Endeavour – New America’s Cup kit from OcCre

June 20, 2025August 14, 2025 / agesofsail / Leave a comment

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.

HMS Enterprize – Another Kit for Detail Oriented Modelers on a Budget

April 22, 2025August 14, 2025 / agesofsail / Leave a comment

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.

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Santa Leocadia – A Kit for Detail Oriented Modelers on a Budget

April 20, 2025August 14, 2025 / agesofsail / Leave a comment

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New Kit from OcCre – The Black Swan Pirate Ship

February 14, 2025August 14, 2025 / agesofsail / Leave a comment

“Cisne Negro!” The call from the lookouts that would strike fear in the hearts of the captain and crew of any Spanish galleon that sailed the Caribbean waters. Cisne Negro… The Black Swan.

During the golden age of piracy, the Black Swan sailed the perilous waters of the Caribbean, leaving behind a trail of fear and admiration. Under the command of the ruthless Captain Tom Leach, this legendary ship raided Spanish trade routes and boldly faced fleets that tried to stop it. Its dark silhouette and black sails billowing in the wind were symbols of defiance, freedom, and adventure.

Now, you can build this fearsome looking master of the open seas with the latest kit from OcCre of Spain! The Black Swan model is a 1/75-scale wooden model ship kit that features a plank-on-bulkhead construction using laser-cut framing, high quality wood strips. The kit includes all the necessary wood strips, dowels, cannons, fittings, rigging material, pre-sewn sails, and pre-printed flags. Printed and well illustrated instructions will guide you step-by-step through the build. Continue reading →

New Vanguard Models Kit – HM Brig Harpy, 1796

January 30, 2025August 14, 2025 / agesofsail / Leave a comment

After the Holidays, we’ve had a long wait for our latest shipment from England’s Vanguard Models, but it finally arrived yesterday, and we couldn’t be happier. Or, should we say Harpy-er? With this shipment we received the latest kit to come out of Chris Watton’s Vanguard Models company, and it’s amazing. This is the Royal Navy vessel HM Brig Harpy, 1796.

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Artesania Latina’s Vasa Build in Progress

September 10, 2024August 14, 2025 / agesofsail / Leave a comment

Ship modeler Jon Peterson has been sharing an update on his build of Artesania Latina’s Vasa kit. This 1:65 scale wooden ship model kit is a big one, measuring some 42″ long when complete. Jon has completed the hull planking and is making very good progress.

Swedish Warship Vasa, by Artesania Latina

He comments that he likes the Artesania Latina kit, “because the instructions make it easier to complete certain steps on the construction. Nothing is left to guess work because of the pictures. They have a lot of tools to make your modeling go to the next level, and the design is easy to follow.”

Jon kindly provided us with some photos of his construction process to share with our readers here.

While he acknowledges that he has a long way to go on the model due to limited time available to work on the model, it’s clear he’s making great progress with beautiful results! We’re hoping he continues to share photos of his model progress with us.

Learn more about this kit on our web shop here

BlueJacket Builds and the Final Week of our Jubilee Sale

July 24, 2024 / agesofsail / Leave a comment

As we approach the end of July, now is a good time to remind our customers that our Independence Day Jubilee Sale is nearing an end. You’re last chance to order your American made BlueJacket Shipcrafters model kits with a 10% discount. Simply place your order with us using the coupon code USA10. Note that this only works AFTER you have placed the item in your shopping cart.

And today, we want to share with you some photos from local ship modeler Steve Cowdin, of Elk Grove, CA, whose models are featured at the Battleship Iowa museum in Los Angeles, CA, and elsewhere. Steve sent some photos of his BlueJacket builds to share with you.

Side paddlewheel steamship Portland

Steve comments that he really likes Bluejacket kits, because of their superb workmanship, detail, plans and instructions, and all their kits are made right here in the USA.

The famous American clipper ship Flying Cloud, currently out of production.

