful Continental European plank-on-bulkhead companies out of business, so much the better.
Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.