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HMS Enterprize was the lead ship of the Enterpize class of 1770. The class was designed by Sir John Williams with a gross dimensions and tons of 120’6” (gun deck), 99’6” (keel), 33’6” (beam), 11’ (depth of hold) and to carry 200,men. Armament was 24 x 9 pound guns on the upper deck, 4 x 3 pound guns on the quarter deck, and 12 swivel guns. She was ordered in January 1771, Keel laid on September 9, 1771 at Deptford, launched August 24, 1774; hulked in 1791. Twenty-seven ships composed this class. A pair of paintings of the ship by Joseph Marshall in 1775 is held by the Science Museum in Kensington and the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. Enterprise served as a cruiser and convoy escort. Her most notable action occurred on June 7, 1780 whilst at Gibraltar when her crew spotted six Spanish fire ships drifting into the harbour toward the fleet at anchor. A warning salvo was fired to alert the fleet and the Enterprize’s cables cut to allow the ship to drift away from the hulks and opened fire on the hulks in an attempt to sink them. The Spanish fleet lay outside the harbour for any British ships trying to escape so the British seamen boarded the small the fire ships to attach lines to away from the fleet and burn themselves out. On April 27, 1782 near the Leeward Islands she captured the 22-gun American privateer Mohawk which was later taken into Royal Navy service. Mohawk was sold in1783. Enterprize was decommissioned in May 1784 and from 1790 she served as a receiving ship and hulked in 1791. In 1806 she was taken to Deptford and broken up in 1807. Lines, profile and decoration drawings of Surprize as built can be purchased from the Royal Museums Greenwich (National Maritime Museum). The Kit CAF MODELS of Shanghai, China has created a stunning 1/48 scale Admiralty model of HMS Enterprize. Before reviewing the kit a few words about wooden sailing ship kits from Chinese producers is warranted because they are not all created equal. In 2001 China was allowed to formally join the World Trade Organization (WTO) which meant the country had to abide by international trade agreements and practices such as copyright protection. Prior to 2001, China was the largest source of counterfeit goods that focused on covered luxury goods, cosmetics, sportswear, and appliances. As a result of joining the WTO, far fewer counterfeit goods are no longer produced or available in China, but remains a problem because copying has become a way of life and normal practice for many manufacturers. This problem is endemic among many wooden model kit producers in China who readily use copyrighted drawings to produce their kits without acknowledgement or licence, and these kits are readily available on shopping websites. They will continue to do this as long as it is profitable so do not buy these unlicensed and counterfeit kits. A concerted effort by Model Ship World and the Nautical Research Guild to highlight these practices and alert model makers to the counterfeit products is having success and has gone further to lend an open and willing hand to any Chinese producers who wish to abide by the WTO and international agreements. One of these companies is CAF MODELS located in Shanghai, China. CAF MODELS first came to attention for producing unlicenced kits of French vessels from the ANCRE collection of drawings and monographs. With the help of members of the Model Ship World community, proper agreements between ANCRE and CAF MODELS are being negotiated and to CAF MODELS’ credit, has stopped selling any models based on ANCRE material until an agreement is signed. These kits will return once the agreement is finalized and signed. In the meantime, CAF MODELS has a number of original kits for sale such as HMS Enterprize, with several more under development. CAF MODELS kits are designed and manufactured by Mr. CAO Feng, or in English -- Tom Cao. Tom is an engineer by profession and used CAD to design kits from Admiralty drawings and other references. His CAD designs have become very precise and is able to detect and correct draughting errors in commercially available plans and well-known sources. I had the pleasure of meeting him and his lovely family in Shanghai in 2018 where he kindly took me to his home to show me how he designed model kits and his extensive reference library.

Well my kit arrived, and my workbench is mostly cleaned off, so I had best start my build log. I'll post some pictures tomorrow, if my first Covid shot doesn't hit me too hard.

Hello all the work I want to publish is the 1/48 scale HMS Enterprise 1774 vessel. I started from the CAF model kit and I customized the model creating the complete interiors. For the realization, I used various documentation, including the Pandora monograph, Shipright 1/96 drawings, and different documentation collected by the Forums. I have reported on the scans of the caf drawings in 1/48 the scans of the Pandora drawings in order to have a uniform scale, and those of Shipyard. The model is half wrapped and half exposed.

