Mounting your ship questions.....

[USNChief]

I have a few questions IRT mounting your ship builds:

1) What determines the Length x Width x Thickness of your mounting/display board?

2) Where do you position your ship? Center of hull in center of board or center the ship in regards to overall length from bowsprit end back to farthest part of stern?

3) Should the bowsprit be "covered" (over the board) or extend past the edge?

4) If you place your ship on the board with finials vice a slipway, where do you place them on the keel in relation to the stem and stern?

5) What stage of the build do you finally mount the ship? Prior to beginning rigging, after it is completely built, or somewhere in between?

Thank you in advance for all of your inputs!

 

[Roger Pellett]

All of my models reside in glass cases that I build. I mount the pedestals that support them to the bottom of the case which becomes the display board.

I eyeball the case dimensions. Years ago someone wrote in the Nautical Research Journal about some sort of “golden ratio” in art but I’ve long since forgotten what it is. Perhaps you can look it up. I believe that bigger is better. The case should not be”crowd” the model.

The glass case solves the bowsprit issue.

When I build a model I try to have some sort of artistic vision for both model and display. For example, my current project is a Sharpie. These were originally built as humble craft for harvesting oysters, but later were built for racing. My model is one purpose built for racing. Hence my artistic vision is a formal presentation as a Yacht Club display model; no sails, brass fittings, polished paint job, mahogany case and turned brass pedestals. Had I built the oyster tonging version the display would have been different. I might have posed the model on a pair of sawhorses and used a domestic wood like maple for the case.

I try to incorporate structure within the hull of the model early in the build to accept fasteners for displaying it. Drilling a hole and screwing a fastener into a finished hull is a nail biting experience that can end in disaster. Locations where screws will penetrate the hull should be internally reinforced; a block of wood between bulkheads?

Roger

 

[DocTom]

When I was investigating case dimensions, several sources said you want at least 2 inches of space beyond the overall length, width and height (why isn't it heigth?) of the model. I think if you put the model in a case the size of the base becomes less important. FWIW, the bases of the kits I have built so far are all shorter than the actual model.