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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.

I finished my first RC scratch built square rigger HMS Harrier a couple of years back and although I'm very happy with the result always considered her something of a practice run for the command that everyone wants - a frigate. Check out Harrier in action on video. With the current pandemic making the full sized sailing dinghy I was hoping to start this year look just that - hopeful - there's no time like the present to start the frigate. She's relatively cheap, being cobbled up from old floor boards and ply with the only realtively expensive bits being servos. She'll be easy to break into storeable stages if the world comes to rights and the financial situation lets me build a real boat, and also a bit of a challenge that should take at least a couple of years. So, which frigate? I love the the Artois class like HMS Diana as per the fine examples built by the likes of Jason and Barbossa on MSW but as a 38 gun vessel it's 146ft on the gun deck and getting quite large for transport at a 1.2m hull in 1/36 scale. Also, while the rest ofthe Anatomy of the Ship book is very detailed, the lines needed to reproduce a hull shape in my copy are not very detailed. The Enterprise class is a bit smaller at 120ft with all the attributes of a frigate and has the advantage of being repesented in some detailed orignal ship plans in Greenwhich's National Martime Museum; There are some very colourful contemporary paintings done by Jospeh Marshall as part of a series of ship models to stoke Geroge III's interest in the navy; He dubbed the ship Enterprize, interchanging the Z with an S as was common at the time but most records of the time and modern scholarship have her as Enterprise. The clincher is a very detailed set of plans from Polish model company Shipyard, which also does smaller scale card models of Enterprise and her sister ship Cleopatra. The Shipyard plans cover everything from hull and deck layouts through fitout including guns, boats, masts and spars in a variety of scales ranging from 24,72, 96,192 etc depending on size. The bit where it falls down are the carvings and decorations, which appear speculative at best and include a lion figurehead more suitable for a ship of the early 1700s. The idea for this build is to try to combine the best of the modern plans for a fairly accurate sailing model, with the contemporary plans and paintings to give the full bling of a Georgian vessel. While it's a little uncertain whether a vessel in service would have carried full freizework and decoration, I've always wanted to try my hand at it and the goal is something that looks like a contemporary ship model that can be sailed. As such, the ship will be one of the class, and generally correct for the period but with some speculation on decoration depending which vessel I end up depicting. GIven the diverse sources it'll be a model of a painting of a ship model, so I think that'll give me a bit of latitude. We'll see how close I get to the goal of a big 1770s Navy Board model you can drop in the lake. A little about the Enterprise class: A sixth rate Designed by John WIlliams in 1770, the first five of this class were ordered for the Falklands Islands emergency. Fox, Syren, Surprise and Enterprise and Acteon were launched from the early 1770s through to 1775. Another 15 vessels followed in 76-78 and another seven in 82-83 with solid quarter deck bulkheads. They saw service during the Revolutionary War, with many Enterprises active on the American station against US privateers, at the relief of Gibralter, in the Mediterranean, Caribbean, including at the battle of the Saintes, around the North Sea and French coasts and even the battle of Cuddalore in the Indian Ocean. They were active ships, with losses to weather and enemy action that reflected this, although some limped through as troop ships or on harbour duty until late in the Napoleonic wars. Length on gundeck: 120ft Breadth: 33ft 9 inches Crew: 200 Initial armament: Upper deck: 24 x 9lbers, Quarter deck: 4x3lbers. By 1780 the quarter deck armament was 4x6lbers plus 4 18lb carronades and another two on the forecastle. Making a start The shipyard plans were scaled up to 1/36 scale and details like framing station lines, fixtures for the ballast keel, ply deadwood, rough places for servos and battery and other details drawn in. The plans have station molds indicated, which were expanded to show the 12mm ply that will be used for framing. Some initial work on the masts is visible below. More on that in the next post. The Enterprise hull is roughly 1m on the deck, slightly bigger than Harrier at 80cm and has a much greater internal volume, which should hopefully make some of the fitout easier, although there are issues around internal access with a quarterdeck as well as the main deck. Rough overall length with bowsprit should be 1.6-1.7m, with the masts standing about that tall from the keel, although they will collapse for transport. It should fit in the family wagon, if not it'll have to go in my camping trailer, although my wife is asking where it'll fit in the garage already containing a car, canoe, kayak, the Harrier, kids' bikes, clothesline and my workbench and tools...

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.

OK I'm now getting so far out of my comfort zone I'm almost coming back in the other side.One of our local historic ships was the topsail schooner Enterrize sailing from Hobart. Recently I bought a copy of the plans issued by Modeller's Draught as reconstructed by Karl Marquardt and am now attempting to build the model as a POB construct, I do have the luxury of having a full size replica visiting our local harbour frequently so am collecting piles of photos for additional reference. First step was to scan the A2 sheet and then reduce the scale to 1:48 and then break up the scan in order to print it as a series of A3 and A4 sheets that could then be cut and glued to 3mm MDF before taking to it with a band saw, files etc to make the basic frame.

Hi, I am 34 years old and live in Vietnam. This is my first post on this forum, hoping to get acquainted with everyone. My English is not good, so most of the time I use google tools to assist with translation, hoping for your understanding. When I received this kit I realized the detail part was too small for me so I zoomed in to 1:64 to make it easier to do. However, when I launched the Kit I realized that the thickness of the parts had changed a lot and I had difficulty checking their size. But I don't think this is important so here are my first results:

Click on the tags in the title above (shown in black) for an instant list of all the build logs for that kit subject.

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

A set of decor for model HMS Enterprize 1774 ( drawings from SHIPYARD ) Original drawing Sketch samples 3D models Result in wood

Hi all. Long time since last post about the nice schooner “Ingomar”. Now she’s waiting due to a new building: POF OF the schooner “Enterprize” a small ship built in Hobart, Tasmania. Why this ship? The fact is that I have since 1996 a nice plan drawn by K.H. Marquardt, enclosed in a number of “Model Shipwright”. This is the first POF. The method is similar to the method H.Hahn, but not completely the same. The same is the way to prepare frames. I bought very fine pearwood sheets from ARKOWOOD. Pictures show the first steps. Frames are only positioned not fixed. I'll alternate working both ships INGOMAR and ENTERPRIZE. Ciao!