Edit: It appears that Ship Model Okumoto was a one-shot company. While their site is still active, everything listed there is marked “Sold Out”, and this has been the case for at least a year or more. Updated 12/17/21.
The Nautical Research Guild just posted some basic previews of 4 new kits from the new ship model kit manufacturer Ship Model Okumoto on ModelShipWorld.com. This is a new company in Japan that is producing a line of kits for those modelers who want to build a frame or admiralty-style model relatively quickly and easily.
Hannah by Ship Model Okumoto in 1/70 scale.
They offer four kits, the Revolutionary War schooner Hannah, the bark HMS Endeavour, the Santa Maria, and the 17th century French warship La Couronne. All are frame-style model kits with all parts laser cut for ease of assembly.
La Couronne by Ship Model Okumoto in 1/123 scale.
Construction times on these kits vary from an estimated 100 hours for the Hannah, on up to 240 hours for HMS Endeavour. These build times are far lower than what ship modelers usually have to face when building ship models. Normally, models like these have to be built from scratch or from semi-kits (like those from The Lumberyard), and can take many months to a year or more to complete.
Santa Maria by Ship Model Okumoto in 1/80 scale.
Given that these models require only enough sanding to clean up the char on the laser cutting and to bevel the frame edges, I suspect that working on these models should create a fairly limited amount of dust.
Now, don’t quote me on this, but I believe the intent of these kits is to build them as is – that they are not just the beginnings of a model to be planked over, painted, rigged, etc. You might be able to do that if you really want, but I think these are pretty well designed to be stand-alone kits.
HMS Endeavor from Ship Model Okumoto in 1/80 scale.
Of course, the kits, being from Japan, have instructions written in Japanese, but these days, phone apps like Google Translate, make that pretty much a non-issue. Plus, I understand that the instructions are well illustrated with color photos.
Check out Ship Model Okumoto here: https://ec.en.ship-model.net
Also, read over the details of each kit, as reviewed on the NRG’s Model Ship World using the links below:
If I learn more about these kits, I’ll post updates. Ω
Ship Modeler 