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.
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In October, HSPMS member Clare Hess showed off his Japanese boat models at a one day event at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.
Sunday, October 17th, was my first display at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum and it went pretty well. It was a bit stressful getting everything together in time, but once I had all the models displayed and was talking to people about them, it was pretty relaxing. The event was just a one day showing, and there were many other things taking place as part of the event.
I had 10 of my completed models on display, and I decided to bring several models that I had in early stages of construction, so I could show how I build them. Information cards provided visitors with the basic information about the model and what it represented. There was a lot of information I had to leave out in order to fit the text onto those large index cards.
Behind the models, I displayed what artwork I could find that showed the…
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The newest wooden ship model kit release from the Spanish manufacturer OcCre isn’t a sailing ship, but the infamous RMS Titanic. Looks like both our local Ages of Sail shop as well as Model Expo are getting ready to carry this kit, as they’re both listing the kits on their sites now.
Last month, I learned that there was a new Titanic kit from OcCre. It’s now officially released and soon to appear in your favorite ship model shop. Now, I have to admit my first thought was, do we really need another wooden Titanic kit? We have Mantua, Amati, Billing Boats, Woody Joe… and now OcCre. But, after looking more closely at the published details of this kit, I’m thinking this kit actually looks pretty good, and it’s at a lower price point than others.
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Special congratulations are in order to our very own Commodore Paul Reck with the induction of his model of the Revolutionary War era gunboat Philadelphia into the collection of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum!
Check out the story of how the model ended up traveling across the county in a seat on a United Airlines flight.
Paul’s model is a 1/24-scale scratch build, based on a set of plans obtained from the Smithsonian, where the original gunboat is preserved and on display. Ω
Building ship models from part kits is one way to spread out the cost of more expensive kits over a period of time. Depending on the manufacturer, some models end up costing a lot of extra cash. But some may actually be pretty reasonable. Here’s one example of a part kit build of a large kit from model kit manufacturer OcCre.
I began writing about OcCre’s model kit of the Spanish 74-gun ship of the line Montañes a few months back, when I wrote about ordering one of several available “part kits” put out by the company. The others being the San Ildefonso, the Nuestra Señora del Pilar, and the Santisima Trinidad. I chose the Montañes because I like the type of ship, the size of the model, and the details of this particular kit the best.
I purchased the first of six Packs, as OcCre calls them, and plan on buying them as needed for the build. However, building from the packs is really no different in terms of materials, fittings, and instructions, as the full kit. You just don’t have to pay for it all at once, though it ends up costing you more, mostly due to the ship charges.
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This gallery contains 11 photos.
Originally posted on Ages of Sail:
Batavia was a ship of the Dutch East India Company, built in Amsterdam in 1628. She was a type of ship known as a “Retourship” . These were well armed and heavily manned ships…
Looks like a nice set of tools for ship modelers.
Those of you who want to add some nice details to your model without going out and buying specialty shaped strips of wood or brass should take a look at these two tool sets from Artesania Latina.
Micro Shapers Set A
Micro Shapers are scrapers, each with 15 to 16 pre-cut specialty bead molding shapes. There are two sets available, and each set contains 3 different shapers, you just have to cut them loose from the sheet.
Micro Shapers Set B
To use them, you simply scrape lightly against the appropriate sized strip wood. This is how to add fine detailed elegance to your ship model.
Artesania Latina has even created a nice little Youtube video, illustrating how to use them.
We carry each of these sets for $12.99, plus tax and shipping. Check them out, along with the whole range of Artesania Latina’s specialty ship modeling tools here at…
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Hyde Street Pier Model Shipwrights 