New Web Site Up And Running

 Wanted to let everyone know we have our new web site up and running. For those of you that enjoy hand made wooden ship models you will find the site easy to navigate and check out. We have hundreds of model ships in stock and ready to arrive and amaze you! It takes hundreds of man hours to construct these beautiful models you see on our site. Ship Model Super Store

 There are many models for sale with Fast and Free Shipping. If you go to the site to make a purchase type in code 001 in check out and save on our already low prices!

 Our family owned and operated company has been making customers smile for over 8 years. We sell only the finest wooden ship models built by hand by our skilled craftsman. If you want to display one of these fine model ships, we recommend a display case to protect the model from the inside elements. These are available on the web site in their own category. There are several to choose from for your needs.

 Only the finest materials are used in the construction of our model boats and ships. Exotic woods are used and all the fittings are made of metal and not plastic.Heavy linen is used for the construction of the sails. The complicated rigging is all tied by hand. The ships are sanded and varnished several times to get the gloss you see in the images of these magnificent models.

 Online ordering is fast and free, we do not charge any hidden fee's on orders. Sign up for our news letter and keep track of sales and our ship model blogs. You can also follow us on Ship Model Super Store Facebook or our Blog on WordPress

Man Spends 20 Years Building 3 Model Ships

Model maker spends 20 years building scaled down fleet of radio-controlled warships
Tony Ansell has been making model warships for the last 20 years at home
Mr Ansell uses original Royal Navy blueprints to make scale model ships
On average ships take three years to make but HMS Dreadnought took nine
Each is made from fibreglass and flexible plastic and is radio controlled

When Tony Ansell was given an Airfix kit at was six-years-old, it was something of an inspiration.
Twenty years on the keen model maker has created a fleet of radio controlled warships at his workshop in Ferndown in Dorset.
Each warship is made to scale, using original Royal Navy blueprints and photographs to ensure they capture a snapshot in time when the vessels were in action. Model maker Tony Ansell spent the last 20 years making scale models of radio controlled navy warships. His Dorset workshop features models of HMS Campbeltown.

Model maker Tony Ansell spent the last 20 years making scale models of radio controlled navy warships. His Dorset workshop features models of HMS Campbeltown, HMS Hood  and HMS Fencer
Mr Ansell, a former plumber, uses original Royal Navy blueprints to make the scale models of the warships and so dedicated is the former plumber to his craft that he is in the process of writing to the Queen to ask for permission to name one of his ships – a G3 battlecruiser – Beatty because the original was cancelled and therefore never named.
‘You need to put in the research and I tend to pick a particular time in the ship’s life to make it at because warships went in for refits lots and could be different from year to year,’ said Mr Ansell, 63.
‘I like to make ships you don’t see at model shows very often and bigger ones are more of a challenge because you have to be more detailed.’

Mr Ansell uses fibreglass to make the hull of the ships and flexible sheets of 1mm thick plastic for the rest of the structure. He researches each of the vessels before he makes them, using photographs to ensure accuracy.
Most of the other items such as guns and aircraft are made from resin and mini Airfix kits.
Constructing the models is a painstaking process, sometimes taking longer than it took to make the actual warships themselves.

HMS Campbeltown was an American ship that was eventually transferred to the Royal Navy in 1940
Mr Ansell’s most recent build, the battleship HMS Dreadnought, is a 6ft long, 1:196 scale model and has as taken him nine years to finish – nine times longer than it took to build the actual warship in 1906.
But the project was delayed by a lack of photographs of the vessel and he built two other models during that time.
He has also made models of aircraft carrier HMS Fencer, HMS Campbeltown and HMS Hood, the ship sunk by the Germans in World War Two.

