Matchstick Fleet

79-year-old Phil Warren from the UK spent 62 years building this incredible fleet of 432 ships and 1200 aircraft, all built entirely of matchsticks and their wooden boxes. The collection includes 370 U.S. and 60 British ships and their associated aircraft.

He began creating his first boat in 1948 when he was 17. He uses a razor blade, tweezers, sandpaper and glue. He has used more than 650,000 matchsticks to create this amazing collection of 1:300 scale models.

February 2015 Meeting

The Capital Marine Modellers' Guild's February meeting will be on Tuesday February 3, 2015 from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Nepean Museum, 16 Rowley Avenue. Among the regular meeting activities will be a discussion about attending the Military Hobby Show in June and who can attend to be present at the booth.

January 2015 Meeting

Capital Marine Modeller' Guild's first meeting of 2015, will be on Tuesday, January 6, 2015 at the Nepean Museum, 16 Rowley Avenue starting at 7:00 p.m.

December 2014 Meeting

The 2014 December meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday December 2, 2014 at the Nepean Museum, 16 Rowley Ave. Remember to bring show and tell items, work in progress and any modelling problems you want help with.

October 2014 Meeting

The October meeting will be at the Nepean Museum, 16 Rowley Avenue on Tuesday, October 7,  2014, starting at 7:00 p.m.

Some Caveats About Wooden Ship Kits

At the September meeting a discussion about wooden ship kits came up. For those interested in building model ships a basic simple wooden ship kit is often an excellent entry point to the hobby. There are a few things the beginner should know before taking on such a project. I will deal with a few of those things here.

The instructions may not be completely helpful. For example, with regard to the hull, the instructions may just say, "plank the hull." With regard to the rigging the instructions may say, "install the rigging." At some point the instructions may say, "complete building the ship." For a beginner, such instructions can be extremely daunting.

More detailed instructions can be found in a number of books. Books written by Harold A. Underhill are extremely helpful. In addition to that there are model ship clubs such as The Capital Marine Modellers' Guild in many communities. Experienced members of such clubs are only too happy to share what they know with others.

When a wooden ship model kit is purchased it is a good idea to check the included materials. I recommend replacing the rigging thread that is included. The rigging line that is provided is more often than not insufficient to complete the rigging of the ship and finding an after market line that matches what is in the kit is often very difficult, if not impossible.

It may be a good idea to replace some of the wood that is provided as well. Usually the wood provided for planking the hull or planking the deck is insufficient to complete the job, unless the modeller is very frugal and careful with it, and again, the modeller may have a difficult time finding after market wood to match what the kit includes.

Most wooden ship kits are one of two types. They either provide a solid wooden hull, often preformed and needing further carving and finishing, or they provide a plank on bulkhead hull. The bulkheads provided are often precut and they are not always symmetrical. Tracing them on paper and folding along the centre line is an easy way to check that and then correct it before building the ship.

Those are not the only problems one may encounter with a beginning wooden ship kit but they are probably the most frequently encountered. I have mentioned them here, so that if you want to begin ship modelling with a wooden ship kit you will be able to avoid some of the early pitfalls and get more enjoyment out of the hobby.

Bill Williams

September 2014 Meeting

We will be having our first meeting of the 2014-2015 season on Tuesday, September 02, 2014, at the Nepean Museum, 16 Rowley Avenue from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Hope to see you all there, looking forward to a new year with lots of new projects.

CGCS Alexander Henry

CCGS Alexander Henry is a former Canadian Coast Guard Light icebreaker and Buoy tender that served its entire career in the Great Lakes. Port Arthur Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., Port Arthur, built the ship. She was launched in 1958 and commissioned in 1959 into the Department of Transport's Marine Service as CGS Alexander Henry using the prefix "Canadian Government Ship," named after Alexander Henry, an 18th-century British explorer and fur trader. Retired from service in 1984 after CCGS Samuel Risley entered service, she is now a museum ship preserved at the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes in Kingston, Ontario and operated as a bed and breakfast during the summer months.

WHAM Radio 1180 Boat

WHAM Radio 1180 is in Rochester, New York. I think this was taken during the mid 1980s in The Gan. (That's Gananoque for those of you not familiar with the way we speak in eastern Ontario.) I could be wrong about the location but it's still a nice boat and so are the others in the picture.

St. Roch

R. C. M. Police St Roch is shown in the photograph. The ship is now in the Vancouver Maritime Museum. A page from the museum's web site tells the ship's story.

Lake Boat

For some reason these huge long narrow vessels are called boats, not ships. They mostly carry bulk cargo such as grain and iron ore. This picture gives an idea of just how long they are.

At souvenir shops along the St. Lawrence Seaway one can buy books that can be used to identify the lake boats and the companies that own them, by the colours and markings of the exhaust stacks.

