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Saturday 17 March 2012

What next?

Having finished both my 'cartoon' battleships and the German-style torpedo boat, I am pondering on what to do next ... and I think that I have the answer.

I started down the road that led to the building of these three model ships because I thought that a model battleship, built in the style of the 'Monopoly' playing piece, would be ideal to use on the tabletop alongside my 15mm-scale figures. Building these three ships has given me both the skills and the confidence to return to that original objective, albeit that the model ships I intend to produce are going to be slightly less generic than the 'Monopoly'-inspired battleship model I have already built.


I have already begun to thumb through my (reprint) copy of JANE'S ALL THE WORLD'S FIGHTING SHIPS (1898) for some inspiration ...


... and found that there is plenty there to interest me.

2 comments:

  1. Bob,

    I also like the first, formative edition of Jane's. No question that Fred Jane had artistic talent.
    I actually prefer his drawings to many of the grainy photos which appeared in subsequent editions.

    Although not having examined any originals, it's quite possible there was a degradation of quality with Arco's reproductions. And of course the ship plans and and specs are altogether better once Jane hit upon the ideal format.

    Regards,
    Steve

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  2. Corporal_Trim (Steve),

    I also find that the line drawings seem to capture the essence of the real ships much better than the photographs.

    What I find interesting is that the book evolved from his naval war game, and that the plans were originally drawn so that umpires could assess and record damage during a game (they used printed copies made from the same printing plates).

    All the best,

    Bob

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