Building Ships in H.O. ( 1/87 )
Okay ;
Good question . Why this scale ? The answer is simple .If you like , say , paddle Steamers from the 1860s in America .All the parts you need for detailing are available in the Walthers Catalogue .
Tankers ? Again the Walthers catalogue . Same with any kind of workboat or passenger vessel out there . there is a caveat though . If you want to do a full sized cruize ship or container-ship to that scale , you better have the space.
A 1/87 passenger ship , say , the size of the S.S.United States would be about eight Feet long !or longer , I haven't done the math . I do know a half sized one (lengthwise) I did for Just Trains in Concord , Ca , years ago was almost five foot long .
The sheer beauty of this scale for smaller vessels , is the amount of detail you can get in areas mostly ignored in smaller models . The Cornerstone line is a good example .They have a Rail-Road Tug and Car Barge plus the shore aprons . Now this Tug can be built as a regular tug or a tall wheelhouse railroad tug .
Because of it's size the wheelhouse and deckhouse areas can be brought alive with detailing and H.O.Scale figurines . The Scratch-Built Inland Waters tankers I do , all have detailed modernized wheelhouses with removeable roofs to show all the detail inside . And you can build in such a way as to show internal details on however many decks you want .
I have one under construction ( framing stage ) that will even have the engineering and crew spaces in it . Plus a partially detailed cargo area .
So you see there is a lot you can do in this scale . Even to pleasure boats and such .