The HMS Dreadnought replica was the most time consuming of all Mr Ansell’s models and each additional part, from aircraft to weapons and fighters is made with similar attention to detail from resin or airfix kits
He is making a G3 battlecruiser – a ship that was planned but not built because a naval treaty came into place that limited the weight of warships.
Because the G3 was cancelled, it was never given a name, so Tony plans to write to the Queen to ask her permission to name his HMS Beatty, after the British admiral at the Battle of Jutland.
FROM 860FT TO 7FT: THE WARSHIPS THAT INSPIRED THE MODELS
HMS Fencer – 1:196 scale model
The original HMS Fencer was an aircraft carrier, commissioned in February 1943
Escorted Atlantic, African and Russian convoys
Also took part in a strike on a German battleship
HMS Hood – 7ft long, 1:1,128 scale model
Original was an Admiral Class battlecruiser
Warship sunk by the Germans during World War Two
Had an overall length of 860ft
HMS Dreadnought – 6ft long, 1:196 scale model
Took Mr Ansell nine years to finish
The Dreadnought was introduced in 1906 and became an important development in naval technology
It was the first naval warship to have a uniform battery, rather than just a few guns
He added: ‘With the Dreadnought I even laid the planks on the deck one by one. It took six months just to do the deck but it looks like the real McCoy.
‘The G3 was never named because it wasn’t built. Some names were banded about but they were then put to other ships.
‘So I want to keep with naval tradition and write to the Queen to ask for permission to name it after Admiral Beatty.
‘The Navy do it when they name ships and I want to make things official. I’ll ask her if there’s something else she’d rather I called it.’
On average, a ship takes about three years to build and his hobby has cost Mr Ansell several thousands over the years.
He said: ‘Back in the 90s, my ambition was to make a 10-foot model and I got laughed at, but I kept making models bigger and bigger.
‘The next one I’m going to do is nine-foot so I think I’ve proved the doubters wrong.’
Mr Ansell belongs to a model boat display team in Portsmouth who stage battles with their ships and even use pyrotechnics, which means they have to have a health and safety team at the ready.

By CLAIRE CARTER FOR MAILONLINE

Arebus Identified by "The Bell"

The Erebus Bell has been recovered which astutely proves the ship discovered is the Arebus. In September, the wreck of one of the two ships in Franklin’s lost expedition of 1845 was located near the the Victoria Strait in Canada. As both ships in the expedition were similar sized bomb vessels, modified for exploration, it was initially unclear whether the wreck was from the HMS Terror or HMS Erebus. By early October, the wreckage had been confirmed to be from the HMS Erebus. Now divers have located the ship’s bell.

As reported by CNBC:
The bell is intact and generally in very good condition. Two embossed markings – introduced when the bronze bell was first cast – are evident on the artifact: a Royal Navy “broad arrow” indicating property of the British Government, as well as the date “1845.”


A brass bell from HMS Erebus, one of the two doomed ships from the Franklin expedition that came in search of the Northwest Passage, is now in the hands of scientists in Ottawa.

Sealed in a water-filled glass container, the bell was unveiled Thursday by Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq.

The bell was found in mid-September, shortly after the Erebus was discovered on the Arctic seabed.

The bell would have been struck every half hour both day and night, to mark the passage of time on board the vessel.

Marc-Andre Bernier, chief of Parks Canada's underwater archeology service, said he was on the boat above listening over an intercom to the divers exploring the wreck.

"At one point, all we heard was, 'I found the bell, I found the bell,'" he said.

"The objective was not to recover artifacts, but in this case here, because of the iconic symbol that a bell has … it was decided that this object should be recovered."

In addition to bearing the broad-arrow mark of the Royal Navy, the bell is emblazoned with "1845," the year the Franklin expedition began its ill-fated voyage.

The bell was wrapped underwater and sent to the lab in Ottawa for conservation treatments.

"This is the crowning achievement of an incredible, successful 2014 search campaign that has captivated Canadians and the entire world," said Aglukkaq.

The Erebus, on which it's believed that Sir John Franklin died, was lost some 168 years ago.

Bernier said several other artifacts were found around the site, including pulley blocks, ropes and two brass cannons, but they have been left there until dive teams can resume their inspection of the sunken vessel again next year.

Parks Canada scientists say they need to carefully clean the bell to remove all traces of sea salt from its surface before any other historical clues can be revealed.

The respective crews of the Erebus and its companion, HMS Terror, perished after the ships went missing in the mid-1800s.

Bernier said it's believed the ships became locked in sea ice and eventually sank as their wooden hulls became waterlogged and cracked apart.

With files from The Canadian Press

Custom Building Some Civil Warships

We recently took on a project to create five 1/35th scale models of some Civil Warships for a customer. The research to get plans for these models was pretty tough but we managed to get a list of plans from the national archives. These models will be constructed of wood and be waterline model boats.

These model ships will be built right here in the USA! From what I understand they are going to be used for a type of board game that is pretty exclusive. I will post pictures once they are completed so we all can enjoy. From what I understand this will be a very limited run on models that are only seen in museums till now.

