ATTENTION SAILING SHIP MODELERS!

I have enclosed my response to Mr. Lodge of Airfix.

Bill Morrison

Mr. Mark Lodge
Airfix Customer Care

Dear Mr. Lodge,

Thank you for your response to my email. As you are aware, whenever a consumer hears the phrase "We'll pass your request on to  . . .", we expect that our request will be deposited in the circular file. In fact, many of my peers have advised me not to bother with my requests to Airfix because it is a lost cause. Your response gave me some hope.

I would like to specify which ships that I would like to see Airfix manufacture. Unfortunately, Airfix does not manufacture sailing ships to any standard scale; they range from 1/72, 1/144, 1/150, 1/180, and 1/200.  I would like to see Airfix begin a 1/96 or 1/100 line and, perhaps, 1/150.  The ships I would personally like to see include HMS Vanguard (Nelson's flagship at the Battle of the Nile), L'Ocean (Bruey's flagship at the same battle), HMS Elephant (Nelson's flagship at Copenhagen), HMS Amazon (Captain Riou's frigate at Copenhagen), HMS Shannon (the frigate that defeated USS Chesapeake), and Bucentaure(Villeneuve's flagship at Trafalgar).  I would also like to see HMS Bellerophon, the ship to which Napoleon surrendered, and HMS Queen Charlotte (Rodney's flagship). Others have mentioned the Santissima Trinidad, the largest ship that fought at Trafalgar.

Again, thank you for your consideration. I appreciate that any new model kit involves a significant outlay of funds, but I believe that it is in the best interests of Airfix to do so.  Other model companies have proven this, such as Trumpeter and Dragon.

I look forward to hearing from you again concerning these recommendations.

Bill Morrison

Relating to Dr. Tilley´s interesting article about Revell of Germany,
I can confirm his statements. Most of the models are reissues, sometimes modified.
"Gorch Fock" is indeed a modified "Eagle". In the 1930s there were 3 training sailing
vessels built for the Kriegsmarine: Gorck Fock 1 (which after WW II became the russian
"Tovarishtsch"), "Horst Wessel" (after WW II US Coast Guard "Eagle" which probably
was the prototype for Revell´s model) and "Albert Leo Schlageter"  which, after a
period as brazilian ship after WW II eventuelly became portuguese "Sagres" around 1960.
Gorch Fock 1 was a little bit shorter than "Horst Wessel" /"Eagle" and "Albert Leo Schlageter"/
"Sagres".  A similar ship was built for Romania , the "Mircea". So "Eagle" and "Sagres"
were based on the plans of "Gorch Fock 1", the hull was lengthened. "Gorch Fock 2",
the current ship for the German Bundesmarine, was built on plans based on "Eagle"/"Sagres".
Thats why Revell uses the same hull for both ship models, I only found out slight differences
on the upper deck structures.  I hope, these informations aren´t confusing.

Now to "Alexander von Humboldt".  This is a german made Revell kit. It appeared first
at the end of the 1980s. The ship is a training sailing vessel, which was rebuilt in
1986/1987 from a former fire ship into a three masted bark. The fire ship originally was built
in 1906 as "Reserve Sonderburg", it was planned as a reserve fireship, when one of the
main fireships at Germanys coast had to be repaired. So it remained under different tasks
until September 1986, when it was rammed by Liberian motorship "Ocean Wind" and damaged.
Afterwards it was bought by a foundation "Deutsche Stiftung Sail Training", to rebuilt
it as a training vessel for young people. The hull was painted green to give a memory
to the sailing ships of the german shipping company "Rickmers". The reason why the sails
are green to is simple:(Dr. Tilley was wondering why....)
One of the founders of the training ship foundation is the big german brewery BECKS (also famous in the USA, I guess). The had made a contract for using the ship for advertising
over a long period. As the BECKS beer bottles are green, so the sails became green too.
When the advertising contract ran out, the sails were left green, because of the ship´s
special appearance. I have read, that the ship will be replace in 2009 or 2010 by a newer
ship. The training ship foundation has an own (german) website:
           www.gruene-segel.de
(That means "green sails" in english).  Another german modellers homepage, where pictures
of a nicely built "Alexander von Humbold" can be found is:  www.modellversium.de

Then you have to click "Galerie" (gallery) and then you can search for the model.