This is a build log for the CAFMODEL longboat. Although I will dwell in detail on the features and instructions of the kit, it is not an official kit review as this is my first ever attempt at building a laser cut kit and it would clearly be wrong for my comments and observations to carry the weight of an experienced reviewer/builder. Having said that, the kit instructions show where parts go, not how to do it, and I believe anyone building this model will come across the same issues I encountered. Hence the level of detail in my log. After an exchange of emails with Tom at CAFMODEL I purchased this and two other kits. I found Tom very approachable and helpful. The kit: The CAFMODEL longboat (SB130 – 168) is a 1/48 scale French longboat based on Ancre sources. The subject is ostensibly a Louis XV era longboat but could equally represent a later craft. It is of laser cut cherry wood and plywood plus photoetched parts. There is also a piece of .8mm brass wire for some detail work. EDIT: it also has a small fret of photo-etched brass. The quality is good. The box contents are neatly packed. Instructions are graphic-style with a few notes (in English) and scale drawings. 2mm cherry, 1mm ply and .4mm cherry veneer make up the boat parts. The building cradle is 2mm ply. The laser cutting was precise and I found no areas where anything was over- or under-cut. The first thing was to understand the parts and what is required. This took me three cups of tea. Eventually I had a plan and, at least up to the time of writing, it has proved to be a good one. The critical process is the handling of the ribs and that will be explained when we come to them. To state the obvious, the building cradle is absolutely vital. Before assembly, I tested the fit of the different pieces of wood used for the stem and the ribs in their slots. To play safe I opened up the slots in the top piece for the ribs with a few strokes of 120 grit sandpaper wrapped around an old steel ruler. Next, I decided to screw the assembled cradle down to a block. This is not in the instructions but I anticipate this will help later. There are slots in the bottom piece of the cradle to hold the keel in place. When it is time to remove the keel assembly you push upwards through these slots to remove the skeleton. These slots will be covered so I drilled access holes in the bigger block before screwing the cradle down. Once screwed to block and checked, we’re off.

Seems that I'am one of the first who opens a buildlog of the CAF Le Coureur kit.. Unlike other buildlogs I will not start with a extensive kit review since this can be seen in other threads, like the one from CAF My kit has been arrived after 6 days from the reception of the shipping notification to door delivery, very fast! The kit was very well packed to ensure a safe transport. Before the construction starts, here are a few thoughts as per today about my intentions on how to show the model. I will try to display the Coureur as she appeared in 1776, just before the capture of the English navy. For reference I will follow the Ancre monograph. I want to show as much interieur as possible without neglecting too many details like masts, rigging and deck furniture. How this task turns out in detail will be determined throughout the construction as it progresses.

Ancient Chinese architecture XiXing Pavilion CAF Model Available from CAF Model for $32.00USD plus shipping The kit I love architecture from the Far East, having visited quite a lot of it when both times I've visited Japan. Some of the structures in old Kyoto are stunning, as they are in Osaka and Tokyo. I could lose myself in them for hours on end. Sometimes it's hard to believe some of these are around 1000yrs old. The same applies to China. I've always had a hankering to visit and see the cultural side of things. This little ancient Pavilion kit from XiXing (presumably in the Guangdong Province of China) is just the sort of thing that really appeals to me. I'm not sure of the actual scale, so here's a drawing of the completed model, with dimension: Th kit itself is packaged into a small box measuring 33xm x 17cm x 4cm. Inside, thirteen sheets of very nice quality, laser-cut/engraved ply, are sealed in a shrink wrap cellophane covering, along with a bag containing dowel and wooden balls, and two sheets of instructions. A small label is applied to the box lid to show what the box contains, and a piece of packing foam stops everything from rattling around in transit. Construction starts with the large hexagonal base. You can see the two principle parts for this here and that the wooden pillars will be easy to locate because of the pre-cut holes. That should remove probably the main cause of possible error in the main structure, especially as there are infill walls and benching that need to precisely sit between the pillars. All parts could possibly benefit from a light coat of varnish and a little sanding to protect them from paint soak if you decide to add some colour to your finished Pavilion. Tacked on top of the lower base are the signs, laser etched and cut in very thin veneer. These will wrap around the pillars on the entrance to the pavilion. On top of your pillars will sit the crown of the pavilion, before the roof is fitted. That is the other hexagonal part. This can be seen here, with the corresponding holes for the pillars