Senator of Canada Goes Through Iroquois Locks

In scanning my family slides I came across a set of photographs of the Lake Boat Senator of Canada going through the Iroquois locks on the Seaway. I am posting them here as these photographs may be of some interest and hopefully will provide some useful details.

May 2014 Meeting

The Capital Marine Modellers Guild's May meeting will be May 06, 2014, 7:00 p.m. at the Nepean Museum, 16 Rowley Ave.

April 2014 Meeting

Capital Marine Modellers' Guild's next meeting will be on Tuesday April 01, 2014 starting at 7:00 p.m. at the Nepean Museum, 16 Rowley Ave.

Dave Omond will be continuing his rigging demo with a discussion on knots for the model builder

Ed Chan will have some information on Chinese Aircraft carriers

As always bring out what you are working on.

Hope to see you all there.

Jim Russell

March 2014 Meeting

The March 2014  meeting will be on Tuesday, March 04, 2014 at 7:00 p.m. at the Nepean Museum, 16 Rowley Ave.

Dave Omond will continue his series on Masting & Rigging. Specifically he will deal with masts and spars, how they are shaped and how to make all the fittings that go on them.

As usual bring out your work in progress and show and tell items.

February 2014 Meeting

Our next meeting is scheduled for February 4, 2014 at Nepean Museum, 16 Rowley Ave at 19:00 (7:00 pm).

Dave will start his rigging presentation. Morley Verdier will attend to disburse some magazines, bring cash if interested.

Remember to bring out your work in progress and show-and-tell items.

January 2014 Meeting

Happy New Year!

Capital Marine Modellers' Guild first meeting for 2014:

Tuesday January, 7, 2014
Nepean Museum
16 Rowley Ave
7:00 p.m.

Dave and Guy will be continuing their discussion of Drafting/Hull construction.

Remember your show and tell items and your work-in-progress.

Bill Williams for Jim Russell

Building a 1/700 Scale USS John F. Kennedy CV 67 Part 3

The model of the 1/700 Scale USS John F. Kennedy is now complete. Here are some photographs of the completed model.

Ed Chan

Building a 1/700 Scale USS John F. Kennedy CV 67 Part 2

Ed Chan

December 2013 Meeting

The December 2013 Meeting will be Next Tuesday, December 3, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. at the Nepean Museum, 16 Rowley Avenue.

Guy & Dave will be presenting on Plans and Hull construction.

Bring out any on-going projects, or anything else you have of interest for show-and-tell.

Building a 1/700 Scale USS John F. Kennedy CV 67 Part 1

Ed Chan

Mitchell Abraisives Products Useful for Ship Modelling

While looking through a recent copy of the Stewart MacDonald tool catalogue I noticed an item that would be useful for rigging, among other things. The item is abrasive round cord. For guitar makers this is useful for holes and slots for guitar strings. For ship modellers it would be useful for smoothing the inside of holes for rigging, as well as pulleys and so on.

These cords are available in a variety of sizes. You can get them from Stewart MacDonald and from amazon.com. There may be other sources.

Mitchell Abrasives also makes flat abrasive tape, which should also prove useful for ship modelling.

Their product line is very specialized but you may like to check out the company's web site to see what else they have available.
Mitchell Abrasives

Bill Williams

2013 October Meeting

The October meeting will be on Tuesday, October 1, 2013, 7:00 p.m. at the Nepean Museum, 16 Rowley Ave.

There will be a discussion on how to interpret and digitize ships' plans.

As always, members are encouraged to bring out their show and tell items, including their work in progress, finished models, favourite books or whatever else they have of interest.

Bill Williams for Jim Russell

2013 September Meeting

Our first meeting of the season will be on Tuesday, September 3, 2013 at the Nepean Museum, 16 Rowley Ave.

This year we are looking for presenters for the following topics:

How to read a lines plan.
Digitizing plans
Hull Building techniques

Deck Layout

Masting & Rigging

As usual, members are encouraged to bring out their show and tell items.

Bill Williams for Jim Russell

Cunard White Star Liner Queen Elizabeth On War Service

This picture shows RMS Queen Elizabeth circa mid 1940s in World War II camouflage loaded with troops bound for New York. From what I have been told the men you see on deck spent the entire voyage stationed where they are in the picture. There was a kitchen crew on board that spent eight hours a day without a break bringing food to the men where they were stationed on the ship.

On the original picture from which this was scanned there was a square in the upper right hand corner where a person could write their name and the date. I have done my best to use photo editing software to remove that square and blend the sky so that it would not take attention off the ship.

Bill Williams

Sailboats in Antwerp ca 1940

These were scanned from souvenir photo packs purchased in Belgium in 1944.

