Maquettes Gerard Schmitt

Maquettes Gerard Schmitt (MGS) was a French manufacturer of traditional wood-and-metal-fitting ship model kits, founded and run by Gerard Schmitt from a workshop in Vaujours, near Paris, with the registered company based in nearby Villeparisis, Seine-et-Marne. A modeler who bought kits directly from him recalled "il avait son atelier à Vaujours et je prenais mes maquettes chez lui." French corporate registry records show the firm's INSEE status was closed for insufficient assets on 3 March 1992 and it was formally struck off (radiee) on 3 September 1996, meaning it has been defunct for decades and has no current official website. The company specialized in scale kits of historic sailing vessels and traditional French working craft, typically at 1/40 and 1/50 scale, alongside at least one small-craft/pleasure-launch subject. Known subjects include the privateer schooner Prince de Neufchatel (1/50), the pilot schooner L'Etoile (1/40), the Cotre Langoustier de Camaret (1927, 1/50), the corsair ship Le Tonnant (1793, 1/50), the barque/allège Saint Gilles of Arles (1877, 1/50), a Dutch koff-type vessel (1/50), the Thonier de Groix "Saint-Gildas" (1908, 1/50), and a small pleasure launch model called "Sabrina" (roughly 1/12). After the company's dissolution, several of its tooling and kit designs were reportedly carried on by other French wooden-kit makers; one forum poster referred to MGS and its successor as "Maquette Gérard Schmit et après Maquette Gamme Soclaine," and another confirmed the Camaret langoustier design was "reprise actuellement par la marque Soclaine," a French wooden-ship-kit specialist still operating today. Because MGS itself ceased operating decades ago, no verifiable current corporate website or logo could be found; the brand survives mainly through modeling-forum recollections, secondary-market kit listings, and French business registry records.