Okay ;
Good question . Why this scale ? The answer is simple .If you like , say , paddle Steamers from the 1860s in America .All the parts you need for detailing are available in the Walthers Catalogue .
Tankers ? Again the Walthers catalogue . Same with any kind of workboat or passenger vessel out there . there is a caveat though . If you want to do a full sized cruize ship or container-ship to that scale , you better have the space.
A 1/87 passenger ship , say , the size of the S.S.United States would be about eight Feet long !or longer , I haven’t done the math . I do know a half sized one (lengthwise) I did for Just Trains in Concord , Ca , years ago was almost five foot long .
The sheer beauty of this scale for smaller vessels , is the amount of detail you can get in areas mostly ignored in smaller models . The Cornerstone line is a good example .They have a Rail-Road Tug and Car Barge plus the shore aprons . Now this Tug can be built as a regular tug or a tall wheelhouse railroad tug .
Because of it’s size the wheelhouse and deckhouse areas can be brought alive with detailing and H.O.Scale figurines . The Scratch-Built Inland Waters tankers I do , all have detailed modernized wheelhouses with removeable roofs to show all the detail inside . And you can build in such a way as to show internal details on however many decks you want .
I have one under construction ( framing stage ) that will even have the engineering and crew spaces in it . Plus a partially detailed cargo area .
So you see there is a lot you can do in this scale . Even to pleasure boats and such .
I’ve seen some pretty convincing ones half hull against a mirror.
Model Shipways sells a nice tug, the Taurus. They claim it’s HO, I think it’s 1/8" = 1’-0".
It’s an older, steam era tug.
I like to stay in architectural scales (divisible by 12). But I have built several in 1:96, a scale close to HO in architectural series. I like being able to convert something to so many inches per foot when building. Also, nice reasonable calculations when rescaling commercial plans. As I say, a few of the older lakers I did were 1:96 (1/8 inch per foot) but most were 1:192, 1/16 per foot.
" G "
I think I may have seen some of those . I have found though , it is a special mirror in that it is as thin as possible so there isn’t a line down the center . I think there was an article in our mag some years back concerning a dio of a landing plane like that .
Year ago I did the REVELL tri cabin Chris - Craft that way for a client . I use a highly polished piece of chrome plated l Lexan for the mirror . I fastened the boat to it by a hidden bolt .
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The Taurus is a beautiful little tug . I went to the Cornerstone Tug because so many clients didn’t want a full hull .The Taurus didn’t like being built that way .
I’ve done a couple of those half-hull (actually half models) builds. That way they can be hung on walls. Desk space in my office was limited, but the company’s facility people would come up and hang a picture, and they considered my half hull laker just another picture.
Oho!
I bet that took up a lot of horizontal space on the wall !
It was a model of the Fitz, and it took up about four feet.
Don ;
You know don’t you ? The Fitz will always have a special place in my heart .The only , Most handsome ( At the time ) Laker ever built . I got to lay my hand on her side when I was a young fella . The only one I ever touched .
It broke my heart when I heard what happened to her . She is the only vessel I ever touched that went that way .All the rest are now Museums .
Oh , Could you help me get any information concerning the Great Lakes ( ERIE ) Steamer named Canadiana ? She was a fixture in my young life for many summers with Grandma .They had a Carousel made in her home town in Germany she used to like to go and ride in the Grandma seats .
The vessel in a beautiful white was always going to Crystal Beach ( A Theme Park ? ) , Ontario to Buffalo , New York . I don’t know who her operator was though .