Kingston Mouldings has been around for a good many years now, and perhaps because of this, many people seem to think that the business is rather larger than it actually is. In truth, it is no more than a one man operation these days, and for much of the time it isn’t even a full time affair. The founder, principal and everything else besides, is Robin Whitmarsh. A model maker from the age of about eight, initially mostly model planes though sometimes boats and cars as well, Robin learned industrial model making and the fiberglass business at leading companies in the race car industry, initially making tank-testing models of high speed boat hulls and also aerodynamic racing car models for wind tunnel testing, both of which had to be 100% accurate for obvious reasons, then full size body patterns for everything up to Formula One cars, and subsequently moving into the technical side of full size GRP boat hull and racing and road car body production. Things had calmed down just a little in the latter phase, but he still came to the conclusion that whilst the exacting standards and long hours weren’t too much of a problem, doing them for anyone but yourself was, and the rest as they say is history.

For some years, Kingston Mouldings turned out hundreds of model boat hulls, model glider fuselages and similar mouldings, mainly for model kit manufacturers though to a steadily increasing extent, for individual mail order customers all over the world, but a decision to abandon mass production and down-size several years ago has led to the present set-up, a small workshop near the family home on the south coast of England.

So this is Kingston Mouldings today, a modest little operation turning out fairly small quantities of high quality fiberglass model boat hulls, an impressive proportion of which are exported to customers in all corners of the World. Robin makes all the hull masters himself, as well as the moulds, scale drawings, and every one of the production GRP hulls too. Much of his spare time is occupied by working on his own model yachts and steamboats and sailing them, and if you get the answerphone when you ring, try again later, he’s probably gone for a walk with his menagerie of Cairn terriers. Terribly sad to lose Jamie a few months ago, but with the recent addition of young Dani, the Cairn complement is now back to full strength.

*********************

PLEASE NOTE that the products shown and described on this site are the only ones available, so if whatever design you're after isn't listed in the column on the left, then sorry to disappoint, but I don't make it, so you'll have to search somewhere else. And there's more bad news. Doing the necessary research and making a prototype hull takes a great many hours of skilled work, as does making a production mould, all of which would be in addition to the cost of the finished hull of course. This means that one-off items are hugely expensive, several hundred pounds, or more usually thousands, even for something relatively small and simple. For this reason, there's little point in asking me to turn out 'specials' or one-offs for you. For what I would have thought were very obvious economic reasons, I can't even consider them, and this also applies to larger or smaller versions of any of the designs I do list, and this is for exactly the same reasons. To emphasize this very important point, if you can't find what you're after on this site, then I don't make it, so I just can't help you.

I hope that what's written above won't deter anyone from phoning, writing or e-mailing to ask more sensible questions though. It's just that having to explain to enquirers, often several times in a single week, that the hundreds of hours of skilled work that they must surely realise they are asking for, to have any kind of special item made, is inevitably going to cost a great deal of money, many times more than they seem to expect apparently. Although I do try to be patient, it gets rather wearing, but I'll say again, I'm always happy to answer any reasonable enquiries.

Have a look at the NEWSLETTER page, which is constantly updated with information on all the latest developments,

please take note of the latest information on postage/carriage charges.

If an e-mail dialogue box doesn't open when you click on the info@kingstonmouldings.com e-mail link at the top right corner of this page, or you get an error message of some kind, that means that the e-mail programme or web browser on your computer isn't compatible with mine. Type either the address above or kingston.rw@ntlworld.com into whatever e-mail programme you use, just as you would to send any other e-mail. I'm usually able to respond to e-mails within 24 hours or so, but bear in mind that I do go away from time to time, both on holiday and on other business. Also, I'm often out for short periods during the day, or too occupied to pick up the phone, so e-mail is often the best way for any enquiries, especially anything needing some thought, or more than a brief answer. I receive a lot of e-mails and try to respond to all of them, but inevitably the odd one gets missed or lost, so if you don't receive a reply within a day or two please resend it, and don't leave the subject box blank. If you do that, my ISP and anti-virus sometimes treats quite innocent messages as spam, and banishes them to a spam folder where they can be lost forever.

This site is regularly updated, most recently on May 18th 2013.

Kingston Mouldings

411 Ringwood Road, Parkstone,

Poole, Dorset BH12 4LX.

Phone +44 (0)1202-744716