I hope these informations from Germany helped to clearify some questions in this case.

Greetings to all!  Axel Wolters  a.k.a  woxel59  

As an addition to my report about shipmodels from Revell of Germany,
I had discovered another case of "model box engineering" (selling the same
kit under different names): The at present unavailable kit of the german
WW I sailing ship "SMS Seeadler" (Sea Eagle), from famous captain Felix Graf
Luckner, also was issued in the 1960s, and different times again, from Revell.
The scale stated on the box was 1:232.  Indeed its the same kit as "Gorch Fock",
with minmal modifications. "Gorch Fock" scale was stated as 1:253. This is clearly
a box-scale, regarding the age of the kit. The real "Seeadler" also was a 3 mast ship,
but had a different length in comparison to "Gorch Fock" so Revell probably stated
the different scale. The real ships had nothing in common, except the 3 masts, because
"Seeadler" was built in 1888 in Glasgow, Scotland. It was captured as "Pass of
Balmaha"  by a german submarine and sent to Germany. An engine was added and it
was reconstructed as an auxiliary cruiser. The vessel had some succes but was finally
lost in the south pacific at the island of Mopelia. It had struck a reef caused by an
anchoring error. (Graf Luckner hat later stated, the the vesel was thrown on the reef
by a tsunami, to protect his crew from punishment). I luckyly have a (started)
kit of "Seeadler" (an early Revell "Authentic kit") in my collection.    
Maybe this one will reappear one day too ? 

As an addition to the 1:350 scale Gorck Fock(ex IMAI), Revell of Germany also
offered the 1:350 scale "Cutty Sark" and "Amerigo Vespucci" in the same line,
these ships are well known in Germany too. I guess, the tools were leased,
because the old IMAI 1:350 scale ships mostly are offered by MINICRAFT now.
No idea whether they own the tools or just let produce models in China or
Korea under their name..... Does anybody have more information ?     

I can shed a little more light on the Eagle/Gorch Fock/Seeadler connection.  It's a rather interesting story.

Back in 1956 (at least I think that's the date of the first edition) the famous sailing ship writer and draftsman Harold A. Underhill published a book called Sail Training and Cadet Ships.  Like Underhill's other books, it was illustrated with a series of well-drawn, fold-out plans.  Among the ships covered was, of course, the class of German training barques that included the Gorch Fock and Horst Wessel (later U.S.C.G.C. Eagle).  The text of the book included a discussion of the similarities and differences between the ships of the class - including the fact that all of them were different in length.  The accompanying fold-out plans were of the Gorch Fock - as Underhill clearly stated in the text.  (He explained repeatedly that the four ships in the class were near-identical except for length - and provided a table with the accurate dimensions.)

Underhill's publishers, Brown, Son and Ferguson, sold blueprint versions of most of his ship plans separately, and published a widely-distributed catalog of them.  This particular set of drawings was listed in the catalog as representing all four ships in the class.  A person who bought a copy of the drawings and didn't have a copy of the book wouldn't know that the plans weren't accurate depictions of all four. 

I think it's worth noting that Underhill himself never tried to deceive anybody on this point.  (Neither, so far as I know, did the U.S. Coast Guard.)

Virtually every model kit, plastic or wood, allegedly representing the Eagle seems to have been based on those Underhill plans.  That, I'm pretty sure, includes the Revell kit, which originally appeared in 1958.  By then the real Eagle had been modified considerably from her original configuration.  (The characteristically German double spanker rig on the mizzen mast had, for instance, been replaced by a single gaff.  In the ship's latest major overhaul, back in about 1990, the Coast Guard restored the double spanker.)  I think the Revell designers took a careful look at the actual ship and, in effect, superimposed the various pieces of 1950s-vintage Coast Guard equipment on the Underhill plans, thereby producing a kit that looked quite a bit like the Eagle did in 1958 - but was about 20 scale feet too short.  (I haven't compared the original Horst Wessel drawings directly with the Underhill ones, but I think most, if not all, of the difference in length falls between the big forward deckhouse and the main mast.)

