Practical ship models

And to kick this off, I will nominate the Schooner Yacht 'America' as a splendid kit in 1/48 scale.  Why?  Because in this size it will allow RC, as well as static building; it is as classic as you can imagine, and is historic enough to gain general acceptance as well.... Who's next?

Lots of things might be spiffy.

Oyster sharpie, lobstering boats, harbor tugs (a towboat would be really nice) maybe some vessels that have decent "right now" documentation, Star of India, Ellissa, the Mystic Seaport ships and the like.

Shoot, just a set of brown water craft would be nice--LCM-6 would make a great basis for a multi-kit release all by its lonesome.

What about one of the best looking Liners with an unfortunate pass. I think a 1-350 kit of the Andrea Doria would really sell well. Everyone seems to forget about Merchant Ships, but she was a beautiful Vessel and the saga of her sinking and the rescue effort will twig some old salts imagination about that fateful encounter with the Stockholm. So on that basis alone, I believe it would be a viable option to tool up a kit of the Doria.

Greetings:

 

How about someone do a 1/350 scale model of the liner Aquitanaia? She had a very long career and was one of the few liners that had 4 working funnels instead of 3 working funnels and one dummy one like the Titanic. She was a beautiful ship.

 

Michael Lacey

You guys are failing the justification requirements stated at the top.

 

Who's heard of Aquitania? I mean, other than a few liner fans and a USS Shaw historian (Me). Better would be to see what the sales figured for Revell's 1/400 Queen Mary 2 kit were and go from there. I would see Queen Mary I as a viable option before Aquitania and as justification I would offer:

1) long history and well-known name

2) Still a living population of people who have sailed on her who have fond memories

3) She still exists and you have gift shop tie-ins (probably not a significant figure though)

4) Prewar, wartime, and post-war configurations so that you can sell multiple boxings and receive more profit from the initial investment. 

Bingo!  That's what I am talking about for a PRACTICAL model, i.e., one which a model manufacturer has a chance of actually making some money on because the subject has a wide appeal (the nonsense about LCM's above, etc is just going entirely the wrong direction).  Perhaps the boat that won the America cup from the Americans, 'Australia.'  Keep thinking!!

Perhaps the boat that won the America cup from the Americans, 'Australia.'

  That's a model I might be tempted to buy!   "America", as an RC sailer, in 1/48?? That would only be 26" over all. In 1/24, She'd be 45" at the waterline. There might be a large enough population who remember the Cheryl Anne, from "Harbormaster". Gilligan's one-hour-cruise-boat, Minnow. Tiki, from "Adventures in Paradise". "Orca". The freighter from the original King Kong. Maybe a re-release, or new release of NS Savannah. Any of the maine coast "dude" schooners, as is, and/or as they were. Any of the prominent east coast "work boats" (other than the skipjacks, which have already been kitted). Perhaps a series of Mississippi River "craft", steamboats, or current Tug-and-Barge. Perhaps a series of famous motor yachts.....or, ships known to have dissappeared in the Bermuda triangle.

Maybe you are right, 1/24 or perhaps 1/32 would be better for 'America'......

Here's a thought:

Many of the newer cruise ships operating out of the US, by Carnival, Royal Carribean, Disney, etc., were built at the Fincantieri yards in Italy have very similar general layouts.

With a few superstructure details and some paint & decals you could build a lot of the current cruise line "fleet" using the same basic hull.  Kind of like NASCAR on water... ;)

Mark

 

 http://www.mightymac.org/cgcmackinaw.htm

Coast Guard Cutter/Icebreaker Mackinaw

I would love to see sailing ships but they are the red-headed stepchildren of even the plastic ship modeling fraternity. However, the most likely candidates would be sailing ships tied in with a movie (HSM Surprise -- I know, it wouldn't be accurate however they did it) or sailing ships in famous engagements and/or that were captured and pressed into another nation's service and thus could be of interest to modelers from both countries (USS Chesapeake, HMS Macedonian, French 74s). Famous ships like USS Constitution and HMS Victory have lasting appeal, which is why they have been continuously sold for decades.

But much more likely are the USN postwar destroyer types that served in a number of navies and could be sold worldwide with some modifications: Gearing FRAMs, CF Adams destroyers, Knox-class frigates. We already see the viability of this with the new 1/350 Perry class, which I plan to buy. It wouldn't be difficult to put together an accessories kit of cold-war USN weapons and radars that could be used to customize these types to make them look like "your" navy's variant. I hope we see a 1/350 Gearing FRAM because I think it would sell well.

Some of those ships are already available in model form in the scales suggested.

Schooner AMERICA in 1:48 - yes it's wood plank on frame.