The list is as follows:

• USS Paul Jones
• USS Sonoma
• USS Chillicothe
• USS Mattabesset
• Mystery Ship??

This project won't be done till next year but stay tuned and keep up with our blog there is allot of cool ship stories here: Ship Model Blog

Bob Winfrey

Ship Model Super Store

New Blog Posts on The Website

We recently posted several new posts on our website Ship Model Super Store some new models are in stock and ready to ship.

Check out the blog posts here Ship Model Blog.

Stories about the Monitor a Civil War Ship, Glaucester Schooner festival and the accidental sinking of a tug boat by a Russian Barque.

Have a great holiday!

Concordia Yawls A Very Unique Sailboat

The recent sinking of the Concordia yawl, Winnie of Bourne, brought to mind just how remarkable this class of boats indeed is.  Winnie of Bourne was raised from the bottom near the entrance of Nantucket harbor just two days after she sank, so we hope that she will be salvaged and restored.
The Concordia yawl is the most successful and beloved class of wooden offshore sailboats ever built. The first was built to replace Llewellyn Howland’s family’s Colin Archer designed pilot cutter, which was destroyed by the Great Hurricane of 1938. The first yawl, named Java, was (and is) 39ft 10in long with a 10ft 3in beam, 5ft 8in draught, an 18,000 pound displacement, a 7/8ths fractional rig and a coveline with the iconic star on her bow and a crescent moon on her stern.
Over the next 28 years, over 100 Concordia yawls would be built.   Remarkably, for wooden sailboats, all but one (including, we hope, Winnie of Bourne) still survive today. (Halcyon, Concordia Yawl #3, was lost at sea with its owner Ron Perry in early May, 2011.)  Concordia yawls continue to be cruised and raced successfully all over the globe.
The Concordia hull was designed by C. Raymond Hunt.  Bill Harris drew her rig and Waldo Howland designed the interior. Between 1938 and 1966, a total of 103 Concordia yawls were built.  The first four Concordias were built in Massachussets. Two were built just before World War II and two immediately after.  The remaining 99 Concordia hulls were built by Abeking and Rasmussen shipyard in Lemwerder, Germany. (26 of these were the slightly larger 41' version.)  The hulls were shipped across the Atlantic and finished by Concordia which installed the interiors, pumps, engines and rigs.
Classic Boat Magazine describes how the Concordia yawls were built:  The boats were built upright and launched three at a time. They had 13/8in (35mm) African mahogany planks, often more than 16ft (4.9m) long, and those for the varnished brightwork were bookmatched – double sawn and matched. The topsides were tightly planked with almost no caulking: a tool would crush the grain, a cotton cord and white lead would be laid in, the plank forced down tight, and the rising grain would fill in any gap. Frames are 1¾in (44mm) white oak, steam bent or laminated, on 9in (229mm) centres with 2in x 4in (51mm x 102mm) Sitka spruce stringers. Most Concordias have mahogany decks covered with canvas – much of the canvas has now been replaced – some had teak decks.
The Concordia was never designed to any racing rule.  Nevertheless, over the years, Concordia yawls have won numerous races, including the prestigious Newport Bermuda Race (1954 & 1978), the Annapolis Race (1955), Cowes Week (1955) and the Marblehead-to-Halifax Race (1955 & 1997).
? 1954 Newport Bermuda Race – Malay, Concordia #2, Dan Strohmeier.
? 1955 Annapolis Race – Actaea, Concordia #17, Henry Sears.
? 1955 Cowes Week – Harrier, Concordia #30, Ray Hunt.
? 1955 Marblehead-to-Halifax Race – Malay, Concordia #2, Dan Strohmeier.
? 1978 Newport Bermuda Race – Babe, Concordia #26, Arnold Gay.
? 1997 Marblehead-to-Halifax Race – Crocodile, Concordia #67, Robert Crocker.
The post Concordia Yawls — An Appreciation appeared first on Old Salt Blog.

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Will We Ignore The Warnings?

I found this story very interesting and actually pretty blunt. I was in Detroit Michigan with my wife and read this story after our return. I had to sit back and wonder if we had been in that area because we drove though Ohio and ate in a large city at a Red Lobster late Friday afternoon....................

See the rest of the story here...