tops. The hexagonal parts within it are for the 'spire' section, whilst the '3' parts are the infills between the wall sections which skirt the bottom of the pavilion. Between the base sections, you will need to add the side parts, seen here. There is an engraved line on them indicating the bevel needed where the walls meet. The other sheet contains the roof frame parts. The very ornate sheet shown here holds the parts for the wall sections, bench backs and the fancy trellis work that adorns the pavilion, just below the rood section. Most of the infill parts are gone, but there's just a few more I need to tap out lightly. More roof frames are seen on the other sheet. These two sheets contain the pillar bases, semi-hexagonal bench seating, decorative scrollwork, and infill panels around the top of the pillars. Again, another sheet contains some of the parts for that elaborate roof. One sheet here contains the beams which sit atop the four main roof frame sections. These will lie three-deep and need to be flushed to the ends of the frame sections. The other sheet here contains parts that finish off the edges of the tiled roof panels. Now, talking of tiled roof panels, these FOUR sheets hold the strips which, when assembled, create that characteristic roof finish you see own many ancient buildings in the Far East. There is some infill between these sheets which I removed, as you can see here: The last contents here are the dowels for the pillars and also the spire, plus the wooden balls which slide onto the spire in decreasing sizes. Instructions The Pavilion appears to be quite straightforward when it comes to the various stages, although I will use my phone translate app to make sure I don't miss any vital bit of information as I build. The instructions are printed on two sheets of A4 paper, double-sided, and also in colour to help identify the various components. Construction is completed over 18 stages, with all parts clearly numbered. Conclusion In all, this is a very nice, and also quite inexpensive kit from CAF, and it should provide many pleasant hours of construction. The photos of the finished build show the timbers painted in gold, with a grey roof and light grey base. Whilst the model can be left in bare timber, I do think a paint job would be the best option to highlight the details and male it more authentic. Sometimes, we all need a little side project, or perhaps a little something between our current shipyard work, and this little kit will certainly do that whilst sticking with wood and building something which looks beautiful when completed. Quality is excellent and the whole design looks nicely thought out. Finished Model My sincere thanks to Tom at CAF Model for sending this lovely little kit out for review on Model Ship World. To purchase, click the link at the top of the article.

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HMS Enterprize (1774) CAF Models Review by Dr. Kerry Jang HMS Enterprize was the lead ship of the Enterpize class of 1770. The class was designed by Sir John Williams with a gross dimensions and tons of 120’6” (gun deck), 99’6” (keel), 33’6” (beam), 11’ (depth of hold) and to carry 200,men. Armament was 24 x 9 pound guns on the upper deck, 4 x 3 pound guns on the quarter deck, and 12 swivel guns. She was ordered in January 1771, Keel laid on September 9, 1771 at Deptford, launched August 24, 1774; hulked in 1791. Twenty-seven ships composed this class. A pair of paintings of the ship by Joseph Marshall in 1775 is held by the Science Museum in Kensington and the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. Enterprise served as a cruiser and convoy escort. Her most notable action occurred on June 7, 1780 whilst at Gibraltar when her crew spotted six Spanish fire ships drifting into the harbour toward the fleet at anchor. A warning salvo was fired to alert the fleet and the Enterprize’s cables cut to allow the ship to drift away from the hulks and opened fire on the hulks in an attempt to sink them. The Spanish fleet lay outside the harbour for any British ships trying to escape so the British seamen boarded the small the fire ships to attach lines to away from the fleet and burn themselves out. On April 27, 1782 near the Leeward Islands she captured the 22-gun American privateer Mohawk which was later taken into Royal Navy service. Mohawk was sold in1783. Enterprize was decommissioned in May 1784 and from 1790 she served as a receiving ship and hulked in 1791. In 1806 she was taken to Deptford and broken up in 1807. Lines, profile and decoration drawings of Surprize as built can be purchased from the Royal Museums Greenwich (National Maritime Museum). The Kit CAF MODELS of Shanghai, China has created a stunning 1/48 scale Admiralty model of HMS Enterprize. Before reviewing the kit a few words about wooden sailing ship kits from Chinese producers is warranted because they are not all created equal. In 2001 China was allowed to formally join the World Trade Organization (WTO) which meant the country had to abide by international trade agreements and practices such as copyright protection. Prior to 2001, China was the largest source of counterfeit goods that focused on covered luxury goods, cosmetics, sportswear, and appliances. As a result of joining the WTO, far fewer counterfeit goods are no longer produced or available in China, but remains