Quality of ship models

To judge about the quality of ship models is not easy, even for somebody who has been interested in this for some time. How to gauge the model maker's attention to detail, if you don't know the original ship, don't have photos or paintings of it or if there are no reliable historical data at all? On many historical ships of which only few data are known one has to conclude by analogy from data of other ships of that period, or draw conclusions from investigations of more or less preserved wreckages. That is often a difficult task, even for historians. 

Fortunately it is much easier to roughly evaluate a dealer who offers ship models in a certain price range. One can make a simple and practical comparison: The VICTORY of Admiral Nelson is a famous ship that is often built by model shipwrights. Many vendors of mass fabricated ship models from China, Vietnam or Mauritius have it in their portfolio, as there is a high demand for it. The original Victory is kept as museum ship in Portsmouth historical harbour and is open to the public, so the models of Victory are good for a comparison of ship model quality.

On this page I show photos of the original Victory, and in comparison our models and (unfortunately only small) photos of the mass-fabricated models. Even an outstanding model shipwright working for a museum has to make some compromises when scaling down a model by 1 : 50 or 1 : 100. Small parts have to be simplified or left out completely. The differences in quality you recognize when searching for a rough or fine work of this downscaling, and whether the proportions of the ship have been kept. These differences set the price for the ship model, independent of whether the model is kept unpainted in natural wood colours (as many ship model enthusiasts prefer) or partly painted as the original ship. Click on the photos of the original Victory and our models to get a high resolution image. Move the mouse over the photos and click on the magnifying glass to enlarge to 12 megapixels. If you compare these pictures you can distinguish the quality of the ship models.

This is the stern of the original VICTORY in Portsmouth historical harbour.

And this is the stern of two of our models.

Here are four examples of some other mass-producers, at a similar view: No. 1, No. 2, No .3, No. 4.

This is a view on starboard bow of the original ship:

And this is how our models represent that part of the ship.

Here are bow view examples of mass-producers: No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 . No. 2 gives some insight about how little attention to detail was given to the rigging.

A view on the hull of HMS Victory and one of her boats:

And this is how that looks in two of our models.

 
Here some examples of mass-producers: No. 1, No. 2 .
 

The rigging is especially difficult to recognize on photos. This is the rigging in one of our Victory models (click on the photo and then on the magnifying lens for details!) ...

... and this is the rigging by some other supplier. What you usually can recognize, even on small pictures, is the sails. In mass-produced models the sails frequently just hang like shapeless rags from the yards.

There are only a few historical ships that are kept till today, so how do we know about other ones? Fortunately there are several modern 1 : 1 replicas of famous ships. Their photos can be used to judge about the quality of a ship model of the same period. Here are such photos, in historical sequence of the ships: The Viking ships of the Vikingeskibsmuseet Roskilde, Danemark,  the Dutch VOC ship Batavia of 1628, the English frigate HMS Rose of 1757, the Endeavor, the ship of James Cook on his expeditions in the 1770s, the Victory, Admiral Nelson's flagship 1805 at Trafalgar, and HMS Warrior of 1860.

Before you order a ship model – take your time to estimate the accuracy and attention to details by comparing with photos of other ships of that period.

Ask the mass producers for detailed high resolution photos of their ship models. If you get them you can clearly recognize the superior quality of our models.

Our models are made by experienced ship modellers. They do not earn their living by it, as the prices you can get for such models do not cover the hundreds or thousands of work hours for each ship. They do it because they enjoy their hobby and love the elegance of the ships they build.

If you think of buying a ship model for your home or your office – click on the photos of our models and take your time to look at the high resolution pictures (move the mouse over the picture and click on the magnifying glass to enlarge to 12 megapixel). Ask yourself whether you would really enjoy a model from mass fabrication, or rather take one of ours.