Tugs CAROL MORAN and EDMUND J. MORAN in 1:48 scale - in plastic, okay fiberglass is a plastic.  You have to rovide some of the materials yourself, like decks, ladders, prop.

There are a couple of lobsterboat kits available: Midwest; Bluejacket has one in wood and another if fiberglass.

 

 

 

 

Perhaps i should have been more specific to PLASTIC kits.  With wood 'kits,' really all that is needed is a good set of plans to build any vessel.  As for 'America,' actually Revell made an excellent model of America in approximately 1/48 scale, but it has long been out of production.  It could be built as either a static model, or it could sail as well, though a much larger version would be much better at it, particularly in 1/32, or 1/24 scale.  When you consider the ready availablility of quite sophisticated micro RC gear (as seen in the various RC Tamiya tanks, etc.) America would seem a natural for RC treatment, as it is universally known and admired, and would make a very elegant display model as well (unlike some tugboat or icebreaker, which you must admit, have a VERY small following of fans).......

i to would like to see some ships and boats that have history. the lcm 6 is a good example . does anyone have any idea how many of these workhorses still survive today ? i think it would be easy to say hundreds are working as towboats . tugs ,garbage scows , construction barges and one i am partial to ,oil spill skimming boats .if you would like to see a skimmer conversion in action , of course its a still shot try the san francisco chronicle 1995 and the cape mohican spill in the bay. the boat in the picture is the squeegee , her sister is the sponge and both are outfotted with booms and lori brush recovery systems . those systems are expensive but perfectly suited for the lcm 6 or 8 .

as a ship modeler primarily, i have often wondered why no andrea doria . the ship market though is ,if you believe the market gurus here in the usa , theres not enough interest to do a whole lot of the ships we hunger for . i guess there,s less of us than car modelers ,etc. the america sailing yaght was done by revell many years ago . they,ve re released quite a few but for some reason the america is not one of them . pyro did a fair gertude thebaud ( a type similar to the bluenose ) but i haven,t seen it in years either . if you look lindberg is re releasing a lot of the old pyro stuff . don,t balk , with some judicious work they can be award winners .they are also re doing some of their old stuff , the shrimp boat ,the cape class coast guard cutter and others . my problem is they don,t show up much in texas . oh , the lindberg minesweeper that they may pop back out with makes a swell conversion to an oceanographic research vessel or an oil spill command and control vessel . i must admit though i like to scratchbuild so i do a lot of specific ship types in h.o. scale . the lindberg blue devil destroyer just begs for superdetailing and i once made this a basis for a conversion to a gearing fram 1 unit . i had to do it from memory , but that,s alright , as the frams ,even if they were sisters in kind never completely duplicated each other              tankerbuilder

if you want some (right now) vessels ,wander up arkansas way and at lock and dam #4 (little rock ) you will get up and close and personel with all the tow boats you want and they don,t mind of you take pictures just DON,T ask to go aboard as their insurance won,t allow it .     tankerbuilder  p.s. remember corpus and galveston are ports too .

i liked the ice breaker pic and if you search carefully the old revell ice breaker is coming out of revell of germany in spurts , tamiya , as well i believe has a japanese ice breaker research ship out there now .    tankerbuilder

hey sumter  !!!! check out the NEW 1/72 scale motor yacht that revell of germany has out . it is nothing short of modern mega yacht style and the price ain,t to bad either .     tankerbuilder

searat , you need to check out the latestSEAWAYS SHIPS IN SCALE MAG . it,s available through kalmbach . the latest issue deals with the H.M.S.SURPRISE and yes such a ship did exist. she was the british version of a frigate in the napoleonic era , well the real ship type was quite well known back then . all patrick o,brian did was give his hero a little leeway on changing her rigging ,BUT , the changes wrought were not unheard or . she had been captured from the french and as each ship type by different navies was taken as a prize , her new captain ,if he could ,would change the rig to be  a better sailer ,depending where he thought changes might be tried . anyway the to surprises they talk about are as follows ,1 static and 2 one VERY large r.c. version almost 12 ,did i say ?12 feet long and the rigging is historicaly correct .   tankerbuilder

rayers,  besed on what i,ve been able to find out , if you want a fram gearing , you,ll have to go to possibly a resin kit and start from there. i know this is not much help ,but, check out squadron catalogues and really bug ylhs for catalogue ordering .   tankerbuilder

tracy  you hit the nail on the head . i worked early in my maritime career and i know there,s lots of folks who had their honeymoon cruise on the MATSON LINES LURLINE and the MATSONIA . there has NEVER been a model of either one ,but , revell did do a matson ship which is back ,the HAWAIIAN PILOT , she,s a c3 class freighter . the old PRESIDENT WILSON from AMERICAN PRESIDENT LINES is back (lindberg ) buy two and take the middle 2 inches out of one ,add those two inches to the other hull and decks and change the stacks. you,ll  have a pretty close model of the LURLINE , and , no , they never even sold toy ships in the gift shop that resembled either one    tankerbuilder  p.s. the last time i saw the president wilson , she,d been converted to a container ship servicing alaskan ports

