It’s been a long time since I updated this thread. Since I last posted here, I shifted my focus to complete scratch builds, settling on a scale of 1/1500. It’s easy enough to do the math, big enough for the detail I want, and being a scale no one uses commercially, means that I can’t sneak in commercial parts. Everything you see below is made entirely of European boxwood and brass.
Currently under construction at the “shipyard”, HMAV Bounty, the ship famous for the mutiny. I’ve read probably every word written about the expedition in a couple languages now, and recently I was able to acquire artifacts from the wreck. I’m a bit of a fanatic when it comes to the story. The model is built entirely of boxwood, from scratch, using the original Admiralty plans, and so far we’re looking at around 3500 individual pieces. I’ve been on this project for several months now. The hull is just about 3 and a quarter inches or about 82mm.
I'm still in awe of your work (and I thought watchmaking was an intricate hobby). How difficult would it be to have a scale model of a human in each setting? Not permanently, but maybe if you had one each to the scale of particular models, it would help us gauge more accurately just how incredibly bloody tiny these models are. Cheers Jim PS: Just sent an email to one of my mates who is into detail modelling, I think he will be amazed.
Hey thanks! I plan to add the crew to the ship. I did so on my HM Cutter Alert model, but they haven’t been photographed. The figures are made from cut brass and canvas paste, it’s very meticulous. To add a little context here, the coin is exactly 1 inch or 25mm, for scale
The detail achieved at this scale is incredible. To re-share one of your images: The fact that that is just shy of 4” in length is mind boggling. I have a massive appreciation for your talent. I applaud your patience and eye for detail.
Hey thanks! I haven’t had much time lately to work on anything, and with the pending move almost everything is packed up anyway. Recently I’ve acquired some new plans so I have to decide what’s next after Bounty is finished. At the pace I’m not going to have her finished until this fall! I need to step up the pace. The models are made almost exclusively from boxwood, which is a hardwood. The tools required to shape it have to be small, but also extremely high torque to deal with it. So most of the tools I have for woodworking are miniature versions of what can be found in most well stocked woodworking shops. As you can imagine they’re mostly custom ordered to spec. Picture extremely small cutting, milling, and lathe machines powered by very large motors! I’ll post some photos of the new studio once it’s finished.
Joe and I were able to meet up today, as we were both in the Austin area. His work is mind-blowing. This is a made from scratch ship that has 300 people on board. He uses a 20X magnification to build it. The ship was part of a modelers convention, during which other modelers were continually coming up to admire his work. He also made this, with a full figurehead. This Saturn V was made from scratch by another modeler. Great fun!
This is incredible. Every time this thread pops up, my mind becomes blown once again. The attention to detail and just the level of detail working within this scare is just… mind boggling! Thank you for sharing these images Dave!