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'Emma' - A Diorama making use of the sloop-rigged smack kit, Emma C Berry (1866), from Model Shipways, 1/32 Scale.

The Ships Cat said:
Looking very much forward to this Smithy mate ;)
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Something told me you'd like it Cat.

I've been walking the dog and thinking and I reckon I've got a storyline sketched out already. One scene, no words and a story spanning three generations, two continents and all of the seven seas.

It's going to be a slow start though, I need to do lots of thinking first and it's as hard to photograph that as it is to do it..
 
Kurt Konrath said:
will be nice to see what you come up with in 1/35 items to support the diorama, I have this kit on my shelf and maybe one day will get it started.
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Because of the great interest in tanks and vehicles in this scale and diorama accessories to support the plastic modellers, there's a huge amount of almost everything available. If I go with the story in my head at the moment, the date for the diorama may be around 1950 leaving me free to plunder the WWII range of accessories and figures.

Miniart will be my first call for supplies. I will be overcoming my usual reluctance to use plastic and resin in the diorama but the boat will be mostly wood. :)

Emma is two feet long. It's going to be big!
 
Cap'n Smithy:
Looks like you're going to have fun with this. Your discussion of dioramas made me look at the one on the box. While the box-art diorama is attractive it makes no sense. I understand that part of the concept is to show the framed construction, but no vessel would ever have had its side open like that; the normal sequence of planking would prevent that. Also, a boat being planked would not have 1) paint 2) bulwarks 3) mast, spars, and rigging. Even trying to stretch the story to fit, if a vessel was having some planking replaced after, for example, being stoved in by a whale, she would not be up on the ways fully rigged. Fair winds!
 
AndyA said:
Cap'n Smithy:
Looks like you're going to have fun with this. Your discussion of dioramas made me look at the one on the box. While the box-art diorama is attractive it makes no sense. I understand that part of the concept is to show the framed construction, but no vessel would ever have had its side open like that; the normal sequence of planking would prevent that. Also, a boat being planked would not have 1) paint 2) bulwarks 3) mast, spars, and rigging. Even trying to stretch the story to fit, if a vessel was having some planking replaced after, for example, being stoved in by a whale, she would not be up on the ways fully rigged. Fair winds!
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Everything you say is valid Andy. I may pressgang you into service as the reality tester of my ideas too, when I sort them into order.

If we assume that the box diorama was built especially for the box, I think we can guess the gist of the commission. “A scene that 1. shows the customer how beautiful the boat is when built, and 2. draws attention to the realistic POF build method and 3. suggests unusual ways that the model might be displayed.

In the absence of figures and a credible storyline, this scene falls short of my definition of a diorama but it definitely works as box art. I know this because I wouldn’t normally be interested in a fishing boat at all and can’t think why I bid on the thing in the first place. ROTF It was awfully cheap on eBay, and that was another powerful incentive.

Paying less than half price for the kit has somehow allowed me to be very relaxed about taking some risks with this project. That’s a useful attitude to have on my first POF. Paradoxically, I expect to spend more money on figures and basing than I did on the boat. :rolleyes:
 
The box photos remind me of the ship "SS MINOW" damaged and left aground in the old "Gilligan's Island" TV show, with a large hole in side near the bow.
 
Kurt Konrath said:
The box photos remind me of the ship "SS MINOW" damaged and left aground in the old "Gilligan's Island" TV show, with a large hole in side near the bow.
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I don't consciously remember the show but perhaps I saw it and it has inspired one of my storylines. Did a gang of children play on the boat?
 
Smithy said:
Roll up! Roll up! Read all about it!​

My last build log described my adventures with HM Armed Cutter Alert (1777). I say 'described' but really it should be 'describing' for it's still happening - I'm within a few weeks of starting the rigging. I've been working on Alert for seven or eight months now and I'm getting a little bit bored with her. Rigging a cutter is something that I've done before and while I'll enjoy the process, it will sooth me rather than thrill me. I need something new! Exciting! Challenging!

My plan is to start working on Emma as soon as possible while also continuing to throw a bit of string at Alert from time to time. Each time I sit down at the bench I'll have a choice between woodwork and knitting. I am usually overlapping several books at the same time and that works for me, so why shouldn't I enjoy two models at once? There may be trouble ahead or there may not. Time will tell.

View attachment 482080

Why the Emma C Berry kit? I've built plank-on-bulkhead but I've not done a proper plank-on-frame (PoF) kit yet and the kit is a relatively simple fishing boat - no guns! It's a well smack - a curious thing with a swimming pool to entertain its catch. It's 1/32 scale - not too fiddly. And there's something special about that scale; it's compatible with 1/35 figures. A six foot figure in 1/35 scale is about 5 foot 6 in 1/32 and in the nineteenth century when Emma was built, shorter people were all the rage. This coincidence of ratios and dates opens up the possibility of a diorama and that's exciting and different for me.

It could be a builder's yard as shown on the kit's box, with a new built boat or one in for repairs. It could be working, at sea or in harbour. It could be sinking, washed up on the rocks, mouldering on the shore of a desert island. I could be one of those old wrecks at the back of a builder's yard, forlorn and forgotten as entropy takes its toll. And that's just the obvious ideas that I brainstormed off the cuff. I've done dioramas before, with plastic model aircraft, vehicles and ships so it's not completely new territory to me, and I understand how important the planning stages are. I have to work out exactly what the final scene will look like and work backwards from there. It will be quite some time before I start building the boat, or as much of her as I will need...

