About catopower

Ship modeling since 1993.

Yacht Carola by Paul Reck

Posted on January 17, 2024 by catopower

Last year, HSPMS member Paul Reck was asked to build a 4-foot long model of the yacht Carola. The Carola was a steam yacht, originally called the Reveler, built in 1928 by the Krupp Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel, Germany. She was built for Russel Algier, chairman of the Packard Motor Car Company, and changed hands over the years.

Carola by Paul Reck

Paul’s model comes in at 1/56 scale. The odd scale is due to the requirement by the model’s owner for a model 4′ long. The model is a waterline model that Paul built from photographs of the ship.

Carola by Paul Reck

The model was commissioned by a man whose great uncle bought the yacht in 1938 and renamed it for his wife Carola. The model is complete and has been delivered to its new home.

Carola by Paul Reck

The ship has a long and interesting career and was acquired by the U.S. Navy in January of 1942, renamed the U.S.S. Beaumont, PG60. She was armed with a pair of 3″ guns and a pair of 40mm gun mounts. The ship served as a gunboat until 1947 when was returned to her life as a yacht for Norman Woolworth of the F.W. Woolworth Company.

Today, the ship is called the Talitha, and has been owned by Sir Mark Ghetty since 2008. Ω

New Historic America Privateer Grecian Kit

Posted on December 31, 2023 by catopower

Historic American Privateer from Vanguard Models Now Available at Ages of Sail

The new kit of the American War of 1812 privateer Grecian is one of the latest kits being produced by Vanguard Models of England. The Grecian was a Baltimore Clipper schooner built in Baltimore by Thomas Kemp in 1813. For those interested, Howard Chapelle describes her in his book The Baltimore Clipper, It’s Origin and Development.

The Vanguard Models kit depicts the ship after her capture by the British in 1814 and taken into service as HMS Grecian. Chapelle, in his book, includes some description of how she may have appeared as a privateer in American service. Ω

Adventures in Trunneling

Posted on June 21, 2023 by catopower

Some thoughts on trunneling or treenailing the deck.

Ship Modeler

Recently, I made an Instagram post about the trunneling work I recently started. It’s something I used to do more of, but I’d been doing some paper models recently, as well as many Japanese boats, and smaller scale ships, so it’s something I stopped doing much of. Also, I started using pencil to just do the ends of planks on several models. But recently, I’ve been looking at some 1/64 scale models, which in my book are just large enough to show trunnels, so I’ve been back at it recently.

I decided to return to my original method of representing trunnels. To make the trunnels themselves, I’m using the smallest hole in a draw plate that I think I got from Micromark at least 15 years ago. The holes are drilled with a #72 drill bit. This results in trunnels that are about 0.025″ in diameter. While I use this…

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The Return of Seawatch Books

Posted on March 27, 2022 by catopower

Some very good news for ship modeling book collectors and scratch modelers alike.

Ship Modeler

Good news for scratch modelers! Seawatch Books, which brought us amazing titles by David Antscherl, Rob Napier, Gilbert McArdle, and others is back up and running under new ownership.

The previous owner, Bob Friedman, has been talking about his retirement for some time now, and earlier this year, the store went off-line pending sale to a new owner. Apparently, the early attempts at selling the company didn’t work out. But, then ship modeler Mike Ellison came along and saved the day, and the site just officially went live.

Perhaps one of the best known titles from Seawatch Books is the 4-volume series, The Fully Framed Model, HMN Swan Class Sloops 1767-1780.

To celebrate and to offer my support, I’ll probably pick up a title. Right now, I’m leaning toward either the book on building HMS Sussex, by Gilbert McArdle, or the two-volume series The Ketch Rigged Sloop Speedwell of 1752…

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HSPMS In-Person Meetings Restart

Posted on March 20, 2022 by catopower

There’s good news for the Hyde Street Pier Model Shipwrights. With things opening up again in San Francisco, we’re going to start our in-person meetings again!

The bad news is that the gangway on the Eureka has been pulled due to tidal conditions, plus it will be relocated for repair later this year, so we won’t be meeting aboard the Eureka any time soon. Instead we will be meeting at the Bathhouse building, otherwise known as the Maritime Museum building, with our first meeting scheduled for Saturday, March 26th.

Meeting from 2018

The building doesn’t officially open until 10am, but there will be someone to let us in early. Our Commodore, Paul Reck, says we’ll meet up in front of the building between 9am and 9:30am, and we’ll call someone to let us in.

This will be the first in-person meeting we’ve had in over a year. Hopefully, people will bring projects to share and discuss. We’re also hoping that some new people will come to inject some new ship modeling interest into our group.

Please post a comment if you are interested in finding out more about the group or about attending our meeting!

Wye River Models

Posted on February 6, 2022 by catopower

Have you heard of this American boat model company? I don’t know how long they’ve been around, but their models look really nice and reasonably priced. Might be worth checking out!

Ship Modeler

This weekend, I just ran across a model boat kit manufacturer on the Internet. Their website shows that they have quite a large number of kits of American workboats in large scales of 1/4″=1′ and larger.

Looks like they have 15 different kits, including: Box Stern, Chesapeake Bay Bugeye, Chesapeake Bay Buy Boat, the charter fishing boat Breein Thru, a Hooper Island Drake Tail, a Chesapeake Bay Log Canoe, and many others. The prices are very nice too. Of the 15 kits they offer, only five of them list at over $100.

Wye River Models’ Chesapeake Bay Bugeye, 1/4″=1′ scale (1:48)

Wye River Models’ Smith Island Crabbing Boat, 3/4″=1′ scale (1:16)

Wye Rivers Models’ “Virginia” Round Stern Workboat, 1/2″=1′ scale (1:24)

Never having built, or even seen one of these kits, I can’t vouch for them, but from here, they look really nice. Until I’ve actually seen one of their kits…

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The Return of the SF Maritime Research Library

Posted on January 5, 2022 by catopower

Ship Modeler

Today, I drove into San Francsico to make use of the recently re-opened Maritime Library of the San Francisco Maritime Research Center. It was really nice to see the place again after more than a year away. And, truthfully, I haven’t made use of the library for a while, even before the Covid shutdown, so it’s been longer than that for me.