Vol. 71, No.1 Spring 2026 2 Advances in ship kit production
I have received many comments in the past year from members about the place of kits in world of ship models. T ese fall into two camps (which seem irreconcilable): those who consider kits as potentially fi ne models, depending upon the skills of the builders, and those who contend that the craſt smanship demanded for scratch-building elevates such models to a higher plane. For both camps, the watershed moment probably was when a kit-based model of a Fletcher-class destroyer won the Best of Show award at the Mariners’ Museum scale ship model competition in 2000. For the kit builders, it vindicated their claim to craſt smanship, for the scratchbuilders, it was anathema.
For brevity, this editorial will address kits only. It is remarkable just how much the contents of kits vary, both in quality and in scope, and, therefore, how much demand they place upon their builders to create an acceptable fi nished product. In part, this is a function of how recent they are; modelers have much higher expectations nowadays. I recall my father building a kit of an Essex-class carrier that had a hollow molded wood hull with all the rest provided as lead castings or printed sheet wood he had to cut out. Modern modelers would be aghast to receive such a kit. Current wooden products almost invariably included CAD-generated laser-cut components, CNC-milled fi ttings, photo-etched detail parts, and so on, and are beginning to feature 3D-printed items too. Injection molding (plastic or resin) has allowed manufacturers to incorporate remarkable detail into their kits (essentially the successors to my father’s project). T e one category of kits that has strayed the least from its earlier incarnations is the paper model, but even these can included laser-cut frame structures and photo-etched or laser-cut detail parts of remarkable fi nesse. (As an aside, it would be a fascinating project for an avid researcher to generate a series of articles for the Journal on the history of wide world of ship model kits. Is anyone interested?)
Kit builders’ demands for greater accuracy and
detail beyond that provided by the manufacturers has created an expanding industry generating aſt ermarket products. T is started with photo-etch detail sets, initially enhancements (such as guard rails) but soon extending to off er fi nely detailed replacements for overscale items. T is aſt ermarket now extends to encompass cast metal fi ttings, CNC- turned metal components, resin upgrade parts, and many other items. T ere now exist aſt ermarket products that allow a modeler to build a spectacular model of a World War II-era warship, for example, by replacing virtually every part of the original kit apart from the castings for the basic hull (without decks) with replacement detail parts. Achieving such a result, however, would require considerable skill in bending and soldering sheet metal, manipulating and fi nishing tiny components, and accurately assembling literally thousands of parts.
T e world of paper models presents an interesting perspective on kit building. Creating a satisfactory end result requires the modeler to cut out each piece from sheet with great precision and assemble them with extreme accuracy. T e manufacturer’s contribution to the process is limited to providing the modeler with accurate drawings. Is this kit building, or is it something more akin to scratch-building?
I think model making from kits can be infi nitely more nuanced than simply assembling the provided parts following the manufacturer’s instructions. T is is not to denigrate or diminish the extraordinary work of scratch-builders, of which there are spectacular examples in this issue, and these serve as inspiration to us all.
— Paul E. Fontenoy Editorial corrections to issue 70:4
We very much regret mis-spelling the name of the author of the article “Illuminating ship models.” His name is Jeff Northup, not Jeff Northrup. Also note that the correct address for Evans Design is 1816 Heath Parkway Unit B, Fort Collins, CO 80524
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