Due to a couple unresolved issues, the launch of our new online shop has been delayed! We hope to have the issues taken care of this week, so that we can switching over our online store, AgesofSail.com, to a system that we think will be easier to use, and will give us better inventory tracking, and allow us to provide overall better service. Keep watching for announcements of the new launch, which will hopefully be taking place early next week!
With OcCre getting a lot of attention with the release of their new America’s Cup challenger Endeavour kit, it seems like a good time to highlight the whole range of America’s Cup kits that are available from Amati, beginning with the big, 1/35 scale wooden model kit of the Endeavour, the 1934 J-boat that challenged the Rainbow for the coveted America’s Cup.
At this scale, this wooden plank-on-bulkhead Amati kit builds into a BIG model, at over 46″ long, allowing the modeler to show off the many fine details that Amati designed into it, including Pre-finished wood, cast metal and brass fittings, as well as photo-etched brass parts.
Or, if you’re looking for something to fit a smaller space, or that is considerably easier to build, Amati has you covered with their 1/80-scale wooden hull kit. At just under 19″ long, this model still features lots of great details and a wooden plank-on-bulkhead construction hull. This kit even provides you with a selection of useful tools, making it ideal for the modelers building his or her first planked boat model.
And if you’re really new to ship modeling, or are just looking for a nice quick project, but still want a beautiful model, Amati offers this same boat in 1/80 scale, but with a polystyrene hull, perfectly shaped, just needing priming and painting.
When it comes to America’s Cup, whatever your skill level, Amati has you covered. Check out the whole line at Ages of Sail here.
In celebration of our country’s Independence Day, Ages of Sail is giving 10% off all kits from the classic American shipmodel company Bluejacket Shipcrafters, from now, July 3rd, through Monday, July 7th. No coupon codes to use, discounts are already posted. Don’t forget we’re still offering free domestic shipping on all order of $150 or more.
Bluejacket’s USS Constitution
Founded in 1905, Bluejacket Shipcrafters has been producing high-quality, historically accurate model ship kits for over a century. Bluejacket Shipcrafters is known for its attention to detail and dedication to replicating the intricate designs of some of the most iconic American ships in history, and the kits are all Made in America.
Bluejacket’s Herreshoff 12-1/2
Bluejacket’s Civil War raider Alabama
Bluejacket’s Clipper Ship Red Jacket
Check out these and more at Ages of Sail here.
Just in is the newest kit to be released from OcCre of Spain, the racing yacht Endeavour, a J-class yacht built for the1934 America’s cup race. She was a steel-hulled design built for Thomas Sopwith, who used his aviation design expertise to ensure the yacht was the most advanced of its day.
The new kit is in stock and ready to ship to you for only $149. For more information or to order your’s, check out our listing on Ages of Sail here.
OcCre’s Endeavour is a 1/75 scale wooden ship model kit, measuring just under 21″ long and about 28″ tall.
For years, Amati has had one of the best wooden ship model kits of the famed RMS Titanic available. Now, the just released a newly revised version of their 1/250 scale Titanic beauty, and this new model kit is better than ever! Like their original version, this is a plank-on-bulkhead construction wooden ship model kit that measures just over 42″ long, 9″ high, and 5″ wide.
The model now features a more accurate hull shape and new photo-etched parts, replacing the old paper pieces that were used for representing some of the doors and windows. Plus, laser-cut parts are now provided for the second planking layer, making for easier and more accurate assembly.
The shipment of the new kits just arrived and are on sale now for $549. However, if you want to save some money, and you feel the original version is good enough for you, we still have several in stock, at the low price of $450.
Check them both out on Ages of Sail:
For those of you in our neck of the woods, there is an opportunity to visit a real, operational tall ship this Summer. The Eagle, ex-Horst Wessel, is the U.S. Coast Guard’s training vessel. She’s a 295 foot long, steel hulled, 3-masted barque, meaning her fore and main masts are square-rigged, while her mizzen mast is fore-and-aft rigged.
The ship is scheduled to visit San Francisco on June 25 and again on July 25. However, there’s a possibility that the June date may change. In any case, she will be open to the public, so here’s a chance to go aboard.
San Francisco has been home to a couple tall ships for many years – the 3-masted ship Balclutha, and the 3-masted lumber schooner C.A.Thayer have been open to visitors at the San Francisco Maritime National Park’s Hyde Street Pier. However, those ships have been temporarily relocated the Mare Island while the pier is under repair.
Unfortunately, there are no longer any kits available of this ship, at least from our wooden ship model kit manufacturers. However, the Eagle is a Gorch Fock class ship, and we do carry a couple kits of the Gorch Fock. It should be possible to model the Eagle from one of these kits, though the Eagle has been modernized, so some modifications to deck structures and fittings would be necessary to accurately portray this ship.
OcCre’s Gorch Fock wooden model ship kit.
You can see the Eagle’s full West Coast tour schedule here.
You can also keep track of just where the ship is at any given time, using this ship tracker. Ω
Ratlines are the “rope ladders” that allow sailors to climb the masts of sailing ships. Making these can be intimidating to new ship modelers. Here’s a short video clip showing the process of tying ratlines using the tried and true “clove hitch” knot that used on the full-sized ships.
In the video description on the Youtube sight, the poster says:
The model in the clip is Mamoli’s 1/54-scale English royal yacht Mary, 1660. This ship has only 1 mast with 4 shrouds on each side, limiting the number of ratlines needed. The ratlines are about 16″ scale inches apart. The card with the lines on it was created as a visual guide. Once the knots are done, I touch each knot with matte acrylic varnish to help hold the knot in place. Other modelers may use watered-down PVA glue for the same reason. You’ll notice I stretch the knots by grabbing the ends of the ratline and pulling outward. This tightens the knots, stretches the line, and prevents the “pulling in” of the shrouds that you see on some models.
This is, of course, just one way to add ratlines. Some modelers, especially at smaller scales, may use a sewing needle to run the ratlines through each of the shrouds, using no knots, then use glue to secure them. Others may simply glue each ratlines directly to the shrouds, again, using no knots.
Photo from ModelShipWorld forum, showing clove hitch knots in the middle, with cow hitch knots on the ends.
On real ships at full size, the ends of the ratlines are not knotted, but an eye is formed in each end, and those eye are lashed to the outer most shrouds. However, some modelers simulate this by tying the outermost knots using what is called a “cow hitch”.
You should use whatever method you find works best for you! Ω
All the wooden ship model kits that we sell include grating strips if they are required for the model. We also sell gratings in strip form and pre-assembled gratings as well. But, if you’re a stickler for exact scale, or your scratch modeling and want to make them yourself, here’s article we found that may help if you have your own hobby table saw.
Do you love working in fine details? Do you love sailing ships? Are you limited in your workspace and tool collection? Is making a lot of dust a problem? No place to operate power tools? Do you have a very limited budget? If so, you might want to consider a modeling art form that’s been very popular in Eastern Europe for decades: Paper Modeling. Paper ship modeling offers a lot of benefits and flexibility that most ship modelers aren’t even aware of, and we have many paper model kits from one of the most renown kit manufacturers of Poland, that most people know of as Shipyard.
Do you love working in fine details? Do you love sailing ships? Are you limited in your workspace and tool collection? Is making a lot of dust a problem? No place to operate power tools? Do you have a very limited budget? If so, you might want to consider a modeling art form that’s been very popular in Eastern Europe for decades: Paper Modeling. Paper ship modeling offers a lot of benefits and flexibility that most ship modelers aren’t even aware of, and we have many paper model kits from one of the most renown kit manufacturers of Poland, that most people know of as Shipyard.
Ages of Sail 