Joes Scale Model World Part III

[joe100]

To everyone:

Thanks for the compliments! I’m glad you guys are enjoying this stuff!

[Carguy87]

Joe this is so, so cool!!! Thanks for sharing!!

[joe100]

Hey no worries! Just glad you like them

[CFR]

Thanks for sharing this with us. You're incredibly talented! Can you say how you got into doing this, since it's somewhat obscure, and if you started when you were a kid or as an adult?

[joe100]

It’s obscure, but not as obscure as you’d think. Miniature models came about in the 1960s with a gentleman named Donald McNarry. He’s the Monet, the Rembrandt of this genre, and examples of his work transcend modeling and move into the world of fine art.His works sell for more than a small house. He died in 2010 and he’s worth a google. Anyway, I decided I wanted to learn what he did, so I bought every book he ever wrote. Once I heard what he had to say, I moved on to the other masters in that area with books by Reed, McCaffery, and Camarata. They taught me what I needed to know.

I had a lot of experience building models from kits since I was in my teens, mostly resin and brass. I didn’t find this very rewarding since I was assembling and painting someone else’s work. There were few problems to solve, and the research had been done for me. So with that behind me, I wanted to create models myself, and the smaller the better. The nice thing about building from scratch is that I can decide how big the model will be. I try to keep everything under 6”, no matter the size of the ship in the real world. So my IJN Kongō, which was 728’ long, and Bounty, 90’ long (hull), are roughly the same length.

A lot of people say things like “it must take a lot of patience” but I don’t have a lot of patience. Perseverance on the other hand, is legion. Working in these scales requires some extremely small parts, and some can only be seen under 7x+ magnification. So when I make these parts, I always make several extras just in case I damage one handling it. There are other cases where a part is so complex that there is only one. It will sit under a glass dome until I’m ready to use it, then I’m extremely careful placing it. I’ve become very good at not breaking things as I go! It’s pretty rare that I make any sort of mistake since at these scales, every part has to be planned carefully, and every move calculated. Not making mistakes isn’t out of any real skill, it’s just I don’t want to ruin a week’s worth of work and have to redo it. As an example of the levels of detail I add, if a ship has an enclosed bridge, I’ll build an interior, right down to the chart tables, ships wheel, telegraphs, doors, etc. It’s all enclosed but if you have a magnifying glass and a bright light, you can see it.

Kongō is going to be the first ship model in 1/1500 scale where I’m planning to have crew members on deck. So I made a few hundred sailors from photo etched brass. I’m pretty excited to get these guys on board and bring the ship to life. I made figures for Bounty, all of my favorites from the Mutiny, but that’s a much larger scale.

[CFR]

Thanks Joe for this detailed explanation. This is very interesting to me.

I had one more question for you -- was going to ask you if you drank coffee -- but I see you already answered that in your profile/signature (I have signatures/avatars disabled so I normally don't see them).

[joe100]

I disabled signatures too, some were just toooo long! Yeah I definitely drink coffee, love it!

[MrGoat]

Originally Posted by joe100

I usually don’t do commission work. It takes the fun out of it. A ship like Bounty represents a year of work, so selling her would be tricky. Most of the other ships represent 3 to 5 months of work, and it’s just too hard to get close on the numbers.

Damn, I would have loved to had one or two made.

I get it though.

You’ve got an awesome hobby!! Thank you for sharing it with us!!


Sent from my Apple privacy invasion product

[NAVY]

Awesome! What do you do with them? Display in your home?

[BNA/LION]

Beautiful detail and amazing talent! Thanks for sharing.

[Brenngun]

Originally Posted by joe100

Thanks!

I need to take some pictures of the studio, I don’t have any that do it any justice. Things are usually pretty clean, but we just installed a separate AC/Heating system so I’m independent from the rest of the house. This is helping with the issue of having to have it colder than the rest of the house because the heating caused by some of the equipment. Photo etching creates quite a bit of ambient heat. Once I get it all put back together, I’ll take some photos after all the painting is done.

