Kusawa2000

Thank you all for the kind words, these are really appreciated and inspiring!
 
I’ve been busy making my stand fit to the hull and put some WOP on it. The lowest edge had some ugly spots so I decided to paint it very dark brown, almost black to cover that up. With a last layer of WOP this will look very natural I hope.
Also I finally put the glass behind the windows on the sides of the quarter galleries.
The rudder section is not yet finished  as you can see ofcourse.
 
Frank.

I would also enjoy painting that set on its own.  Those miniatures look incredible!

And here is the full scene, Aubrey, Maturin, table with candles and music note stand - standard in all Surprise kits.

Like Paul I bought my woody joe kits from zootoys.jp with no problems. It usually took 2 weeks to get from Japan to Canada.. and the kits are packed extremely well.. no parts banging around... 
 

Kerry: I had the opportunity to meet Mr Tsuneki back in 2011 when I was in Japan and have since bought quite a few of the Woody Joe kits. While I have the Yamato  battleship and Horyu-Ji Kondo kits waiting to be built I have completed two of their Pagoda kits -the Horyu-ji pagoda and  Kofukuji Pagoda and love them. The wood is a joy to work with and while the instructions are in Japanese, the way the parts are numbered and the instructions laid out you can figure out the assembly. And I have often said to people about these kits.... if the model parts don't fit, its because you made a mistake. A total joy to complete and definitely worth the money.
 
Thanks for passing along your article!

 

These are the kits I have bought and are built and waiting to be built
waiting to be Built....
 https://www.zootoyz.jp/contents/media/temple-horyuji-kondou-t.jpg
 
 
has been built
https://www.zootoyz.jp/contents/media/l_pagoda-koufuku-ji_20200314141924.jpg
 
 
Has been built
https://www.zootoyz.jp/contents/media/l_pagoda-horyuji_20200314142647.jpg
 
waiting to be built
https://www.zootoyz.jp/contents/media/l_wj-yamato.jpg
 
waiting to be built
 
 
https://www.zootoyz.jp/contents/media/l_pagoda-yakushiji_20200314142339.jpg

Like Paul I bought my woody joe kits from zootoys.jp with no problems. It usually took 2 weeks to get from Japan to Canada.. and the kits are packed extremely well.. no parts banging around... 
 

Kerry: I had the opportunity to meet Mr Tsuneki back in 2011 when I was in Japan and have since bought quite a few of the Woody Joe kits. While I have the Yamato  battleship and Horyu-Ji Kondo kits waiting to be built I have completed two of their Pagoda kits -the Horyu-ji pagoda and  Kofukuji Pagoda and love them. The wood is a joy to work with and while the instructions are in Japanese, the way the parts are numbered and the instructions laid out you can figure out the assembly. And I have often said to people about these kits.... if the model parts don't fit, its because you made a mistake. A total joy to complete and definitely worth the money.
 
Thanks for passing along your article!

 

These are the kits I have bought and are built and waiting to be built
waiting to be Built....
 https://www.zootoyz.jp/contents/media/temple-horyuji-kondou-t.jpg
 
 
has been built
https://www.zootoyz.jp/contents/media/l_pagoda-koufuku-ji_20200314141924.jpg
 
 
Has been built
https://www.zootoyz.jp/contents/media/l_pagoda-horyuji_20200314142647.jpg
 
waiting to be built
https://www.zootoyz.jp/contents/media/l_wj-yamato.jpg
 
waiting to be built
 
 
https://www.zootoyz.jp/contents/media/l_pagoda-yakushiji_20200314142339.jpg

Kerry: I had the opportunity to meet Mr Tsuneki back in 2011 when I was in Japan and have since bought quite a few of the Woody Joe kits. While I have the Yamato  battleship and Horyu-Ji Kondo kits waiting to be built I have completed two of their Pagoda kits -the Horyu-ji pagoda and  Kofukuji Pagoda and love them. The wood is a joy to work with and while the instructions are in Japanese, the way the parts are numbered and the instructions laid out you can figure out the assembly. And I have often said to people about these kits.... if the model parts don't fit, its because you made a mistake. A total joy to complete and definitely worth the money.
 