Greetings:

I have a couple of suggestions and one I'm surprised no one has made yet as it should have a lot of interest. How about a model of the Black Pearl from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies? It wouldn't have to be in one of the large 1/96 scales but could be in one of the old box scales like Revell used to do. It could be simplified with those ratlines that come on a sheet and are just cut out. That way it would be easy enough for a beginner and people with more experience could just discard them like they usually do and make their own shrouds and ratlines. I saw at a local pet shop the other day an action aerating ornament of Captain Jack Sparrow with cutlass in hand fighting Davey Jones next to a treasure chest. This thing was huge and would fill the bottom of a 10 gallon aquarium. It sold for around $55. Surely a model of the Black Pearl would sell in the $25 - $35 range. My other suggestion is a model of one of those crab fishing trawlers that are used to catch Alaskan King crab as shown in the series the Dealiest Catch. One of those ought to be simples enough to do and the show is widely carried on cable.

 

Michael Lacey 

 

All excellent suggestions caramonraistlin!!!  Good to see SOMEONE is thinking in terms of the original specs of this thread!  I for one am AMAZED that none of the model manufacturers didn't do some sort of a deal with Disney to produce the 'Black Pearl!'  It is such a natural choice with a HUGE collection of fans worldwide, that it just seems unnatural that this has not come out as a model!!  And yes, one of the Alaskan crab boats would be a good choice too!

Tracy White earlier suggested HMS Surprise, and I know of at least one RC kit out there, but it is BIG, and it will cost you about $3000.00, so that doesn't really fall into the scope of the vast majority of modellers.  Now if 'Surprise' were to be produced as a display model at either 1/96 scale, or perhaps 1/150 scale, that would be a different matter altogether.  That said, sailing ships are for some reason 'persona non grata' among the model manufacturers, but perhaps with the right encouragement, at least Black Pearl and HMS Surprise might gain their interest... 

Searat12:

Do you or any other members of this forum have any info. on the Alaskan crab boats? Last winter I thought I could either kitbash or scratchbuild one of them but really couldn't find much info. I even looked on the web sites for each of the ships thinking maybe they sold a model or at least had plans or sketches of them but they didn't. Are these ships converted fishing trawlers or are they ordered specially built? One can see all the minute details for them from watching the shows so it would be fairly easy to super detail a basic hull. Does anybody know?

 Thank you

Michael Lacey

I'm pretty sure the crab boats are very much purpose-built, but not being a fan of them myself, you will have to get the details elsewhere.  Seems to me Heller produced a couple models that might be modified to suit... 'Bodasteinur' in 1/200 scale might be best suited, but 'Le Suroit' might work too...

Searat12

Thank you. I'll take a look at the kits you mentioned.

 

 

Michael Lacey

In case you didn,t know ,the AURORA , BLACK FALCON , pirate ship was a decent (very detailable ) model of a ship type . The companies seem to have dropped the ball . What about a commemorative version of the CALYPSO , or a larger version of the LE SUROIT (she was involved in the titanic discovery I believe ) The companies want to know the model they invest in will sell . That is what the problem is . The people who advise them (read ,BEANCOUNTERS ) don,t really know the PLASTIC model ship market or they would make them . I have always thought that AMERICAN companies could do it ,After all we have two coasts don,.t we .????? Heres a thought , wouldnt it be nice to see a plastic MONTEREY fishing boat or a better model of some of the famous american yachts .? How about a plastic CANADIANA (this vessel took summer tourists from BUFFALO N.Y. to CRYSTAL BEACH, ONTARIO in the summer  . She was a sidewheeler (sponson decked ) converted to screw steamer She was a site on the lake erie waterfront for over thirty five years . How about some Great Lakes Freighters ??? The only ones out there are multi media and VERY , VERY expensive. The BLACK FALCON has come back as an aquarium sunken shipwreck aerator . OH WELL    tankerbuilder                    

Again, it IS important that the model company has some chance of making money with a model, otherwise they won't produce it (and that means selling thousands of kits, not just a few hundred!).  So you can't really fault the 'bean counters' too much in that regard, and that is why there is very little chance of any of the ships you mentioned being produced as a plastic model.  However, the 'Black Pearl' suggestion is an excellent one, and frankly, I can't understand why some company hasn't done one (perhaps Disney is cutting up rough over royalties, but that's the only reason I can think of!).  The Aurora Black Falcon was OK for its day (1950's), but totally unacceptable today.