Some of my model ships

Thanks,
I also thought the Victoria was a very nice model, but she turned out to be one of my greatest failures. I sent it to an auction house in Surrey, and it sold on the second attempt for £36, so after commission deductions and the cost of me sending it there, I lost heavily on the deal.
This one, on the other hand, showing HMS Carcass, stuck in the ice, whilst searching for the Northwest Passage with the young Nelson aboard, sold for £780 at auction, and it only took 33 hours to build, and most of the deck fittings were buried under the snow and ice on deck. I made a mahogany display case at the request of the auctioneers, that I felt looked awful. It was for a dedicated "Nelson" sale, but was rejected because the auctioneer felt that the bidders all wanted Victory or Agamemnon. So they put it in a standard nautical sale. I
always wondered what it would have fetched in the Nelson sale. It remains the most successful sale I have ever made at auction, and I didn't really like it at all!


11 HMS Carcass (Medium).jpgHMS Carcass - Copy.jpg
 
shipbuilder said:
Thanks,
I also thought the Victoria was a very nice model, but she turned out to be one of my greatest failures. I sent it to an auction house in Surrey, and it sold on the second attempt for £36, so after commission deductions and the cost of me sending it there, I lost heavily on the deal.
This one, on the other hand, showing HMS Carcass, stuck in the ice, whilst searching for the Northwest Passage with the young Nelson aboard, sold for £780 at auction, and it only took 33 hours to build, and most of the deck fittings were buried under the snow and ice on deck. I made a mahogany display case at the request of the auctioneers, that I felt looked awful. It was for a dedicated "Nelson" sale, but was rejected because the auctioneer felt that the bidders all wanted Victory or Agamemnon. So they put it in a standard nautical sale. I
always wondered what it would have fetched in the Nelson sale. It remains the most successful sale I have ever made at auction, and I didn't really like it at all!


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I feel like all my works of art are like notes in a bottle. They are all will or have come adrift and will wash up God only knows where or when on some deserted beach. But I love them all as the children I have conceived.
The above pictured conveys such a sense of the dark inevitability of the way of all flesh. It is truly a compelling, if dark. masterpiece.
 
The irony is that most of the plans ive ever found, not that hard of a look in the last 14 years... the plans were all set up for building as remote control boats,, not so sexy if you want hull structure to be shown..

And well, no sexiness in working ships of the steam or diesel era for some reason.
 
tball4217 said:
no sexiness in working ships of the steam or diesel era for some reason.
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This got me to thinking so I did a little hunting using Most Beautiful Steam Ships as my search term and found the following video. I prefer sail as most members seem to do as well, but these ships are gorgeous in their own way. A lot of the old yachts are pleasing to see for some as well. (The newest mega yachts ain't bad either:)) My sis got married on the Sequoia a few years after President Carter had it sold out of government service in 1977, and the owners at that time offset some costs by chartering it out. It was beautiful and the staff was fantastic.
Allan

Sequoia
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Remember, most of ship modelling is controlled by what was popular at certain periods.

MOST of the people who started the modern ship model industry were kids who loved watching Errol Flynn in Captain Blood or The Sea Hawk,, thus whence they started companies it was big ships, big sails, lots of guns.

But the majority of post 1900 ships is always going to be in PLASTIC.
 
But why do collectors seem to prefer merchant ships, often, the more obscure the better? I am not imagining it, having built and sold just over £65,000 worth of them over the past thirty years since I left the sea. I am finished with model shipbuilding now, on account of age, but models I sold years ago for very low sums are re-appearing as their original owners pass on, and selling often for ten times as much as I got for them. Here are two of mine that I sold years ago for quite low prices that went recently, both very highly priced, and not really all that good -
https://www.jrusselljinishiangallery.com/robert-wilson
 
shipbuilder said:
But why do collectors seem to prefer merchant ships, often, the more obscure the better? I am not imagining it, having built and sold just over £65,000 worth of them over the past thirty years since I left the sea. I am finished with model shipbuilding now, on account of age, but models I sold years ago for very low sums are re-appearing as their original owners pass on, and selling often for ten times as much as I got for them. Here are two of mine that I sold years ago for quite low prices that went recently, both very highly priced, and not really all that good -
https://www.jrusselljinishiangallery.com/robert-wilson
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I wont try to get into any reasons based on model ships, im not fully versed in that market.