We discussed this topic at some length here in the Forum a couple of years ago.  I think we pretty firmly established that all other Eagle kits are also too short - with one notable exception:  the 1/200 version from Imai.  A Forum member who'd sailed on board the Eagle got hold of that kit and compared it with some reliable drawings (they're out there, all right); he reports that it's an excellent, well-detailed kit, though it was only available quite briefly and is now extremely hard to find.

Imai also included the Eagle (along with the other three class members) in its series of nice little 1/350 kits.  I'm pretty sure all of the four had identical hulls, decks, etc.  (I suspect Imai also used most of the same parts for its 1/350 model of the Gorch Fock II, which is in fact quite similar to her predecessor - but not identical.)

Quite a few years later I got hired by the Coast Guard Historian's Office to do a line drawing of the Eagle in her then-current configuration.  The Coast Guard Historian, Dr. Bob Browning, had in his office several of the original Blohm & Voss builder's drawings of the ship.  (The drawings had the name "Horst Wessel" on them; there's not much doubt about their reliability.  It wasn't a full set of drawings by any stretch of the imagination, but it did include a lines plan and longitudinal cross-section.)  He also sent me copies of several more recent drawings made by Coast Guard draftsmen on the basis of measurements taken directly from the ship.  Again, I think it's worth noting that the Coast Guard has never tried to deceive anybody about the Eagle's dimensions.  I caught up with the ship (not without considerable difficulty) at Baltimore and spent quite a bit of time walking around her, taking pictures, and talking with the captain and the bosun; I think I can claim that the drawing I made accurately represents her configuration as of 1994.

A year or so ago I bought a biography of Count von Luckner that had just been published.  It contained a certain amount of slightly sensationalistic material, but seemed to be generally reliable.  Long after World War I the Count spent considerable time in the United States, devoting much effort to charitable causes - including the Boy Scouts of America.  (He seems to have been a first-rate gentleman in every respect.)  The book tells the story that, in about 1959, he was the guest of honor on the American TV show "This Is Your Life."  Olde Phogies like me may remember that show.  Every week it presented the biography of a different celebrity, who got surprised when people from his/her past showed up in the TV studio.  In this case the last "surprise guest" on the show was an executive from Revell, who announced that the company was about to release a model of the Seeadler - and donate a portion of the proceeds to the Boy Scouts.

The kit was released in 1960 (and, according to Dr. Graham's book, reissued in 1968 with vac-formed "sails" added).  I remember buying it about that time - and discovering, immediately upon opening the box, that it was a modified version of the Eagle kit.  (Yards had been added to the mizzen mast, the Coast Guard motorboats had been replaced with some other, older looking ones, a couple of guns had replaced the navigation lights on the forecastle, and I imagine a few other changes had been made.  But the hull, decks, and most other parts were identical.)  The instruction sheet included a message from Count von Luckner "To the youth of America," emphasizing that "the Seeadler never robbed a wife of her husband or a mother of her child" (which was true). 

I've often wondered when, if ever, the Count learned what was really inside that box. 

For many years Revell's alleged Seeadler was just about the only plastic model of a World War I warship on the market.  There still aren't many - and that's a most regrettable state of affairs.  But I have to say this is one I hope doesn't get reissued.  As an exercise in deceptive marketing it's on almost the same level as the Revell "Beagle."

Well, I did my duty to the hobby yesterday . . . I found and bought two of the new Revell sailing ships (Passat and the Viking Ship). I feel lucky that I found them in one place!

Bill Morrison

I have also attached my letter to Revell of Europe and their response.

Dear Mr. Morrison,
thank you very much for your e-mail and your interest in our products.

Your product proposals and comments are collected in our
new-items-proposal-list. Due to the large number of comments and letters we receive,
it is not possible to include all the products proposed.
We do our best to offer a comprehensive range covering various themes.

Nevertheless we thank you very much for your suggestions and we will
include them into our proposal list for the coming years.


