Two sides of a ship model?

You could also stick a big mirror behind the shelf and push the half-model up against it.

Rick

Link to article here

http://www.finescale.com/fsm/objects/pdf/just%20add%20water.pdf

Or go up the main page to Articles and down to ships

In my opinion there's nothing wrong whatever with making the sides of a ship model different - if the subject matter lends itself to that approach. 

The museum where I used to work has an enormous model, dating from the 1930s, of an ocean liner representing the sister ships President Hoover and President Coolidge.  The model, if I remember correctly, was built while the actual ships were under construction.  I'm sure there were minor differences between them in real life, but the model had the name President Hoover on one side of the bow and President Coolidge on the other.  Behind the scenes we called it the Hoolidge.

I have a vague recollection that Airfix originally issued its Concord kit with the markings of two different airlines, one on each side.  Why not?

rcboater wrote:

... you could build a model with the starboard side painted in camouflage, while the port side  is painted in peacetime gray.  If you're displaying the model on a mantle or shelf, only one side would be seen at a time.

I would think that mostly you would end up with an odd looking effect.  Camo will wrap on the superstructure, and stacks such that you would have a dividing line down the centerline.  Don't forget the decks.  A camoflaged ship will have blue of camo'ed decks whereas the peacetime ship would have wood or gray decks, again leaving you with the odd centerline demarcation.  The only way you would not see these effects would be to view from a direct broadside with your eye at the height of the main deck.  You probably would have different fits as well.  For example, a WWII Iowa had a zillion 20mm guns, wheras the postwar Iowas quickly lost them.  You also have different mast arrangements, which occur on the centerline, so you have to make a hard choice as to what fit you're portraying versus doing the wartime version on one side and the peacetime on the other side.

Still, if one were viewing it as a more instructional sort of a build, like a cutaway for example, there's no reason why you can't do it.  I would think though in that case the most effective display would be some sort of walk around type where you could look at one side and then the other.