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To Build or Not to Build According to Howard I. Chapelle

Most all of the inaccuracies to be found in kit models have been well documented in various forums and simply have not been corrected because the manufacturers don't care, think nobody who buys the kit will notice, and if they do, won't care, and/or doesn't care to spend the money to correct the errors.

I got caught in this with my first model ship kit - the HMS Beagle kit that Mamoli offers. When I started, I had not considered that a kit could be so 'unreal'. As a kid my modeling was plastic cars and balsa model airplanes. The car kits looked pretty much like what they were a model of; the model airplanes were made to fly and not to replicate any known aircraft. Thus, when buying a 'scale model kit' I assumed that I was getting a pretty good representation of the ship. I was soooo unhappy when I got a copy of HMS Beagle in the Anatomy of Ships series!

I think the same thing happens to many new modelers, the assumption that the kit is (reasonably) accurate given the price is still made. I also conjecture that many first-time model ship purchases are made by people that have no knowledge of SoS, MSW, and/or quality reviews of the kits. Bad kits will continue to be sold to more people than they should.

The Mamoli Beagle kit is still produced and the box art doesn't show any design changes. Hence the same model - unimproved - is still being hawked decades later.

Kit building is an exercise in following instructions to assemble provided parts into a copy of the kit designer's model.

I'm not sure if I've seen a kit with such good instructions to be followable - nor parts that assemble correctly! My experiences have been horrible instructions and parts that really don't go together. But none of these kits have been the newer and high-end kits that have been produced more recently. With the exception of getting the new 1:48 version of Phantom that Model-Shipways offers, I have not bought and/or have been given a kit in a very long time. Now I'm much more interested in collecting monographs and wood!

In fact, my drift from kits to working from plans / scratch building was due to a combination of factors including accuracy issues, instruction issues, and lack of kit supplied material working as advertised. I now find scratch building to actually be easier and allows me to work on more novel topics. Trying to make a kit work is such a challenge, and a growing segment of kit-bashers may be due to this.

I still have (more than I want to admit to) kits in closets purchased during my first several years in the hobby. Not sure what fate they will have. I'm not keen on tossing them, and I don't want to sell kits that I am aware have issues.

When a serious scratch builder researches, engineers, and executes a good model, the last thing they want is hundreds of "Models that Should Not Be Built" just like it all over the place, which is basically what happens when a new kit is designed and marketed.

I very much like ANCRE monographs - my current big project is L' Invention - but I'm sometimes disappointed by the number of kits they have generated and I'm not even going to bring IP / copywrite issues to the table. Case in point, I very much like the Bonhomme Richard monograph and I had strongly considered using it for a project. However, with the number of kit based Bonhomme Richard models based on the monograph that have been built, I no longer have interest in pursuing the model. I should step up the pace on L' Invention!
 
Wow, what a pleasure reading about a favorite author. I have to say, I found H.I.C.'s books extremely interesting. I learned marine drafting and offsets from these books and found that many in the boatbuilding industry have relied on the author's work. The first boat that I built from Chapelle's books was a 16 foot hull of Elsie, to become a period type day sailer. My uncle bought a Boston Whaler Squall, a 9 foot sailing dinghy. I later learned after building about 300 eight foot versions of the boat, that Whaler had copied theirs from Chapelle. More recently, before Hurricane Ian, I started a 1/4 inch version of Elsie. So, not only in fine model building, but in actually using the designs and the wisdom that has affected many a bulder, lies the true overall value of the man's work.
 
Greg Davis said:
To Build or Not to Build According to Howard I. Chapelle

A seminar course within The School for Ship Model Building​


This course will focus on a couple of articles written by Howard I. Chapelle that appeared in the pages of the Nautical Research Journal. I believe these were published in 1951 and 1952. The articles, with links to them (as well as PDF download), are titled:

Analyzation / discussion related to these documents is nothing new - the included views have been debated (sometimes hotly) since publication. With that said, issues that Chapelle brings up are important and core to the field of model shipbuilding. In the past discussions that I am aware of, it seems that the two papers are dealt with in some isolation. Here I hope that we can extend the discussion to include additional related writings of Chapelle and to make an attempt on understanding the context / situation that he wrote from.


