Macro? Models?

Got a spare 37.5 thousand for a 1:48 scale Fletcher? 

http://www.fineartmodels.com/pages/product.asp?content_area=3&sub_area=11&product_area=203

Fletcher-Class Destroyer, USS Nicholas 1:48

Scale :	1:48
Release :	2005
Limited Edition :	5
Price :	$37,500
Model Size :	96"L x 10"W x 26"H
Base Type :	Black Walnut
Base/Case Size :	TBD
Availability :	1 Available

This thing is amazing. The only thing I would call a flaw is that it is so perfect. The 5" guns are all there inside the turrets, hiding. It is screaming for a wash to accent the shadows and a more realistic national ensign. But, WOW!

I'm not sure I quite understand the initial question.  If you're looking for a kit to build a large-scale model of a sailing ship - good luck.  About the biggest one I can think of off the top of my head is the Calder/Jotika H.M.S. Victory, on 1/72 scale.  I haven't seen it in person, but on the basis of several reviews and photos it looks like a beautiful kit.  It's also quite expensive:  over $1,000 in the U.S.

Modern warship modelers have more to choose from along those lines; several companies, primarily those specializing in operating, radio-control models, offer kits that, on the basis of what little I know about such things, look very good indeed.

If you want to admire some finished large-scale sailing ship models, the places to look are the maritime museums.  I see your time zone is listed as "-0 GMT;" I guess that means you're in England.  The National Maritime Museum at Greenwich has, arguably, the best ship model collection in the world.  (Only a relatively small percentage of it is on exhibit at any time, but that percentage will keep you busy.)  The old "Admiralty," or, more correctly, "Navy Board" models of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are magnificent.  Another fine model collection is in the Science Museum, in South Kensington.  It's the home, for  instance, of C. Nepean Longridge's famous 1/48-scale models of the Victory and the Cutty Sark.

There are quite a few other fine exhibitions of ship models around Britain.  I haven't seen enough of them to suggest which are better than others, but Greenwich and South Kensington are excellent places to start.

A. Im in Lancaster County Pennsylvania USA (eastern Standard Time)

B. Not looking to purchase, just to look at and admire. (old sailing ships not modern warships)

I find it exceedingly hard to find any photos of such models online anywhere. Thus the reason for the Post.

I guess I don't understand the terminology FSM uses in the "member profiles."  I assumed "GMT" meant "Greenwich Mean Time," and that "0 GMT" meant the member lived in the same time zone as Greenwich.  (I live in North Carolina; my profile says I live in "-6 GMT," which makes sense.  Pennsylvania and North Carolina are in the same time zone; why are they listed differently?)  I apologize.

Several excellent collections of ship models - including large-scale ones - are within fairly easy driving distance of Lancaster.  I haven't been to the Philadelphia Maritime Museum in more years than I like to think about, but I know it has a good model collection.  So does South Street Seaport, in New York City.  If you don't mind driving a day or two to the northward, New England has more outstanding ship models than can be listed here.  (If you want to look at a really big one, check out the 1/2 scale bark Lagoda at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.) 

In the other direction, the Naval Academy Museum at Annapolis has what surely must be one of the top five ship model collections in the U.S. - and, I suspect, one of the top ten in the world.  (Be sure to visit not only the Museum itself, but the Rogers Gallery on the lower level.  That's where the Museum's wonderful collection of Navy Board models - the finest collection of them outside Britain - is displayed.  Be warned:  next door is the Naval Institute Bookstore, where you'll be tempted to spend yourself into bankruptcy.)  Here's a little taste - though the photos don't do the model collection justice:  http://www.usna.edu/Museum/rogers.htm#ShipModelGallery

Under other circumstances I'd also recommend the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, but (a) most of its ship models weren't on exhibit the last time I was there, and (b) the building is closed for renovation till the summer of 2008.

Hope that helps a little.