Stephens and Kenau (The Model Shipyard)

Stephens and Kenau, trading as The Model Shipyard, is a South African company based in Mossel Bay on the Southern Cape coast. The firm states it is the only designers and builders of the STEPHENS & KENAU™ range of model ships in the entire world, and its studio is located within the Mossel Bay Maritime Museum complex, part of the Mossel Bay Maritime Museum complex where a full size replica of the Bartholomew Diaz Caravel is permanently on display. Visitors can observe the craftsmen at work, since the studio is designed in such a way that one can walk through and watch craftsmen at work. The company is known for large-scale, museum-quality, fully built (not kit-form) wooden sailing ship models rather than mass-market kits, produced entirely to order. Notable subjects in their range include Bluenose, Alabama, Cutty Sark, Eagle, Flying Cloud, Gorch Fock, Bounty, Endeavour, Surprise, Victory, King of the Mississippi, Mystique, San Francisco, Santa Maria, Thermopylae, Constitution, and Victoria, alongside other famous vessels such as HMS Bounty, HMS Surprise, and USS Constitution. Pricing is not fixed but instead reflects labor and materials, as the prices of their models are determined by the number of hours spent and materials used. Each commission is treated as a bespoke, documented piece rather than a standard product: every model ship is registered in the name of the owner, and a certificate of authenticity and registration is issued with every ship model. The company frames its craft within a long historical tradition, noting that the art of model ship building is as old as maritime history itself, with plans of proposed new vessels historically requiring a fully detailed scale model for admiralty approval, many of which still survive centuries later.

Kits

	Kit	Ship	Scale	Status
	Amsterdam Model Ship	Amsterdam (VOC ship)	—	Available