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PREFACE

The unprecedented success of How to Make Clipper Ship  Models, first published in 1927, has stimulated the author to prepare the present work as a companion book, to inform the novice how to make worth-while models of old-time ships.

As with the other work, this book is progressive; it com­mences with some description of notable old models, then goes on to outline the "whys" and "wherefores" of old-world ship modelling and touches lightly on materials, tools and their uses.

Chapter III. is illustrated by action photographs specially prepared for this work, and explains in detail how to build a waterline model of a Carrack of the period 1450 a.d. This style of model craft is quite within the capacity of any reader however unlearned in constructive arts.

The following chapter is equally explicit with the detailed construction of a ship famous in Elizabethan times, the Ark Royal, originally built for the intrepid Sir Walter Raleigh. This model is a little more ambitious than the Carrack but is a natural link between the simple waterline model and the elaborate scale model, of which an example of the period 1700 forms the subject matter of several succeeding chapters.

Other chapters are devoted to painting and finishing, while consideration is given to the adaptation of processes to the construction of other old-time ship models, together with hints on finding the requisite data for such work.

One of the greatest difficulties encountered by the novice is that of acquiring suitable drawings and details for the construction of any old-time ship model, but to minimize his trouble fully detailed working drawings for three separate types of old ships are given  in the  form  of folding plates.

The Author wishes it to be clearly understood that the aims of this book arc to tell the novice how to make models of old ships; and to demonstrate how anyone can do such work equally as well as the examples illustrated.

Naturally some simplification over the methods adopted by highly skilled professionals is essential, but, if the methods described are carefully followed in a common-sense way, there is no reason why the results should not in every case be highly gratifying.

In conclusion, a word on the thorny subject of accuracy in detail: much has been said and written on what was and was not done hundreds of years ago, suffice it to say that, at the best, the contemporary evidence is meager, much of doubtful authenticity; nor is every old drawing or print necessarily correct in every detail. The Author has therefore endeavored to utilize what appears to be the most reliable and probable detail, and leaves it to others more skilled and experienced to determine the correctness and precise dates of individual features, hoping that he will be tenderly treated by those competent to criticise, who may perhaps be reminded that the book is an attempt to explain how to make old ship models, by one who has had many years' practical experience. The methods described may not be the best, they certainly are not the only ways, but incontrovertibly they are practical ways; a statement that is substantiated by the three models which are specially dealt with in this book. These were made from the instructions in this book by amateurs with little previous experience, and it is their efforts that largely form the subject of the numerous photographic reproductions of the work in progress.

The Author tenders grateful and appreciative thanks to many kind friends in the preparation of this work, particularly to Messrs. Brown, Son & Ferguson, Ltd., of Glasgow, for their courtesy and care in the production of this book; also to the Director of the Science Museum, South Kensington, London, for permission to reproduce several illustrations; and to Miss Ethyl Smith for her efficient and painstaking care in the execution of much of the model work which forms the subject of the photographs, many of them taken with con­siderable difficulty to show the work and the hands as they appear to anyone actually making a model. It is believed and hoped that this unique feature in book illustration will prove of considerable practical value to all who take up the fascinating  hobby  of old-time  ship  modeling.

EDWARD W. HOBBS
London, W.I, 1929

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