Bill Williams

A Couple of New York Pictures from the Thirties

I found a package of souvenir photographs of New York City from the late thirties or early forties. In it there were two pictures that might be of interest to ship modellers. They should be self explanatory. Here they are.

Bill Williams

Why Did I Add Revlon Beauty Tools to the Tool Manufacturers Links?

I just added Revlon to the Tool Manufacturers links. Why would I add a link with beauty tools to a blog for model ship builders. If you were to click the link and look at the tools on that site you will find several items that you would probably find very useful with your ship model building. There are a variety of sanders, scissors, cutters and tweezers available among those tools. Think you might be able to benefit from using some of those things? I thought so, too.

This is a diamond grip tweezer with a slant tip. It has maximum gripping power for fine hairs. You could very likely use this to great effect with your rigging tasks.

 

 

These are compact emery boards. You can call them detail sanders. They have a fine grit cutting surface and they can get into hard to reach spots.

Keep your eyes open. You never know where you will find tools you can use with your model making.

Bill Wiliams

New Links Category: Tool Manufacturers

I have added a new category to this site's links. The category is 'Tool Manufacturers.' I think the title is self explanatory. I have started of with a few such manufacturers and will add links as other brands come to mind or as CMMG members inform me of their favourite brands.

I thought that a set of such links would be helpful. Often suppliers cherry pick what manufacturers make. They will often special order things that they don't normally stock, or you can go looking for a supplier that does stock an item you're looking for.

Bill Williams

Scrapers from Stewart-MacDonald

At two meetings now it has been suggested that in many cases it is preferable to scrape a surface smooth rather than sand it. These two scraping tools from Stewart-MacDonald might be of interest for the job.

These scrapers have been designed for finishing guitars, but I see no reason why they could not be used for ship modelling.

You will find more on them by clicking here.

Bill Williams

A Note on the Links

There are many links that may be of interest to you as a ship modeller. On May 7, 2013 I tested each of the links. In many cases the site addresses have changed and in a few cases there was no longer a web site or the address is now being used for something else. As of the stated date the links have been fixed or in some cases deleted.

As of this writing the links have been categorized as follow and the categories are in this order:

Model Ship Clubs
Suppliers
Museums
Ships
General Interest

Probably the category most useful to ship modellers is Suppliers. You will find the choice of links for suppliers biased geographically to Ottawa. If you live in some other part of the world you may find some of the supplier links useful because many of the suppliers do mail order, or have locations in a number of different communities.

I hope you find the links useful.

Bill Williams

Finding Ships' Plans

The scope of this piece is not definitive but hopefully it will be somewhat helpful.

At the CMMG meeting on Tuesday, February 5, 2013 the question came up of where to find plans for a specific ship or class of ship. In this case the specific class of ship was the Canadian Pacific Empress class ships.

Well that was daunting but those who were at the meeting were determined to be helpful. So we asked questions. Where was the ship built? That's a good place to start. In this case the ship was built in the United Kingdom. With some further discussion the best suggestion that could be made was that the national archives in the United Kingdom should be consulted.

Generally speaking, the national archives of the country where a ship was built, is often the place where ships' plans eventually get stored. So it's a good starting point to search for plans. If any particular ship of interest has been involved in a war and captured then it's a good bet that the country that captured it documented it as fully as possible and their archives would be worth checking.

Most countries that have archives have web sites dedicated to them. Here are three with links to their home pages.

Library and Archives Canada
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/index-e.html

The National Archives
for the United Kingdom
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

National Archives
for the United States of America
http://www.archives.gov/

Other archives can be found by searching with Google.

Keep in mind that should you find that the plans you seek are indeed stored in archives that getting copies of them may be expensive. Most archive facilities will have the means to make copies but doing so could be costly as can shipping.

Most archives have either catalogued their collections on line or are in the process of doing that. Digitizing the items in storage is another matter.

When you are looking for something in the way of plans or other information on a ship, be prepared to spend some time and work on getting what you want and be prepared to be disappointed. Good luck with your efforts and may you be rewarded for your efforts.

Bill Williams

A Consumers Reports Recommended Masking Tape

We were discussing masking tape at the last CMMG meeting.

In the latest issue of Consumer Reports (March, 2013) the tape that produced superior results over all others was FrogTape. This is now available in Canada. You should be able to get it at Canadian Tire, Home Depot and Walmart.

"FrogTape Delicate Surface tape was the clear winner. It left a very sharp line, was easy to remove, and didn't damage any surface no matter how long the paint had dried or the paint was left on."

The only drawback I can see with this product is that it only comes in the one width. At least that's what the implication is on the company's web site. http://www.frogtape.com/

Bill Williams