From a telphone call that I had today from the owner of Mountfleet Models, he will issue a comprehensive statement in due course, once the damage has been properly assessed by himself and the insurers.

It would seem at this stage that the fire was just very, very unfortunate and not deliberate by arsonists. I understand that the fire started at night and just before dawn. It was also very fortunate the fire did not reach his family house, although there was some heat damage to its UPVC windows.

The fire did however damage or destroy much of the tooling required to make the kits. I assume that would include the moulds for the whitemetal castings amongst other items, hence the request for complete kits, so as to use existing castings as replacement masters for new rubber moulds.

On behalf of Model Boats magazine, I wish Mountfleet Models well at this very difficult time for them.

Paul Freshney

Editor