But the markets I am aware of and versed in, are of vintage razors and old cameras. In these markets a particular make and model of razor or camera will langquish on etsy and ebay never breaking a price of 20-30$ for an almost unused condition, and then someone on a forum will wax poetically about it and then suddenly the value will tripple over night.
 
tball4217 said:
I wont try to get into any reasons based on model ships, im not fully versed in that market.

But the markets I am aware of and versed in, are of vintage razors and old cameras. In these markets a particular make and model of razor or camera will langquish on etsy and ebay never breaking a price of 20-30$ for an almost unused condition, and then someone on a forum will wax poetically about it and then suddenly the value will tripple over night.
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I stopped sending models to auctions years ago. And I stopped even building them a year ago, but have become more academic on the subject now, devoting myself to merchant navy research and plan drawing. But looking at the views for this particular topic - 6,469 this morning, indicates to me more than a passing interest. Lots of ship modellers tell me that they would like to build them, but "could never do anything like that!" Where the truth of the matter is that using special techniques, they are nowhere near as difficult to build as kits, it is simply a matter of trying. There are no knots in the rigging, as it is lots of short lengths of copper wire glued on.

Flower of the Fal on hand.jpgFlower of the Fal.jpg
 
shipbuilder said:
Thank you. They often turn up on Ebay and various auction rooms, and it is surprising to see what they go for these days, This one, Bidston Hill, turned up on Ebay several years ago with no reserve, starting at 99p. It sold for about £400 to someone in the USA, so transport costs would have gone on top of that. I sold it for £16 over 50 years ago, I was still taking private orders at the time, and I contacted the buyer with an image of a recently completed model, (Donna Francisca - See below) to let him see how much I had improved and much to my surprise he came back and said both models were excellent, and the 50-year old one was in no way inferior to my latest, and they were both as good as each other. I was quite dismayed at that, and wondered why I had spent all those years improving if he could not see any difference in quality. Since then, I have come across the same comments on a regular basis when comparing my early models with later ones These are the two models in question -

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I see clear improvements. More complex rigging, more realistic and beautiful sea, and the kind of general change that suggests that the later one must be a much larger scale. For me, the first one is good and the later one magnificent.
 
I think this reflects the buyers' perceptions being influenced by their fondness and nostalgia for their earlier acquisitions, adding a "rose colored" hue to their younger days and things associated with it. Of course, your later work will reflect your honed skills. This in no way detracts from your earlier work.
All your work is worthy of sustained appreciation.
Pete
 
Smithy said:
I see clear improvements. More complex rigging, more realistic and beautiful sea, and the kind of general change that suggests that the later one must be a much larger scale. For me, the first one is good and the later one magnificent.
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Thanks for replies. Both models were built to the same scale and were about the same size. But since Bidston Hill was built, I got married, and my wife took over the painting of the seas. Another thing I have noticed over the years, most of the time, when anyone writes about my models, they come out with the phrase "perfect in every detail!" They are not, and I have never pretended that they are! I am not a perfectionist, and I mainly build according to the builders plan, and any obvious differences gleaned from looking at photographs of the real ships. I am the "poor man's modeller," and got paid in line with that, and never got the thousands of $/£ that the top men in the field got, but I was happy with the "half loaf" and the bonus I got from the adventurous 31 years that I spent at sea, learning about merchant ships. My wife travelled regularly with me on my last two ships, RMS St Helena (I) and RMS St Helena (II) on the UK - South Africa run with passengers and general cargo. We called at the Canary Islands, Ascension, and St Helena on the way to Cape Town.
 
Bob,

Like it or not, popular books and movies dating back many years (Hornblower dates back to the 40’s, 50’s or even earlier) about the Nelson era Royal Navy has dominated the demand for things maritime. We even find posts of these forums that the fully framed Admiralty Model is the “ultimate” ship modeling challenge that we should all aspire to.

This is of course, nonsense. At its highest level, ship modeling is an art form. The relatively few people creating these scratch built models are artists and their work can be individually identified by serious collectors. Fortunately not all insist on building Victories or Constitutions. You have chosen an interesting nitche and your work will stand the test of time.

Roger
 
The fact that model shipbuilder do not like ships of the 20th century never really bothered me, because having left the "rat race" in late 1992, I was building them for a living, with very little competition. The collectors that wanted them, found me quickly enough, and there were not many kits of them to "muddy the water!" As far as I know, no-one has tried to duplicate or pirate my type of model, so I don't have to put up with "boo hoo, someone has stolen my design!" Nowadays, I can still be interested in them, but no longer have the pressure of work, and I can't say that I miss it.
Here change - Prison hulk, based on a clapped-out 74 -


Prison Hulk (Large).JPG
 
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