Regards,
S. Haller


-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: William Morrison [mailto:bmorri6409@sbcglobal.net]
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 28. Mai 2008 20:17
An: Revell Germany

MESSAGE:
Sirs,

I have been a loyal customer of Revell products for over 50 years. I
build ship models and love sailing ships. Thank you very much for those
new ships in your 2008 catalog. We builders appreciate your efforts.

However, we sailing ship builders are concerned about the lack of new
products to suit our interests. Until your new catalog, few plastic
sailing ship model kits have been released in the past thirty years. Those
that have been released are usually simply re-releases of older kits
that have little accuracy.

Therefore, I would like to recommend a new product line of plastic
sailing ships in either/both 1/96 and 1/150 scale. New ships could include
HMS Vanguard (Nelson's flagship at the Battle of the Nile), L'Ocean
(Admiral Bruey's flagship at the same battle), HMS Bellerophon (the ship
to which Napoleon surrendered), HMS Queen Charlotte (Rodney's flagship),
Santissima Trinidad (the largest ship to fight at Trafalgar) and HMS
Shannon (the British frigate that defeated USS Chesapeake). The list of
possibilities is endless.

Companies such as Trumpeter and Dragon have revived interest in ship
modelling by virtue of their excellent new ship models of exceptionally
high quality. This effort has proven profitable for them. I believe such
an effort would be equally profitable for Revell.

Thank you for your consideration.

 

To Dr. Tilley:

Thank you for the interesting additions and historical background about
Gorch Fock, Eagle and Seeadler. Now I remember, that in my Seeadler kit is
a copy of Graf (Count) Luckners letter to the boyscouts. 
I could not reach the kit at present, because it´s buried in a box amongst
other unbuilt and vintage models in my hobbyroom which my buddies from
the local modelers club call "area 51" because it´s a forbidden area for them...

Did you already check the websites for the "Alexander von Humboldt" model ?
I hope that I could give you good information about the reason why the sails
are green.....

To Bill Morrison: Yes, Passat and the Viking ship have been reissued.
The Viking ship was first issued in the 1980s, as I remember and its an
original Revell product, not an Aurora/Merit/Smer or Heller copy.
Second life was in the middle of the 1990s as a "Glow in the dark" ship, molded in
black and it came with a bottle of fluorescend paint.  Now its´s back in original form.

Revell also two times issued a "Chinese Junk" in the last 20 years. It´s the old
Aurora kit, the tools went via Monogram to Revell. I never have seen another
version of this kit from Monogram or Revell-USA, only the german Revell-version.
Did Revell ever offer this model in the United States ?

is this a new kit or a re-issue?

http://www.airfix.com/airfix-products/ships/classic-ships/a07251-endeavour-bark-1120-a07251/

Enemeink - The Airfix Endeavour is one of that company's oldest sailing ship kits; it may, in fact, have been the very first.  I don't know the date of its orginal release, but I remember building it when (I think) I was in junior high school.  It's not a bad kit - pretty basic, of course, but the overall shape seems sound, and it would certainly make a good basis for a serious scale model.  It makes an interesting shelf mate for the Revell Bounty, which is on the same scale or nearly so.  Several of the crew figures from the Airfix Endeavour are serving alongside Revell ones on board my Bounty and Hancock models.

Woxel59 - Your hobbyroom sounds like my attic - in which my wife refuses to set foot.  The truth of the matter is that there probably are enough unbuilt kits up there to keep me busy for the rest of my life.

I've expounded with enthusiasm about the Revell Viking ship in several other Forum threads.  It was originally released in 1977, remained in the catalog of Revell U.S. through 1979, and was the last genuinely new sailing ship kit released by the American branch of the company.  (The first was the 1/192 Constitution, in 1956.  Revell U.S. was in the sailing ship business for 22 years, and has now been out of it for 31.)  In my opinion it's one of the finest plastic sailing ship kits ever - maybe even the finest.  (It has nothing in common with the old Aurora kit, which really bore no resemblance to a real Viking ship.)  I don't recall seeing it in "glow-in-the-dark" form; maybe that version only was circulated in Europe.  (The excellent old Revell Golden Hind did appear over here for a while with flourescent paint, in a box labeled "Flying Dutchman.")

That material about the green sails is most interesting indeed.  The influence of corporate advertising, it seems, has no limits. 

