The Shipyard

Page updated 28/8/2024

Introduction

As it's not strictly wargaming related, I made this separate page for my ship building projects.

I've been interested in ships since I've been three years or so and watched The Onedin Line on TV. 

Since then I have collected a bunch of books on various sailing related subjects, and my collection is growing; also at 32 I have actually seen the sea and bathed in it.

Naval Wargaming

My major - now mostly defunct - naval wargaming projects include:

LEGO warships and battles

In the Navy, simple blocky warships

Jenga brick ships of the line

1/2000 WW1 and interwar era scratchbuilt ships

Current projects:

1/1200 Anglo-Dutch - just begun a small project with about six ships per side.

18th century naval - roughly 1/500 scale and 3D printed vessels, in the process of upgrading rigging and bases, got a few more hulls to finish
Trashy Fleets - pre-dreadnoughts in 1/1000 scale

 

You can find all blog posts labelled 'naval' here; and all posts labelled 'scratchbuild' here. (Warning! May contain terrain and other things)

Ship Models

Finished (links below):

1/600 Viribus Unitis (scratchbuild)

1/700 Arizona 1936

I have a few projects on the stocks right now:

1/700 Snowman Model 1916 Derfflinger, a pretty cool kit (about 80% complete, lacking a layer of varnish, rigging and a display cabinet)

Heller 1/150 Le Superbe

Heller 1/100 Soleil Royal

Aoshima 1/700 IJN Nagato 1931 version (basic hull assembly is complete)

I've got the following models still in their boxes:

Revell 1/50 Viking Ship

Trumpeter 1/700 USS Alaska CB-1 (awaiting hull upgrade and PE)

I really wish to build models of these ships (just to mention a few):

MNF Bretagne

Georgios Averof

HMS Hood

USS Wyoming

SMS Helgoland

Any of the USN Standard types

IJN Tosa (only scratchbuild is possible, although parts from a Nagato kit could be bastardized)

USS Lexington (being the sole carrier in the list)

Espana

Nelson-class

As you can see I'm sort of an oddball and not the "build sixty versions of the same Bismarck" kind of person.

Further Reading

Here are some links to blog posts I assume to be more interesting than a few others:

1/700 scale Arizona (1936 version), my first serious foray into PE

How 1/2000 scale wargaming models are built

1/600 scale waterline model of the battleship Viribus Unitis

A kitbashed Revell 1/1200 King George V

My 1/1000 scale scratchbuilt waterline model of the French battleship Bretagne - it was wrong in a few aspects, but I intend to remedy that with the next iteration.

Research on the MNF Bretagne