Thanks for passing along your article!

 

These are the kits I have bought and are built and waiting to be built
waiting to be Built....
 https://www.zootoyz.jp/contents/media/temple-horyuji-kondou-t.jpg
 
 
has been built
https://www.zootoyz.jp/contents/media/l_pagoda-koufuku-ji_20200314141924.jpg
 
 
Has been built
https://www.zootoyz.jp/contents/media/l_pagoda-horyuji_20200314142647.jpg
 
waiting to be built
https://www.zootoyz.jp/contents/media/l_wj-yamato.jpg
 
waiting to be built
 
 
https://www.zootoyz.jp/contents/media/l_pagoda-yakushiji_20200314142339.jpg

Kerry: I had the opportunity to meet Mr Tsuneki back in 2011 when I was in Japan and have since bought quite a few of the Woody Joe kits. While I have the Yamato  battleship and Horyu-Ji Kondo kits waiting to be built I have completed two of their Pagoda kits -the Horyu-ji pagoda and  Kofukuji Pagoda and love them. The wood is a joy to work with and while the instructions are in Japanese, the way the parts are numbered and the instructions laid out you can figure out the assembly. And I have often said to people about these kits.... if the model parts don't fit, its because you made a mistake. A total joy to complete and definitely worth the money.
 
Thanks for passing along your article!

 

Kerry: I had the opportunity to meet Mr Tsuneki back in 2011 when I was in Japan and have since bought quite a few of the Woody Joe kits. While I have the Yamato  battleship and Horyu-Ji Kondo kits waiting to be built I have completed two of their Pagoda kits -the Horyu-ji pagoda and  Kofukuji Pagoda and love them. The wood is a joy to work with and while the instructions are in Japanese, the way the parts are numbered and the instructions laid out you can figure out the assembly. And I have often said to people about these kits.... if the model parts don't fit, its because you made a mistake. A total joy to complete and definitely worth the money.
 
Thanks for passing along your article!

 

Kerry: I had the opportunity to meet Mr Tsuneki back in 2011 when I was in Japan and have since bought quite a few of the Woody Joe kits. While I have the Yamato  battleship and Horyu-Ji Kondo kits waiting to be built I have completed two of their Pagoda kits -the Horyu-ji pagoda and  Kofukuji Pagoda and love them. The wood is a joy to work with and while the instructions are in Japanese, the way the parts are numbered and the instructions laid out you can figure out the assembly. And I have often said to people about these kits.... if the model parts don't fit, its because you made a mistake. A total joy to complete and definitely worth the money.
 
Thanks for passing along your article!

 

Like Paul I bought my woody joe kits from zootoys.jp with no problems. It usually took 2 weeks to get from Japan to Canada.. and the kits are packed extremely well.. no parts banging around... 
 

Like Paul I bought my woody joe kits from zootoys.jp with no problems. It usually took 2 weeks to get from Japan to Canada.. and the kits are packed extremely well.. no parts banging around... 
 

I recently bought a Woody Joe kit from zootoys.jp . It was a good experience. Their postal service handed it off to Canada Post who collected sales tax at the door. Came in just over a week. Painless    

Kerry: I had the opportunity to meet Mr Tsuneki back in 2011 when I was in Japan and have since bought quite a few of the Woody Joe kits. While I have the Yamato  battleship and Horyu-Ji Kondo kits waiting to be built I have completed two of their Pagoda kits -the Horyu-ji pagoda and  Kofukuji Pagoda and love them. The wood is a joy to work with and while the instructions are in Japanese, the way the parts are numbered and the instructions laid out you can figure out the assembly. And I have often said to people about these kits.... if the model parts don't fit, its because you made a mistake. A total joy to complete and definitely worth the money.
 