In the U.S. it's sometimes difficult to tell which Revell kits originate with the American firm and which with the European.  Genuine hobby shops and mail order dealers frequently carry Revell Germany/Revell Europe kits; the ones from Revell U.S. show up in any store that sells models.  (In recent years the number of such stores has shrunk drastically.)  I remember seeing (to my considerable surprise) what was obviously the old Aurora Chinese junk in a Revell box a couple of times; I'm fairly certain it was from Revell Germany.  I don't recall seeing it in a Revell U.S. box, but I could be mistaken about that.

Some Revell Germany/Revell Europe kits, it seems, never make it to the U.S. in any numbers.  I never encountered the Batavia, and I don't think I've ever seen the Passat. 

I have never seen the Aurora Chinese junk repackaged in the US under the Revell label, although that doesn't mean that Revell didn't do so. I have the Batavia and it is an excellent kit. The Passat is also excellent, now that I have had the chance to peruse its contents.

Fortunately, living around the US Submarine Base in Groton, CT, we have an excellent hobby shop here that caters to ship modelling. They tend to get the latest from ROG as well as the other manufacturers around the world. I count myself very lucky indeed!

Bill Morrison

It seems that Revell Europe/Germany (Revell closed it´s factory in Great Britain
in the early 1980s, as far as I know) often issues different models than in the USA.
The Chinese Junk is a fine example. I dont have the original Aurora model, but Revell´s
Junk has typical Aurora-style, with a plastic sail, not vacu-formed. And it´s larger
than the Pyro/Lindberg Junk. I have many Revell-USA catalogs too, but never found
the Junk there, neither at Monogram. Maybe not all Aurora molds went to Monogram,
because Aurora had a "Sea witch" sailing ship in their catalog, and a "Sea witch"
is reissued by Lindberg now. Is this the same model / tool ? I didnt find this ship
from Revell. Batavia is indeed a very nice model, it was produced around 1994 first,
in cooperation with the dutch "bataviawerf", where the original ship was replicated
at that time. They are building a "De zeven Provincien" dutch warship from 17th century
at bataviawerf now, maybe Revell can be encouraged to make a model from it too ?
Other german Revell shipmodels which probably didnt find their way into the USA -catalogs
where the famous steamship "Goethe" from river rhine and the SAR ship "Hermann Marwedde".
I guess that Revell didnt expect good sales in the USA because these ships are
"exotic" items for the american market. But it proves, that Revell of Germany tries to
find new ways or to produce items which never had been produced before.
And two years ago the tanker "Esso Glasgow" (ex.J.B. Hannah) and the freighter "Hawaiian Pilot" had been reiussed, as well as the "Savannah", old tools off course, but not produced
over a long period. Luckyly at Revell Germany still real "plastic people" are leading the company,
not investors who try to make profit quickly and then resell the company.
They have a close contact to the modelers and keep watching the market steadily.
So we can hope for an interesting mix of new models and reissues for the future.

Axel Wolters

I'm as sure as I can be that the Revell Chinese Junk was a reboxing of the old Aurora kit.  I remember looking at the photos of the finished model on the box.

The history of the various Sea Witch kits is a little confusing.  We've had several interesting discussions of the subject here in the Forum; this is the most recent and thorough: /forums/914783/ShowPost.aspx

The problem is that nobody seems to have all four kits - Marx, ITC, Aurora, and Lindberg - to compare side by side.  (The ITC one may in fact be a figment of my imagination; I used to think I remembered having seen it, but that may be my senile memory at work again.)  I bought the Aurora one, along with its siblings Wanderer, Bonhomme Richard, and Hartford, when they were new, but I've never had my hands on the other versions.  On the basis of what other Forum members have said, I think the Marx and Lindberg versions (and the ITC one, if it in fact existed) are the same kit, except that some time or other the original Marx metal deck got replaced by a plastic one.  And I'm currently inclined to believe that the Aurora one was a completely different, and considerably smaller, kit - though based, like the other(s), on the same plans by Charles Davis.  I may be mistaken about that, though.