a problem because copying has become a way of life and normal practice for many manufacturers. This problem is endemic among many wooden model kit producers in China who readily use copyrighted drawings to produce their kits without acknowledgement or licence, and these kits are readily available on shopping websites. They will continue to do this as long as it is profitable so do not buy these unlicensed and counterfeit kits. A concerted effort by Model Ship World and the Nautical Research Guild to highlight these practices and alert model makers to the counterfeit products is having success and has gone further to lend an open and willing hand to any Chinese producers who wish to abide by the WTO and international agreements. One of these companies is CAF MODELS located in Shanghai, China. CAF MODELS first came to attention for producing unlicenced kits of French vessels from the ANCRE collection of drawings and monographs. With the help of members of the Model Ship World community, proper agreements between ANCRE and CAF MODELS are being negotiated and to CAF MODELS’ credit, has stopped selling any models based on ANCRE material until an agreement is signed. These kits will return once the agreement is finalized and signed. In the meantime, CAF MODELS has a number of original kits for sale such as HMS Enterprize, with several more under development. CAF MODELS kits are designed and manufactured by Mr. CAO Feng, or in English -- Tom Cao. Tom is an engineer by profession and used CAD to design kits from Admiralty drawings and other references. His CAD designs have become very precise and is able to detect and correct draughting errors in commercially available plans and well-known sources. I had the pleasure of meeting him and his lovely family in Shanghai in 2018 where he kindly took me to his home to show me how he designed model kits and his extensive reference library. On a funny note, I am a third generation Canadian Chinese and speak Cantonese Chinese. Tom speaks Shanghaiese Chinese and our dialects are mutually unintelligible. The two of us had to use an English translator on his phone to converse! Tom is a talented and keen modeller and with his engineering training tries to design kits that are faithful to the actual construction practices of the actual ship or model with an eye to ease of construction for the modeller. The kits are continually upgraded to take into account improvements in design and materials or to correct errors. All kits are manufactured in house and Tom builds the lasers to cut them out. For his latest designs he is building a series of CNC cutting machines to avoid laser cutting char marks. Carvings for figureheads and relief carvings are done using CNC routers guided by 3D renderings. The wood used for the kits are cherry, boxwood, pear, and maple imported from North America and Europe. He experiments with other traditional materials such as ox bone for window frames to replicate materials used by traditional craftsmen of the 18th Century. Tom is in the white shirt and myself in the black t shirt. Note that the phone with a translator is open so we could chat and that the kit is the French bomb ketch SALAMANDRE based on the Boudriot plans. This kit is off the market until the licence agreement with ANCRE is finalized. The kit provides the parts to build a fully framed Admiralty style model of the ship that measures 33” in length with a beam of 8.2”. The kit arrives in a shipping carton containing 6 large boxes chock a block full with wooden parts and fittings, and a bundle of wooden strip stock. The boxes in total weigh in around 20 kgs! The parts in each box are well protected in foam and sealed in bags or cello wrapped to prevent damage and loss. The CAF kit is packed in six large boxes and a bundle of strip wood stock. Each box is numbered and along with the parts are numbered sheets that lay out the assembly steps and identifies all of the parts contained in a box. By way of example, the contents of box #1 contains several laser cut sheets of ship’s frames, instruction booklet, and 1:1 scale exploded view of how each frames is to be constructed. A closer look at the wooden parts show that each piece is neatly cut by laser with no excess burning and the bevel lines are etched into the wood. The wood on this kit is cherry, and it has a nice warm brownish tone and is very fine grained. The char marks left by the laser cutting on the edge is relatively light and most of it is sanded away during the fairing of the hull. All lasers cut parts on a slight angle (has to do with beam deflection as it burns through the wood) so some mating faces are not 90° degrees and must be gently sanded square using a disk sander. Typical contents of a box. Laser cut frame parts. The plans in each box contains 1:1 scale drawings to identify each part. A close up of the laser cutting. Parts are attached to the sheet using small tabs that are easily cut away with a sharp hobby knife. The kit contains thousands of laser cut parts. Deck beams, knees, dowels for stub masts, building jig parts, drawings and the first box of fittings made from a multitude of different materials. Some of the stem and keel parts and building jig pieces to construct the cant frames. The kit also contains some interesting some CNC cut parts that are cut in three dimensions to capture their unique double curvature