Thanks for passing along your article!

 

Kerry: I had the opportunity to meet Mr Tsuneki back in 2011 when I was in Japan and have since bought quite a few of the Woody Joe kits. While I have the Yamato  battleship and Horyu-Ji Kondo kits waiting to be built I have completed two of their Pagoda kits -the Horyu-ji pagoda and  Kofukuji Pagoda and love them. The wood is a joy to work with and while the instructions are in Japanese, the way the parts are numbered and the instructions laid out you can figure out the assembly. And I have often said to people about these kits.... if the model parts don't fit, its because you made a mistake. A total joy to complete and definitely worth the money.
 
Thanks for passing along your article!

 

Kerry: I had the opportunity to meet Mr Tsuneki back in 2011 when I was in Japan and have since bought quite a few of the Woody Joe kits. While I have the Yamato  battleship and Horyu-Ji Kondo kits waiting to be built I have completed two of their Pagoda kits -the Horyu-ji pagoda and  Kofukuji Pagoda and love them. The wood is a joy to work with and while the instructions are in Japanese, the way the parts are numbered and the instructions laid out you can figure out the assembly. And I have often said to people about these kits.... if the model parts don't fit, its because you made a mistake. A total joy to complete and definitely worth the money.
 
Thanks for passing along your article!

 

I visited Woody Joe in Shizuoka and met the owner, Mr Tsuneki, and the manager, his daughter, Ms Yukari Gojo.  I did an article on my visit for Model Boats magazine in the UK. I have included the .pdf of the article.
 
Woody Joe is a specialist manufacturer of wooden kits (the main business is wood milling) and everything is done in house and they use only the best materials. The wood is imported from SE Asia or domestic woods from Japan (e.g., hinkoi cypress) which is expensive in Japan. The kit selection is based on what the Japanese market prefers as opposed to making what is popular elsewhere.   Each kit part is picked by hand and double checked.  
 
Kit design is excellent and multimedia.  Wood, paper, metal, etch…..  whatever works best.  Their kits are very popular in Japan and Ms. Gojo says that they cannot keep up with local demand, and they do not market directly overseas.  Instead there are resellers.  You can buy directly from them, cutting out the middleman.  English is not their first language so patience and respect are key if buying direct or contacting them by email.  
 
I have their Nippon Maru and I-400 kit, and my wife a temple.  Beautifully produced and beautiful when finished. Some of their Edo era Japanese ships were designed by modellers from The Rope Tokyo model building club. 
 
The price is a function of specialist timber costs, quality assurance and the high cost of care to ensure quality control.

Cheers,
 
Kerry
 
044 LAND OF THE RISING SUN edited.PDF

I agree.. especially when there are so few of these boats left intact up here.. we have one in Dawson City (the Keno) and the rest of them are in graveyards scattered along the Yukon River. In fact we had real low water levels in the Spring on the Yukon River due to a cool spring and low snow melt and the original Klondike could be seen -she broke her back some time in the 1920-30s and they built a second SS Klondike using the hardware and engines from the first one.  

I agree.. especially when there are so few of these boats left intact up here.. we have one in Dawson City (the Keno) and the rest of them are in graveyards scattered along the Yukon River. In fact we had real low water levels in the Spring on the Yukon River due to a cool spring and low snow melt and the original Klondike could be seen -she broke her back some time in the 1920-30s and they built a second SS Klondike using the hardware and engines from the first one.  

I agree.. especially when there are so few of these boats left intact up here.. we have one in Dawson City (the Keno) and the rest of them are in graveyards scattered along the Yukon River. In fact we had real low water levels in the Spring on the Yukon River due to a cool spring and low snow melt and the original Klondike could be seen -she broke her back some time in the 1920-30s and they built a second SS Klondike using the hardware and engines from the first one.  

Thats great news.  It is so easy for a country to lose its history due to lack of funding.  We can not always rely on private funding and donations.