Dusek Ship Kits Re-Releases Mamoli MV Series

As you may recall, Dusek, a relatively new ship model kit manufacturer from the Czech Republic, licensed the Mamoli line of products some time after a fire shut down the Italian manufacturer’s operations. Last year, Dusek began releasing the line of popular Mini-Mamoli kits. They are now caught up and have the whole line of kits available.

The latest news is that 11 kits of the original Mamoli line are now back in production and available. These are supposedly the same as the originals, just in new packaging. The kits are:

• MV20 HMS Beagle
• MV22 Blue Shadow
• MV33 Gretel
• MV35 Hunter
• MV37 Halifax
• MV39 HMS Bounty
• MV46 Black Prince
• MV48 Lexington
• MV52 HMS Bounty
• MV82 Blackbeard

Generally speaking, these are some of the smaller, less expensive of the Mamoli kits. I’m looking forwarding to seeing some of the larger kits come back like the Royal Louis, Friesland, and the Flying Cloud. However, those can still be found for sale from sellers like Ages of Sail, which has a stock of the original Mamoli kits.

In fact, except for the Gretel and HMS Bounty, they still have a stock of all the kits that have been re-released by Dusek. Still, it’s good to see these kits actually in production. Apparently, the parts are being produced by the same sources as when the Mamoli company was making the kits, so everything should mostly be the same.

I haven’t seen one of the new Mamoli MV series kits myself yet, so I can’t say. However, I’ve looked over the Mini-Mamoli kits and compared some of the originals with the Dusek releases and they are very much the same, except that the instructions appear to be photocopies of the of the original fold-out sheets. I don’t know if that’s the case with the larger model kit series, but I would doubt it, as you really want plans that you can lay out without having to piece them together.

I did notice one error on the box art, so don’t let that fool you or dissuade you from buying one of the kits. The box art mistakenly identifies the kit as having a “Pre-carved solid hull”. This was an accidental carryover from the Mini-Mamoli box art. These are, in fact, plank-on-bulkhead kits, just like the originals.

You can order these kits direct from Dusek Ship Kits. As I mentioned earlier, some online shops, like Cornwall Model Boats in the UK or Ages of Sail in the USA still have a stock of many Mamoli kits in their original form.

Advertisement

Mamoli Kits are Coming Back

Just heard it from a posting by Daniel Dusek on Model Ship World that he has closed a deal with the former owners of Mamoli to take over the old line of kits. As you may know, Mamoli had a big fire that completely shut them down (see Mamoli Fire post). The kits you still find on the Internet are existing stock from distributors’ warehouses, and are gradually disappearing and what’s left out there gets sold. That’s not to say that they are completely going to disappear for a while – there was a lot out there. But there are some kits that are more popular than others that may have disappeared completely.

 

Classic Mamoli kit Yacht Mary

Mamoli’s 42.5″ long Royal Louis

But Daniel Dusek, the owner of Dusek Ship Kits, in the Czech Republic, will be starting from scratch. Apparently nothing had survived the Mamoli fire. He’s brought out many new kits over the past couple years, and should be up to the task. However, it’s going to take time for him to redesign and reissue the kits. So, don’t expect to suddenly see Mamoli kits start showing up everywhere.

America’s Cup Yacht Puritan

He announced today that he will begin with the very successful Mini-Mamoli line. I imagine those smaller, easy-to-build kits will take much less time to develop, allowing him to maximize the number of products he can bring back. He didn’t indicate exactly which kits he will be releasing first, so don’t let the images in this post confuse you – they are just for reference purposes!

Mini Endeavour Yacht

Mini HMS Victory

Mini Clipper Cutty Sark

There were a lot of kits in the Mamoli product line, so Mr. Dusek has his work cut out for him. He’s suggesting an early Fall time frame for the first Mini-Mamoli kits. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, if you’re interested in checking out Dusek kits, I recommend visiting Ages of Sail, which is the U.S. importer of Dusek kits. Also, if  you just can’t wait for Mamoli kits to be rereleased, one place you can still find a supply of them is at Nature Coast Hobbies.

(All images are courtesy of Nature Coast Hobbies)