Those four Aurora sailing ships from the late sixties (Sea Witch, Bonhomme Richard, Wanderer, and Hartford) seem to be real collector's items nowadays.  Aurora went out of business shortly after they appeared - and to my knowledge they've never been reissued.  They seem to represent a last, desperate effort to find a product line that would solve the firm's financial problems.  Apparently they just didn't sell well enough.  Personally I never cared much for them; those injection-molded "sails," which were molded integrally with the yards and weighed so much they made it almost impossible to do the rigging properly, really turned me off.

At one time, I've had all the versions. For some reason, I believe they were the same kit, although my memory may also be faulty.  I seem to remember the same lack of hull details in each of them.  But, it does build into an attractive model. The original Marx version was also packaged as SWORDFISH and had a different figurehead. Both had metal decks.

Bill Morrison

Woxel59 wrote:

It seems that Revell Europe/Germany (Revell closed it´s factory in Great Britain in the early 1980s, as far as I know) often issues different models than in the USA.

As I understand it Revell USA and Revell Germany / Europe are in fact two completely seperate companies at this time that just share a similar name. They do have a close relationship though as they do release each others kits occasionally in their own box, usually with minor differences (color of plastic, decals etc). RoG also has a similar relationship with Italeri which Revell USA does not seem to have.

Woxel59 wrote:

But it proves, that Revell of Germany tries to find new ways or to produce items which never had been produced before. And two years ago the tanker "Esso Glasgow" (ex.J.B. Hannah) and the freighter "Hawaiian Pilot" had been reiussed, as well as the "Savannah", old tools off course, but not produced over a long period. Luckyly at Revell Germany still real "plastic people" are leading the company, not investors who try to make profit quickly and then resell the company.

This came up in another post awhile back, Revell USA had a major change in management in 2007, and is now being run by model people, but they do not appear to be ship people. They have brought out several nice new car models and have retooled some of their older car kits as well adding new parts / re-doing faults with the earlier kit.  

As far as I know, the splitting of US and European Revell took place, when
Hallmark / Binney Smith sold Revell. For a short time (maybe one or two years)
Revell of Germany was ran as an AG (Aktiengesellschaft = Corporation), I dont know
whether they ever have sold stocks. Then it changed to a GMBH (limited liability
corporation). They have no financial connection with Revell USA (actual state
of my knowledge), but work together closely, exchanging tools or just kits.
Revell GMBH exchanges kits (or tools) with Italeri and Hasegawa of Japan, because
Hasegawa is Revell´s distributor in Japan. I was told that its not easy to research
where old tools for planned reissues are located. After the successful run of
limited reissues of kits to celebrate Revell of Germany´s 50 anniversary in 2006,
(for example Jupiter rocket, Field gun, Ford 1959 Skyliner, Boeing SST, S.S. Oriana),
with historic box art, it was decided to begin the just launched "Classics" series. Not all
reissues will have the original box art, because sometimes Revell doesnt own the
rights of the paintings. In such cases they let create new box art in old style.   

I would like to take a poll. How many of you have written to Hornby Hobbies and / or Revell about releasing more sailing ship model kits? I am curious. Thanks!

Bill Morrison

On the positive side . . . here is the latest comment received from Customer Care at Hornby Hobbies.

Dear Mr Morrison

I have added the individual ships and the scale details to my (rapidly expanding) list of customer suggestions. As you can appreciate although we do look through this and take it into consideration, I cannot guarantee any of these kits are produced. However I have spoken to our marketing department and they have told me there is a plan to introduce more sailing ships, although it is unlikely to be next year, but watch this space.

Yours Sincerely

Mark Lodge

Airfix Customer Care

Enquiry Type:

General

jtilley wrote: 

There's also a bit of positive news from Revell:  http://www.revell.com/news/index.html . 

The 1/96 Constitution is coming back.  (I've seen quite a few in stores lately, but it's been off the websites of both Revell U.S. and Revell Europe for a while.)  I have no intention of buying one, but in my opinion it's one of the real classic kits that always ought to be available - another one of my personal top ten.