One of Steve’s most recent builds is this 1/96 scale model of the American 44-gun frigate U.S.S. Constitution “Old Ironsides” (see below). Steve completed this model in 2021, taking nearly 2 years to build. He had been building a Revell plastic model of the Constitution when he switched to building the BlueJacket kit. Because the two kits were of the same scale, he actually took some of the plastic kit’s pieces from the captain’s cabin and incorporated them into his wooden model.

Steve comments “I chose the Bluejacket vs other kits because I trusted them to accurately reproduce the ship as she appeared in war of 1812.” BlueJacket notes that as an attestation to their model’s authenticity, their kit has been named “The Official Kit of the U.S.S. Constitution Museum.”

It’s difficult to see in these photos, but Steve used BlueJacket’s optional copper sheathing plates to cover the hull bottom. There are about 2000 plates!

The U.S.S. Constitution where she is berthed today in Boston Harbor.

Our friend Steve in 2018, getting some inspiration and ideas for his build

Special thanks to Steve Cowdin for sharing photos of his incredible BlueJacket models with us! We hope to be able to share photos of more of his work in the future.

BlueJacket, founded in 1905, has been producing quality American kits and fittings ever since, and we’re proud to carry the full line of BlueJacket kits. If you’re interested in building your own, you can check them out here: BlueJacket Kits at Ages of Sail Ω

Caldercraft Shipment – HMS Victory Finally Back in Stock!

July 16, 2024 / agesofsail / Leave a comment

Got some very good news today! After many months of delays, which were apparently due to relocation of Caldercraft’s facilities, we’ve finally gotten our Caldercraft shipment in and, most importantly, we finally have Caldercraft HMS Victory kits back in stock again and ready to ship. This is very exciting for us, as it’s been painful having this kit marked out of stock for so many long months, disappointing many of our customers who were trying to order this most detailed and accurate HMS Victory kit.

HMS Victory model, shown port bow elevation view

Caldercraft’s Mighty 1/72-scale HMS Victory Kit

In addition, the shipment included several other kits, some of which have been out of stock for a while, such as their HMS Cruiser kit, also back in stock and ready to ship. Other subjects, such as HM Schooner Pickle, and a variety of Caldercraft’s RC kits are available again, such as the Joffre, North Light, Imara, and others.

HMS Cruiser model, starboard bow elevation view.

HMS Cruiser, the lead ship of her class of which 105 were built.

Imara tugboat model, made for RC operation.

Caldercraft’s Imara Tugboat, made for RC operation

Joffre tugboat model, shown on the water under RC operation.

Caldercraft’s Joffre, made for RC operation

HM Schooner Pickle.

We’re very excited to be able to make these kits available to our customers again. For those who live in the U.S., be sure to take advantage of our offer of FREE SHIPPING on orders of $150 or more. Just select the option when it appears at checkout.

Check out the entire Caldercraft line at Ages of Sail here.

Notes on an Amati Lady Nelson Build

July 10, 2024 / agesofsail / Leave a comment

We just ran across this post from 2021 by ship modeler Alexander Bulimov about his build of Amati’s Lady Nelson kit. This is a 1/64 scale wooden ship model kit from Amati’s Victory Models product line, and represents a typical British naval cutter. As the author points out, this is a fictional ship based on the Sherbourne class of Royal Navy cutters. The author does a very nice job giving a brief overview of the build, along with his views of this Amati kit.

Photo of Alexander Bulimov’s completed build of Amati’s Lady Nelson kit (from models.bulimov.me)

To read his blog post, click on the link here.

We think you will enjoy reading this short post, particularly if you’re new to the hobby and looking for a good ship modeling subject.

Amati Victory Models Lady Nelson plans image,

View of one of the Lady Nelson plans sheets.

The Lady Nelson is one of our more popular wooden ship model kits. If you are interesting in purchasing this kit, you can find it at Ages of Sail here.

New Kit Arrival – HM Gun Brig Adder, 1797 from Vanguard Models

May 10, 2024August 20, 2025 / agesofsail / Leave a comment

HM Gun Brig Adder, 1797

The Adder is another recent wooden model ship kit release to come out of Christopher Watton’s company Vanguard Models. They are in stock now at Ages of Sail and ready to ship!