miniature merchant ship models

[Pete Graham]

Re hobbies ....does anyone have an interest in scratch building miniature waterline merchant ship models in the scale 1" to 100ft .....or in my case !" to 75ft. ( slightly larger and not such a strain on tired eyes and antique finger joints ) !!.

Pete.

[Davygross]

Currently building a model of a liberty ship, acquired by Blue Star after WWII Pete, but 1” to 75’, wow !!! Don’t think my eyes, (or fingers) could cope with that, my ship is 60” long and on a 1” - 7.5’ scale and probably has bigger lifeboats ! Would love to tackle something that small but age and dexterity against me ��
Davy. G

[Pete Graham]

Hello Davy, I received your reply and many thanks but during the enjoyable process of responding to you my text disappeared somewhere and I can't retrace it. Poor navigation I think on my part !!

Would you be kind enough to let me know if you received anything at all.?

Pete

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[j.sabourn]

#3 disappearing texts same happens to me at times , this morning trying to go on site all sorts of foreign writing trying to put me off. Am not conversant with computers but get the feeling that there are others up to mischief. Maybe im over doing this but dont think so JS

[Donald Carton]

Hello Shipmate
I cannot help you with that scale
I have a 1/48 model of the F S N Co ship MV Northuberland and it sails I sailed it from Birkenhead to Liverpool landing stage .
Keep safe Don Carton

[Pete Graham]

Hi Davy,
Sorry for interruption to my previous reply.....but just to continue with a WOW from this end re your construction of a five ft. long Liberty ship. Many of the old Tyneside shipyards , and no doubt others as well. had wonderful shipmodel displays in their entrance halls and I would guess that most of them would be built to something like your scale. Could you give me some idea of how you approach a project of this size and are you able to obtain the appropriate scale size ship fittingss or do you manufacture everything yourself. I am not aware of anyone in the market place who has on offer fittings of any type to my adopted mini scale and same goes for the 1" to 100 ft scale as well.
You mention lifeboats.....I have to say that these cause me a lot of headache , the average length of one my boats is about 8 mm , beginning life as a 2 to 3 mm square section of suitable wood, usually limewood.

I am currently building the old P and O liner. "Viceroy of India" , in fact most of my interest is from the era of about early 20th century up to the 1960s When, dare I say, ships looked like ships!!

Best Wishes

Pete.

[Davygross]

Hi Pete
I bought the pre formed hull and a few other fittings, (hull still had a lot of preparation work needed) but the rest is made from sheets of plastic, perspex, brass wire, bits of wooden coathanger, toothpicks, etc.. etc.. you’ll know the form. Lifeboats and plans I got from an old kit with some bits left in it (Deans Marine I think ?) so it’s not truly a scratch built job. If I can work out how to forward some pics I will, but haven’t had much success with that. I’ve been at it for about 4 years (retirement project) and when (if) finished plan to try a true scratch build of a Clyde Puffer, I’ve got a mini workshop in the garage, small lathe, bandsaw, sander, etc.. so quite looking forward to tackling that. I was at Loch Lomond this year and went aboard the restoration project ‘Maid of the Loch’ they had a ship model exhibition on board and some beautiful models of all sizes from which I (hope) to poach some inspiration from

Cheers, Davy. G

[Pete Graham]

Hi Davy,
Quite a project you have there and very interested to hear something about how you have tackled the job and can well understand where 4 years have gone and more to come!. Ships' fittings are always a topic in their own right and do tax one's ingenuity.....and very pleasantly I might say. My wife's sewing box has been a happy hunting ground. Absolutely great to have a workshop and access to a few power tools ........ a bandsaw in particular.
Apart from hand held tools like small saws, a block plane and a few few needle files , my kit includes a multiple selection scalpel- like knives and wee drills of all sizes made from John Lewis needles with the eyes snipped off at a slant near the base....then Araldited into dowels.. I have always made (when necessary) glass cases to go with my models. Talk about serendipity, one day I discovered in a charity shop a stack of old and forlorn paintings in rather tatty frames. But what a gold mine of excellent and very cheap thin glass. They also had display boards with all sorts of costume necklaces made from the tiniest linked chain up to stuff like anchor cable !!. However, not much good to me !....my anchor cables are two lengths of very fine wire twisted tightly together
A few years ago I made a Liberty Ship for a friend " Maple Bank" , a great wee model but somehow later lost my drawings. However , recently re found, together with drawings for a T2 tanker. I served on two of these with Esso . Great ships.
A puffer is a fine choice as your next project.....they have a fine shape and much interesting detail. Whisky Galore was screened (again) recently on Beeb and very enjoyable..

I have a couple of "pics" of cased models. I aim to attempt sending them to you but will do this as a separate function later. I don't want to lose my message !!

Best Wishes

Pete

[Doc Vernon]

Hello Pete
Please follow this link for uploading Pics to your Posting.
Follow it to the exact ways. Make sure the Pics are not more than the Required sizing and no more than 5 per Post!
Cheers

How do I add a Picture to my Post (merchant-navy.net)

[Les Woodard]

not a model builder as such but have put a couple of wooden ones together. That last one turned out real good and had it on display in the shed until the son spat the dummy out while working on his car and threw a pipe wrench at the car. It bounced of the windscreen and landed on the model. Murphys law cam about. No damage to the windscreen but the model ended up in the garbage bin. Anyway the reason for this post other than a laugh. I found a set of oxy tourch cleaners real handy to use a miniture drills. I used them to clean out all the blocks so that the ropes would run through them smoothly. Just some thing that one of you might find handy. I had the CIG brand that came in a little round container with individual cleaners of different sizes and they also do them in larger sizes