Choosing a subject is easy, it’s just whatever I want to see! The only issue is that I usually have to plan out what I’m going to build for the year, so I can create the phot etched brass parts. Photo etching is messy, hot, and dangerous. It takes a couple weeks to create the negatives, and etch all of the prices. For Kongō alone, there are over 2,500 individual photo etched detail pieces. Very few of these have been applied so far though. So I make all of the PE parts at once for the whole year. This year I’d like to complete 3 ships, IJN Kongō, HMS Vindictive 1918, and the Italian battleship Littorio, 1941. So far I’m on schedule.

The next step in preparation is the research. I have well over 1000 books in my library, most on single ships or single classes of ships, and sheets and sheets of plans. However, for Kongō, I didn’t have what I needed so I ended up buying 6 more books to make sure the model is as accurate as possible. After that it’s down to making the base and case, then starting on the ship herself.

The shilling is a good indicator of size since it’s exactly 1” or 25mm, and I like the design. I was told its worth a couple hundred dollars US, so I can’t lose it! I also collect items from these ships, pieces of them, documents etc. My study is literally a maritime museum, and I loan items to museums from time to time. I have physical pieces ofHMAV Bounty, Bismarck, Tirpitz, SMS Königsberg, SMS Seeadler, Titanic, Olympic, SS United States, HMS Iron Duke (Battle of Jutland), HMS Rodney and much, much more. I also collect items from Sie Ernest Shackleton. Things that he used on his Antarctic expedition. My Shackleton collection is the most significant part of of the “stuff”.

Thanks for your response Joe. I think I've reread all of your posts here at least 3 or 4 times. What you do and the process is fascinating. The amount of planning is incredible. Can't wait to get a look at your work studio and the tools you use. If you would like to share a little about your library of books and artifacts I think that would be great. I know this is a lot of time and with your likely schedule of building it may be difficult but it would be crazy good to see.

p.s. loved your comment about perseverance versus patience. I can completely understand that. Also on your Kongō build I noticed where you included the rising sun. Super cool and creative.

[joe100]

The book collection is really two collections. The first half is technical manuals and monographs on many ships from the napoleonic era through WWII. There are at least a thousand books. Everything from Italian battleship camouflage schemes to WWI British battleship technical histories including cosmetic changes. Stuff that’s really in the weeds. The rest of the books are first editions from important explorers. Robert Falcon Scott, Shackleton, Cherry-Girard, etc. I also own a couple type copies of certain important books. These are hand typed by their authors and usually the final copy submitted to their publishers.

This is a very small selection of items at random from the artifacts collection



Autograph from the last pirate, Count Felix von Luckner, who took a sailing ship to war during WWI. Something not seen very often…



This is part of the rope Sir Ernest Shackleton used to drag his sledge closer to the South Pole than anyone before, January 9, 1909. Their location was 88° 23’ South. They were just 97.5 miles short. This came to me by way of auction, and I had to make a deal with another collector to avoid a bidding war. It’s the possession that makes me the happiest. It is history.



This item is probably the most poignant item in my collection. This is the media contract for Shackleton’s final expedition, drawn by his own hand. The fact that he died on the expedition before it could be countersigned makes this item the most significant. A fair few museums have tried to acquire this one from me to say the least.



I don’t know much about why such a significant piece of HMS Iron Duke was transformed into a treen for toothpicks, but here it is! A sister piece is in the British Museum collection so I’m told.



These pieces from the German battleship Tirpitz were recovered from the wreck by a friend and fellow author as a thank-you present for some work I did on his book project.

[joe100]

Originally Posted by NAVY

Awesome! What do you do with them? Display in your home?

Some are on display here, others are with their owners as commission pieces. Each model is in its own glass case, so they fit nicely in my study.

[joe100]

This also usually draws some

[joe100]

An update on Kongō

[BNA/LION]

Fantastic! You are True Craftman and Artist! Thanks for sharing.

[Moondoggy]

Absolutely insane, makes an ALS Datograph movement look like an ETA.

Speechless.

[mountainjogger]

Awesome Joe. Thanks for sharing.

[joe100]

Thanks guys! Glad you like ‘er