I started the Alert log more than half way through, after the hull was built and the coppering was done - with Emma you will get the whole thing, from conception to birth (or possibly death if I really mess up).

Коробка набора называется Emma C Berry, но я хотел бы, чтобы вы все знали с самого начала, что я НЕ строю историческое судно, которое в настоящее время находится в Музее Мистик-Ривер. Чтобы дать себе максимальную творческую свободу, я создаю «Эмму» удивительно. similar-but-not-the-same Рыбалка полна совершенно другой истории. Я буду строить его так, как захочу, узнавая о PoF по ходу дела и игнорируя жестокие требования «точности». Я спланирую каждый намеченный курс, каждый аккуратный шаг по стапелю и многое другое, намного больше, я построю его по-своему. Тем не менее, я действительно хочу, чтобы это имело смысл как лодка, а также история, рассказанная в одной картине, чтобы я не заходил слишком далеко в фантастическую сферу. Здесь не будет драконов. Если увидишь, как я строю дракона, похлопай меня по запястью!

As you might have gathered, my personal style is a bit silly and long-winded chatty. I just wanna have fun, and conversation, and pass the time until the inevitable with as many smiles as possible. I invite you all to come on in, the water's lovely. Discuss, digress, debate, declare! There are psychological, philosophical, aesthetical, educational, historical, technical, carpenterical and many other aspects of our great hobby and I love them all. So don't be shy my friends come and join us, come and join us, come and join our companeee!
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OOO, this will be interesting. The more time goes by, the more I begin to appreciate something small, but very well worked out in all the details and trifles. So I will be looking forward to the start of construction.
 
Smithy said:
Roll up! Roll up! Read all about it!​

My last build log described my adventures with HM Armed Cutter Alert (1777). I say 'described' but really it should be 'describing' for it's still happening - I'm within a few weeks of starting the rigging. I've been working on Alert for seven or eight months now and I'm getting a little bit bored with her. Rigging a cutter is something that I've done before and while I'll enjoy the process, it will sooth me rather than thrill me. I need something new! Exciting! Challenging!

My plan is to start working on Emma as soon as possible while also continuing to throw a bit of string at Alert from time to time. Each time I sit down at the bench I'll have a choice between woodwork and knitting. I am usually overlapping several books at the same time and that works for me, so why shouldn't I enjoy two models at once? There may be trouble ahead or there may not. Time will tell.

View attachment 482080

Why the Emma C Berry kit? I've built plank-on-bulkhead but I've not done a proper plank-on-frame (PoF) kit yet and the kit is a relatively simple fishing boat - no guns! It's a well smack - a curious thing with a swimming pool to entertain its catch. It's 1/32 scale - not too fiddly. And there's something special about that scale; it's compatible with 1/35 figures. A six foot figure in 1/35 scale is about 5 foot 6 in 1/32 and in the nineteenth century when Emma was built, shorter people were all the rage. This coincidence of ratios and dates opens up the possibility of a diorama and that's exciting and different for me.

It could be a builder's yard as shown on the kit's box, with a new built boat or one in for repairs. It could be working, at sea or in harbour. It could be sinking, washed up on the rocks, mouldering on the shore of a desert island. I could be one of those old wrecks at the back of a builder's yard, forlorn and forgotten as entropy takes its toll. And that's just the obvious ideas that I brainstormed off the cuff. I've done dioramas before, with plastic model aircraft, vehicles and ships so it's not completely new territory to me, and I understand how important the planning stages are. I have to work out exactly what the final scene will look like and work backwards from there. It will be quite some time before I start building the boat, or as much of her as I will need...

I started the Alert log more than half way through, after the hull was built and the coppering was done - with Emma you will get the whole thing, from conception to birth (or possibly death if I really mess up).

The title of the kit's box is the Emma C Berry, but I'd like you all to know at the outset that I am NOT building the historic vessel currently at Mystic River Museum. To give myself maximum creative freedom, I'm building 'Emma' a remarkably similar-but-not-the-same fishing smack with a different history entirely. I shall build it as I wish, learning about PoF as I go and ignoring the cruel demands of 'accuracy'. I'll plan each charted course, each careful step along the slipway and more, much more than this, I'll build it my way. That said, I do want it to make sense as a boat as well as a story told in a single tableau so I won't be going too far into the fantasy realm. Here be no dragons. If you see me building a dragon, slap my wrist!

As you might have gathered, my personal style is a bit silly and long-winded chatty. I just wanna have fun, and conversation, and pass the time until the inevitable with as many smiles as possible. I invite you all to come on in, the water's lovely. Discuss, digress, debate, declare! There are psychological, philosophical, aesthetical, educational, historical, technical, carpenterical and many other aspects of our great hobby and I love them all. So don't be shy my friends come and join us, come and join us, come and join our companeee!
Click to expand...
It’s always nice to see the building of a ship on the yard in a diorama, Bertie.
And not in a hurry to start is not a problem. The research and figuring out the steps you need to make is the starting fun process.
Regards, Peter
 
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