mmosko

Mystery unraveled. The MS13004 was a ME product manufactured entirely in the USA under license with Amati of Italy. Due to disagreements between the companies the relationship was terminated as was the production of the item. The reason the Vanguard popped up on the Model Expo website not long ago is that the images and the descriptive copy were temporarily activated so that I could copy that material to move it to eBay in order to sell a Vanguard that came into my possession. Why do I have Vanguards; both ME version and even an Amati version as I write? Model Expo often times buys 2nd hand kits from ship modelers throughout the country. In fact, we sometimes buy complete collections of ship model kits. What often times happens is that aging customers, or their widows, have a closet or attic full of ship model kits they were meaning to build but ran out of time. We buy the collections and auction them on eBay one by one. The way I see it we are making sometimes rare kits available to enthusiastic modelers as well as providing needed income to sustain Model Expo. At the moment there is an original Amati Vanguard kit at auction on eBay. Click here or paste in your browser to see it http://www.ebay.com/itm/Amati-Victory-Models-HMS-Vanguard-Wood-Ship-Model-Kit-Unbuilt-em-ja-/201538434976?ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT... maybe you get it at a bargain price. You'll find other super kits there too ... like a Sergal Sovereign and a Jotika Victory.

Great suggestions: To Donrobinson ... I wish I could offer a lifetime guarantee on all of our kits ... guarantee meaning you live long enough to build your entire stash in your closet. Since I came out of retirement I have felt better, lost weight, worry more, elevated my stress levels and heard my doctor say I'm doing far better than my younger friends. I also renewed a contract with my wife guaranteeing her 24 more years of mutual servitude. So the bottom line is to stay busy mentally, physically and with an end goal in mind. It works. I'm glad I'm no longer retired. Your suggestions regarding blocks and rigging line. Chuck at Syren Model Co. is smarter than all of us because he realized that the blocks in all kits (ours and Euro kits) are terrible ..... and that goes for the rigging too. Chuck makes 1400 blocks a day, which works out to about 30,000 blocks per month. Not a bad rate of production. If he could build up production to over 100,000 per month and drop the price down to two cents to sell them all to me then he could stick all his forks in his eyes as the $2000 per month sales wouldn't allow him to buy food anyway. I think his blocks are marvelous and if were building kits for fun I would throw away the kit blocks and buy Chucks'[. When you spend 100's of hours to build something beautiful you can spend a few more $$$. Like putting jewelry on a beautiful woman. The same goes for rigging line (rope). By the way ... I would love to hear suggestions on where I can buy decent rigging. I've had nothing but disappointments with rigging for decades. I would even elevate cost substantially for a decent supplier of linen. Know a good source? Let me know. We use about 5,000 ft. of rigging per day.

Since the buck stops on my desk I want to answer the question. Constitution is a daunting kit to manufacture. It has a myriad of parts. Yes, we make most of it .... meaning we laser cut the wood and cast many of the casting in house. We do all of the final assembly. But the problem lies in making sure that every part is accounted for and is available for assembly when needed. Right now we are waiting on 5 mm (3/16") Walnut deadeyes sourced in Italy. Our last shipment did not contain them. Our supplier ran out. They will be available next week and we'll be making another 25 Constitutions, which are not enough as demand for Constitution continually surprises us. We frequently run into problems such as these even though we try hard to keep enough material on hand for at least a 90 days supply for all 30 kits we produce. It ain't easy. Thanks for your patience .. but this is unlike making pizza or other simple products.