Model Sailboat Sitemap

Introduction - Although other books on ship models have been published, the beginner has had no real manual or handbook to guide him in his work and answer his many questions. Plans for specific ships are obtained easily, but to translate these plans into a well-executed model is another question. The amateur without experience has had to experiment to find out what materials are best suited for the work, what tools should be used, and how the construction can be simplified. At best, however, experience is an expensive teacher.

01.Tools - Unlike most hobbies, ship model making requires few expensive tools. Almost every household, no matter how small, harbors the beginnings of a fine model maker's tool kit. The rest can be made, improvised, and bought as the work progresses.

02.Hulls - When you have obtained the plans for your ship model, your first job will be to construct the hull.

If your model is to be a replica of the original, its hull, above all things, must be carefully shaped according to the accurate hull lines given in the drawings. To do this in the quickest and easiest way, you must follow some standard method of procedure.

03.Small Parts - In addition to a carefully shaped hull, a ship model requires many small parts for the deck and rigging. While the model maker can display his own ingenuity and inventive ability in making these small fittings, there are certain methods, devised by experts, that will serve as a fine starting point for the work.

Three questions confront the ship modeler as he begins each small part. What material should be used? What does the particular part look like? And how shall it be made the easiest, quickest, and best way.

04.Trick Methods - Although accuracy and authenticity are important factors in model making, many of the more difficult details in the building of ship models can be obviated through the use of timesaving kinks and simplified methods of construction.

In most cases, ship models, especially those of sailing ships, are purely decorative pieces; effect rather than workability is the desired quality. How this effect is obtained is unimportant as long as the finished product gives the appearance of life and reality.

05.Rigging & Sails - Much of the beauty of a model sailing ship lies in its sails and rigging. To give a model the desired effect of grace and motion, the spars, lines, and sails must be carefully and delicately applied with an eye for exactness and trim seamanship. Many a perfect hull has been spoiled by careless work above the deck.

06.Decorating - In applying the decorations and finishing touches to a model, the craftsman should be guided by the type, nationality, and period of the ship. If your plans do not give the exact coloring, look up a historical description of the vessel.

Most ships built before the beginning of the sixteenth century were made largely of unpainted wood.

07.Mounting - Your final job in the construction of a model will be to provide it with some form of decorative mounting.

Of course, you can use the temporary support that served to hold the model during the rigging and decorating processes; but since it is not likely to be much more than two rough cradlelike supports mounted on a plain stick or board, it may not be in keeping with the trimness and beauty of the model.

08.Ship Novelties - Sooner or later every model maker feels that he would like to tackle the most popular and mysterious of ship model novelties a ship-in-a-bottle. To the uninitiated, the task of placing a tiny rigged ship in an ordinary quart bottle seems like nothing short of magic. Yet, with patience and determination, anyone who is handy with tools can make one of these interesting curiosities.

09.Galleon Model - With a little skill and patience, even the rankest amateur can produce in miniature a magnificent Spanish galleon.

The model depicted (Figs. 6 and 12) is not really intended to be any particular galleon, but it is a good sketch model of this type of ship as it actually existed. Every department store is flooded with so-called galleon models; they are not models at all, but merely decorations with a ship-model motif, and bear but little resemblance to any real ship.

10.Clipper Ship - In speed and beauty, few ships can compare with America's nineteenth century clippers. Their flowing curves and trim rigging made them the most beautiful ships sailing the seas.

It is little wonder then that they are a popular type of model. As a decoration, they embody everything that is desired grace, beauty, and life.

11.Racing Yacht - Although galleons, clipper ships, and barks serve as the subjects for most decorative models, there is another, perhaps simpler craft, that is gaining in popularity with ship modelers. Almost every ship model collection now boasts of at least one miniature of some famous racing yacht. Their flowing lines and trim expanse of snow-white canvas lend themselves well to decorative purposes.

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