Yankee Modelworks

Yankee Modelworks ship models are among the better of the 1:350 resin ship kits available. The YMW kits are the old Blue Water Navy kits.  Mike Bishop of BWN sold the assets to John Sheridan and he opened Yankee Modelworks. 

YMW kits are well cast with few bubbles.   YMW kits are a mixture of resin & white metal (small parts often in metal (you cant recast/recycle resin).  YMW kits come complete with PE.  Remember that is an aftermarket cost you must consider if you are updating a plastic kit.   Remember too that a resin kit is often the only game in town if you want a specific or esoteric subject.

The biggest rap against YMW ship kits are that come split at the waterline.   If you intend to model a waterline presentation - that is no problem.   However, due to differential shrinkage rates between the upper hull and the lower hull often don't fit.   Mike Ashey in his Kalmbach book "The Basics of Ship Modeling" takes a band saw to a BWN lower hull - cuts it apart and reassembles it.  [Not for the faint of heart!]  The upper and lower hulls (the lower hull more so) have some rather significant pour stubs which need to be addressed for a whole hull assembly.

If you have build resin before I would say that there should be no problems undertaking a YMW ship kit.  

 

Dick McC2 wrote:

Has anyone built up any of Yankee Modelworks 1/350th resin ships? What I'm interested in is what quality of detail do they have... I've built up several resin subs so I'm knowledgable of the diff between injected plastic vs. resin. What I'm cautious about is the relatively high price and don't want to get something that looks like it came from Lego when completed. I'm contemplating ordering one of their CLs and would appreciate any pros or cons... Tks in advance, Dick McC

I own a number of the BWN and YMW kits and have built a half dozen of them to date. The detail is great and the fact that they are complete kind of evens out the cost factor a bit. I only build waterline anyway so joining the pieces together is irrelevant to me. The first thing I do when I open the box is throw away the lower hull! (who wants to see that big fat red bottom anyway? it's kinda like looking at the back side of a baboon).

There is a different mindset to working with resin that you will have to get used to. It isn't terribly difficult and I prefer resin models to injected plastic when a good maker like YMW is involved as I think there is less busy work involved. I hate sanding down the countless seams in a injection molded kit but that is balanced out sometimes with overpour stubs on resin parts. Those jobs "usually" are on the side of parts not visible when assembled. Try it, you'll like it. WS

Appreciate the positive comments.... Now all I have to do is figure out which one to build and where to display it... tks,

Dick McC