Imai Catalan ship photos

Very interesting - thanks for posting the photos.

If this is an exact copy of the Mataro ship it's almost certainly not accurate proportionally - contemporary paintings of ships from this period (and many later ones) usually tended to be out of proportion and exaggerate prominent features like the masts and sails. I'd guess the real ship would have a longer length-to-width ratio and a shorter mast with a smaller top? Still a beautiful model and a very interesting subject for a kit!

Wonderful model and built-up despite the age! Decades ago a friend of mine had this kit and I was completely overwhelmed by the shape of this craft. I had never thought a ship could be as fat as this but I actually love these lines. Almost elegant in its round-ness!

As I pointed out in the other Imai model thread, Iam not completely sure if the origin of this kit - the Mataro model- can be regarded as a real scale model with authentic lines. Votive ship models were sometimes quite stylized or idealised, especially when it comes to hull lines.

Heller had a model of this ship too, but they took their Nina/Pinta hull as the base, so out comes a slimmer ship with perhaps more believable lines, even though it is just the typical "Heller stunt" to make more money off the existing molds.

Still, I like the IMAI model a lot more, and now that I see these pictures here, I am quite tempted to buy and build it - it is obviously a great display piece no matter if it is a rendition of a real ship or a model in a museum.

The Imai plastic kit is available from Aoshima, but there is also an ex-IMAI wooden ship in 1/30 scale, currently re-issued by Woody Joe.  

The model is a copy of a votive model that hung in a church in Spain (I think Spain). There is a drawing of the model in Bjorn Landstrom's book "the Ship" . In terms of shipbuilding if a ship was built in this shape I would guess it would roll like a pig and with the length/beam proportions would probably sail at an extremely slow speed with a lot of trouble to keep it on course. Maybe John Tilley can give more insight on this.

Julian

Has anybody actually floated one of these models and tested the seaworthyness (word?) of the design? They look so short and fat, and where exactly is the waterline. Compared to say, a viking ship they look most unseaworthy. Cool model though.