This is precisely why we need to keep writing to the manufacturers!  If they persist in re-releasing previously released kits, it does not take long before each of us has built all of their offerings and have no need to continue buying!  I agree that this model of the Constitution ought to be available in perpetuity, however, I already not only have this model gracing my shelves but the United States as well. I have also built this model as USS President.  In my humble opinion, Revell should not only be producing this kit but many others in order to keep the buyers interested.  Otherwise, the comment that ship modelers only make up a small percentage of modelers becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Bill Morrison

Those are excellent subjects.  Please send an email to Mr. Mark Lodge of the Airfix Division of Hornby Hobbies.  Simply access the Hornby Hobbies web site with a Google search, click into "Customer Support," then click into "Contact Us", and leave your message. 

I believe that it is very important for us to do so if we builders ever want to see new products released. JTilley  hit the nail on the head when he wrote of Revell's re-release of the USS Constitution that, although he was happy for the re-release, he had no intention of buying one.  That is the problem with the market research done by the manufacturers . . . they continue re-releasing old  products, then reach the conclusion that sailing ship modelers are few in number because we do not buy that which we already have.  The more people who contact them the better!  We need to keep up pressure on the manufacturers.

Bill Morrison

I have just found out that the Dutch are building a replica ship of De Ruyter's Zeven Provencien just as they did the Batavia.  According to their website, it should be finished by 2015. On that basis, I recommended to Mark Lodge of Airfix that they should produce a model of the Zeven Provencien just as Revell did of Batavia. I recommended a scale of 1/144.  I have also recommended a 1/96 scale of HMS Shannon and HMS Trincomalee.  Please keep those letters going!

Bill Morrison

searat12,

Thanks for that information!  I just became a supporter of the project.  I will also recommend that Airfix produce a kit of the Hermione!

Bill Morrison

I want to bump this thread to the front again in order to continue encouraging sailing ship modelers to write to the manufacturers. I sincerely believe that we must collectively pressure them to produce new kits. Thanks for your support in this and keep those emails and letters going!

Bill Morrison

I wish to bump this thread to the fore again.  I have written the following letter to Mr. Mark Lodge of Airfix Customer Relations and wish to encourage as many of you as possible to do the same.

Attn: Mr. Mark Lodge
Re: Recommended new sailing ship model kits

Dear Mr. Lodge,

I am at home looking at an old Airfix 1/600 model kit of the British Frigate HMS Shannon, the ship that reversed a series of British defeats against the heavy American frigates during the War of 1812.  I am also wondering at the complete lack of interest in manufacturing historic British sailing ship kits, in spite of the fact that the Royal Navy was at the height of its glory during the Anglo-Dutch Wars and the French/Napoleonic Wars, especially by a British model company.  I know of quite a few American model builders who have written to you about this neglect to no effect.

Sir, the model kit manufacturers have ignored sailing ship enthusiasts over the decades by virtually neglecting to manufacture NEW kits manufactured to today's high standards of quality.  They simply rebox and re-release their tired old products and expect us to continue to buy them.  When we do not respond by buying kits we already have, they conclude that there is no interest in sailing ships.

NOTHING could be further from the truth!  One simply has to witness the rise of the wooden ship modeling industry to see that there is widespread interest in these subjects.  People are buying these kits in spite of their hideously expensive prices.  There is simply no alternative for us.

Consider that aforementioned HMS Shannon kit; no builder seriously considers 1/600 scale a reasonable scale for these ships.  Sailing ships are best built at 1/150, 1/144, or 1/100 scale.  A ship of Shannon's stature would be expected to be represented at 1/100.  THERE WOULD BE SERIOUS BUYERS for such a kit!

I have made many recommendations to you over the past several years for a NEW LINE of sailing ship kits, none of which has reached fruition.  So, once again, I will make the following recommendations for starters:

HMS Shannon
HMS Bellerophon
HMS Vanguard
HMS Agamemnon
HMS Queen Charlotte
De Zeven Provencien
Bucentaure

Great Britain has a rich naval heritage that should be represented as extensively as possible in ship model kits.  I am somewhat disappointed that Airfix has chosen to ignore this heritage that, as an American, I can fully appreciate.  Please, please consider extending your range of sailing ship kits to include NEWLY MANUFACTURED products!!

Thank you for your consideration.

Bill Morrison