shapes that cannot be cut using a laser. In other kits, such parts are provided as a metal or resin piece that must be painted to look like wood but in this kit it is wood. CNC cut wooden parts in three dimensions. Strip wood is labelled, clean and straight and cut by a saw. The Building Jig The model is built in an elaborate plywood jig that holds the keel, stem, stern and frames in the exact locations and square to one another. The building jig is also designed to hold the cant frames in the correct orientation so they can be built up and faired in place. The jig itself is made up of several parts and is a major project in itself. A selection of the framing jig parts. The jig parts are provided in good quality birch ply and slot together neatly with little or no sloppiness to the joints. Despite the care taken by CAF MODELS, the jig should be assembled carefully and one must ensure all joints are correct. Any misalignment will be transferred to the hull as it is constructed. An illustration as to how the cant frame bow jig is used. Fittings With box after box full of laser and CNC cut parts, there are also smaller boxes of fittings in wood, metal, glass, and bone. Of particular note are that the carvings and sculptures that adorn large ships of the line have always been difficult to reproduce for modellers who are not experienced at carving. Often kits provide a heavy metal or resin figurehead or carvings that must either be gilded or painted. Model makers have often wished that the carvings were provided in wood, just as seen on Admiralty models. CAF Models have done this by providing the carvings in wood. This is not pressed fiberboard but an actual 3D CNC cut set of sculptures as shown in the photos. Ships guns are in cast brass and are fully detailed with the royal cyphers. Anchors and other metal parts also provided as brass castings. All other of the required fittings are provided in brass, glass, wood and good quality cordage. Each is neatly labelled and packaged. Note that the spokes for the ship's helm are individual parts. Glass cover slips for microscope slides is provided to glaze the windows. The ship's stove is a miniature photetched brass kit, Instructions The instructions are contained in a series of booklets and plans. The instructions are pictorial in nature so that modeller does not have to rely on a working knowledge of Chinese at all. There are some English instructions which in some cases makes little sense because something got lost in translation - but with the picture the meaning becomes clear. Running the Chinese text through Google Translate provides a good sense of the Chinese instructions. The drawings and plans are crisp and the parts match the drawings precisely. Drawings are colour coded to keep things straight and are neatly and cleanly printed. Future kits will have better English instructions included. All parts are labelled and construction fully illustrated so no need to know how to read Chinese to build the model. Each booklet has several illustrated steps to construction. Full size profile and lines are provided. Frame plans to help align all of the separate futtocks. The kit also provides a full sheet of waterslide decals to reproduce the painted friezes adorning the ship’s side and stern. The modeller can paint these friezes if desired, but the decals provide a neat option. My advice for applying the decals is that the designs are cut close to the printed colours as possible, and applied to a glossy surface by sealing the wooden hull sides with a gloss varnish. The designs are later sealed with a coat of matt or satin varnish as desired. Conclusions If you want to build an Admiralty style model and don’t have the tools, access to wood stock, skills or inclination then CAF Model's Enterprize is an excellent way to build one. All that is required is included in the boxes that saves you from having to source materials and tools. All of the materials are top notch and having seen the prototype model at Tom's home, is well designed and goes together well. It is rare to find a kit this well produced and the innovation and constant upgrading CAF MODELS does on its kits ensures improves ease of construction, and quality of materials and design continually improves. The sheer complexity of the kit will keep the modeller busy for a long time and especial care and fitting of the many parts is the order of the day -- this is no different that scratch building so your skills will be challenged and honed over time. The kit is excellent value for the money. CAF MODEL's next kit is Le Coureur based on drawings from the National Maritime Museum, and a set of figures is being designed to crew the ship. The review kit was purchased directly from CAF MODELS courtesy of my wallet. Payment was by PayPal and China Post delivered it to Canada Post in excellent shape and in good time. Tom Cao stands by all his products and should you find a faulty part or broke something, he will help you with replacements. If you have an earlier kit and want the latest upgrades to it, you can contact him and he can supply it at a nominal cost. Tom is responsive to e-mail within a day or two in my experience. With scratch building, masting and rigging can be added to really make the model stand out even moreso. That is what I plan to do in due course. Happy Modelling! Kerry Jang Vancouver, Canada