Supplemental to these articles, I would like for us to consider the introductory material written in the book:

  • American Ship Models and How to Build Them by V.R. Grimwood (1942)
As well some content from:
  • The National Watercraft Collection by Howard I. Chapelle (1960)

Additionally, it will be valuable to consider the 1960 publication by Chapelle:


Other readings my be suggested later.


My name is Greg Davis and this course offering has been suggested by Dave Stevens. Certainly there are individuals that know more about Chapelle and his views on model ship building than I will likely ever know. Nonetheless, I believe that I can help guide the journey of analyzing the topic at hand. Hence, I feel that my primary role in this class / seminar is to be the facilitator.

Professionally my background is in the field of Mathematics, specifically Dynamical Systems. I served as a professor and administrator at the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay for 35 years. As an instructor and scholar, I did find success in creating and analyzing mathematical models. Because UW-Green Bay is not a huge University, I had a unique opportunity to teach more than 30 different courses at levels from introductory to graduate. I’ve found that several of the skills needed in the academic arena are transferable to topics related to building model ships; and certainly, to managing a classroom.

As far as my experience in model ships is concerned, it is a work in progress, and truthfully, I hope that is always the case. I’ve been actively engaged in building model ships for about 20 years now. I started by building a number of kits that ‘shouldn’t be built’. But soon, and in a modeling vacuum, my academic instincts kicked in and I have found myself more and more concerned with historical accuracy of my work as well as looking for interesting and unique projects. While I still make some kits, my focus is much more aligned with that of a scratch-builder creating historically based models. In fact, the last model I completed did require me to do much research on the subject and draft reconstruction plans prior to building the vessel.


I'm going to give this introduction a day or two to be seen and then I would like to get the discussion going in a (semi) structured manner.

Thank you for considering this course offering and the possibility of contributing and I seriously look forward to contributions from all involved!
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Thanks for doing this. One ship I'd love to be able to build is USS Ohio, ship of the line of 1817. Chapelle shows a plan, but though I can bash with the best of them, I have not graduated yet to scratch building. The Ohio was described by a visiting British naval officer as "the best ship on two decks," he had ever seen. Unfortunately, the designer, Henry Eckford, later was appointed to a diplomatic post in Turkey, where he died. His plans are reputed to be in some Turkish archive. there apparently is a half-model in the Smithsonian, but there the trail ends as far as I know. Eckford also designed a ship of the line, New Orleans, for service on Lake Ontario, but I believe she was left to fall to pieces on the stocks at Sacketts Harbor at the end of the War of 1812.
 
Robert Bruckshaw built a model of the OHIO that was in the Inland Seas Museum i do not know what happened to that model contact the Firelands Historical Society they have some of bob's models maybe they have the OHIO. At one time i had the plans and drawings Bob did so i need to look at what i still have. At one time i had about 180 sets of plans from both Harold Hahn and Bob Bruckshaw collections. a few years ago i gave away a huge part of the collection to a member here on SoS and have not seen him for awhile. I think the model bob built was a hollow lift hull.
 
He probably took her lines off the half model. Many of his drawings and models in the Smithsonian’s collection that Chapelle ordered built in the 1960’s are based on lines taken off from half models. Master Modeler Bob Bruckshaw built a model of her back in the 1960’s.

A lot of information about these post War of 1812 US Naval vessels exists in the Lenthall Collection at Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute. There used to be a catalog of the collection available on the internet.

Regarding the New Orleans. Archival information about US vessels built to defend the lakes during the War of 1812 is virtually non-existent. Possibly because the ships were built on the then frontier, but more likely because they were burnt when the British occupied Washington DC during the war. Archeological information for War of 1812 lake built vessels can be found in the book Coffins of the Brave published by Texas A&M press.

And finally, SOS has an expert on ships built for what Chapelle calls The Bureaucratic Navy. Look him up under the name Theebs. Probably later than your interest but excellent workmanship and historical accuracy,

Even though you feel that you don’t have the skills to scratch build a model, if Ohio interests you start your research now.

Roger
 
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