December 2022 Newsletter

Hello again! The end of this year beckons, and what a busy one it has been in so many ways. We wish you well, and offer many thanks for all the support we have received in bringing new and old ships to you.

We welcome feedback on the newsletter as well as items mentioned below. You can amend your details, subscribe or remove yourself from this mailing list by using the links at the bottom of the page.

We regularly update the two ‘Releases’ pages on the website. There’s New Models and former Mountford Stock pages. We will continue to update them as our plans develop, ships sell out and new items are introduced.

We have completed a wide range of amazing ships including the CVA 01 Carrier, Ulyanovsk Carrier, USS Midway. USS Supply, USS Oriskany and so many more. We have also made HMS Forth in both guises, HMS Blake, HMS Belfast in two eras, USS Simon Lake and USS John Glenn plus a variety of floating docks. We now have some Kaiser class oilers and have been listing various white metal aircraft and helicopters too.

When commissioning new ships, it is a lottery of how many to make and in which versions. For example, our Spirit Class ferries have the Herald of Free Enterprise as most popular, followed by her TT sisters and then the versions in blue. The Shetland ferries in ‘Magnus the Viking’ livery have been much better sellers than those in their earlier livery. Our pricing structure with Special Offers or Blue Monday sales are our way of dealing with stock variation.

We are proud of all our models but prefer them to be on display somewhere where they can be appreciated. One common factor is that they are all hand-made and therefore in limited quantities.

Back to the Falklands ships, we have still to release RFA Blue Rover and HMS Exeter. Both have had new tooling, are cast, and in production. We expect to collect these just before Christmas.

Next year we shall also release the Type 42 Batch 2 as a generic model.

We were able to make a small number of HMS Bristol that quickly sold out, so we decided to delay remastering into metal. She was unique and has been made before in model form, so that is the only F40 model to have a very short run.

In late November we released our upgraded model of the RFA Fort Class. Our wonderful designer has improved and remade all the metal parts and we now have Fort Austin, Fort Grange, Fort Rosalie, ENS Luxor and ENS Abu Simbel to share with you.

2023 will bring our current ferries back into stock, and we hope to make the new Devonport Basin 5 project which will cover two A3 boards.

Newly mastered in metal and with brand new decals are our three Brittany Ferries. Bretagne will be the first to dock, possibly this month.

We have had some expressions of interest already, but a few more would help us put DB5 into action as it incurs a large capital outlay. It is planned to be in three parts which will stand alone and fit next to our Basin 2 and 3 kits which are back in stock..

Ship Shows

We attended several Ship Shows this year; it was lovely to meet some of you in person!

On 30th July 2023 we’ll be at the Lincoln Ship Show.

Watch this space for news of our other travels in 2023 as nothing else is confirmed at the moment.

That’s all the news for now. Thank you for all your support and interest over the years.

Yours in model ships,

Clive and Dave Newman.

13th December 2022