| Most viewed - Display Models |
Waveney class lifeboat (miniature)994 views
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HMS Victory (Restoration)990 viewsThis family heirloom came to us with the fore topgallant mast and jib-boom badly shattered, plus a good deal of other rigging damage. After about a hundred hours very close work, she left our workshop looking like this. As much original material as possible was preserved and incorporated, and new material was carefully matched. It's quite hard to tell where the old ends and the new begins, which for a restoration is right and proper.
(Model by family builder, restored by John Davies)
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ACHILLES926 viewsThis lovely little display piece is a model of a fast New York schooner, circa 1835.
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Waveney class lifeboat (miniature)858 viewsPerhaps not quite a true scale model, but a very apealingh miniature, which makes a pleasant bookshelf model, not too demanding of display space.
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HMS Victory744 viewsNelson's famous flagship needs no introduction. With her complex hull form, three decks of gun ports, intricate rig and ornate decoration, she is one of the most complex and demanding wooden boat model projects possible.
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Bounty (wreck... saved!)741 viewsYou'd never believe this fine model was rescued from the horrible bundle of sticks in the previous picture!
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Trent class lifeboat (miniature)729 views
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Small Colin Archer; deck detail714 viewsEven on a small display model, we try to get the detail right. It's surprising how many models show the sails hoisted and the lines coming down to a pin rail or cleat and cut off there. Imagine you're on the real boat. You go to lower a sail. You cast off the rope; the end vanishes up the mast...... that's why pin rails, as here, have the bights of the ropes coiled down and hanging from them.
(Model by John Davies)
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Shamrock V (J Class)702 viewsMarking the end of one era and the beginning of a new one, "Shamrock V" was the last Americas Cup challenger built for Sir Thomas Lipton, who had tried, unsucessfully, to regain the cup, for many years. She was also the first British J class yacht.
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Trent class lifeboat (miniature)694 viewsNot quite as detailed as some of the larger and more detailed lifeboat models, but not nearly so expensive, either, nor is she so demanding of display space.
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SYLVIA688 viewsThese coastal trading barges used to feed London. I have an old photograph of the Pool of London, absolutely full of them. The riverside warehouses which are now fashionable apartments used to be the city's granary.
The Thames Barge was an astonishingly efficient sailing craft. They had a capacity of up to about a hundred and eighty tons. The crew consisted of a man, a boy and a dog. It was said the dog's job was to bite the boy if he didn't move fast enough. With their shallow draft and leeboards, they could sail in waters where few other craft could venture.
There is a very pleasant pub at Snape, in Suffolk, called the "Plough and Sail", a name which neatly encapsulates the essence of the Suffolk agricultural economy until the advent of the large articulated lorry. It is well inland, up a narrow channel. The barges would work up it to the warehouse. The Snape channel was known to bargemen as one of the most difficult. Then they would load up with corn, slip down-channel, and sail through the narrow channels, or swatchways, that threaded between the many sandbanks of the Thames estuary, going where no other commercial craft would dare to go. If the channel had shifted and they ran aground, their massive timbers and immensely strong construction would save them until the tide rose again. Then it would be up the London River to discharge.
This model, the "Sylvia", was built for a descendant of the Shrubsall family, who were one of the most famous families of barge builders. He now lives in the U.S.A., and his model occupies an honoured place in his house.
(model by John Davies)
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Small Colin Archer, Port Bow view.685 viewsBuilt to a tight deadline for a wedding present, she makes a pretty picture.
(Model by John Davies)
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