forgive me for starting my post with a question. I am primarily a railway modeller who is looking for a sailing or steam ship model to put in ‘dry dock’ as a centrepiece to my layout. I work in N gauge, which in Britain is 1/148, but anything between 1/140 and 1/160 would probably work well.
I am looking for something that would be appropriate for a Dry dock towards the end of the 19th and early 20th. Either steam or sail. I am not quite sure what is available today that would be appropriate and I notice a great number of discrepancies between scales on boxes and the actual size of finished models.
If you were interested in modeling the WWII era, Iron Shipright offers a resin & brass 173 foot Patrol Craft http://www.commanderseries.com/ships_lg-sm.html in 1:160 scale. Jon Warneke of ISW designed the kit specifically for use on an N-Guage waterfront layout.
May I suggest the Glencoe Corsair II kit? It a turn of the century steam yachet, with two masts. An old kit of a pretty vessel, its about 1/150 scale and hull length is about 18 inches.
It can be built into an exceptable model without being a full time ship modeler. (I also do model railroading- HO).
Hi Will- I’m an N scale modeler too! I’ve seen a number of projects where the basic ship hull might not be to scale, but if you load it up with N scale railings, ladders, etc. it works just fine. also, you could have a smaller scale model as background. I’ve used a lot of Z scale stuff like buildings and people and cars back of the main line, and I think it works really well.
I always thought the old Revell four stack destroyer would be great- it’s 1/250 I think.
Try Seaport Model Works, he offers a resin sardine dragger and a couple of other boats in “N” scale.
I used to be into “N” gauge, I built a small “test layout” that was built on a half sheet of plywood just to test my modeling/train skills. One “business” that I had on the layout(it was based on the Maine Central’s Rockland coast branch, was a oil storage/distributor company. Since it was on the water I utilized Lindbergs tug boat and dredge(converted to an oil barge). I’m not sure if Lindberg is going to release the 4 boat set(fire boat, tug boat, river boat and dredge) again, they are “N” scale in size and appearence, with a little work they can be adapted to any time period. I also had a waterfront lobster business with a couple of Maine lobster boats built from plastic “lifeboats” found in the 'ol parts box. And of course a Coast Guard station with Buoy tender(made from the fire boat). I also had a model of a Texaco oil tanker(the old gas station premium from the 1960’s) which is very close to “N” scale that I envisioned as part of my “giant” layout that I never built. If you like to build, there are a number of boat hulls that can be adapted for “N”, I believe Lindbergs Harriet Lane could be modified into a large ocean steamer(paddle wheels and all) from the 19th century.
Keep in mind it’s the port holes, hatches, walk ways and ladders that can transform any hull into “N” scale, along with some scratch building.
Well good luck on your project, one thing I learned from “N” was that good eye sight and nimble fingers are essential. And also KATO RULES!
I too have tried to find ships in N scale for a model railway harbour . My suggestions are the FROG/NOVO kit of the coastal tanker “Shell Welder” which is almost spot on , but a little modern ,may need some discrete ageing , The Airfix " Discovery" is good for scale and age , And I recall an old Heller kit of a steam yacht “La Fauvette” had an Edwardian elegance but may be difficult to find.
Bluejacket offers several N-scale harbor craft designed specifically to fit on railroad layouts: http://www.bluejacketinc.com/honscale.htm . (Scroll down past the HO ones; the N-scale ones are near the bottom of the page.)
The fundamental problem, of course, is that ships are big things. In N scale (1/160), any vessel much larger than a tugboat would dwarf the rest of the layout.
That’s kind of the idea actually!! To add a little more detail my model; it is based on the Royal Dock at Grimsby, c.1900-1910. By this time its role in shipbuilding/repair was diminishing but it was still a very busy port and a lot of very big ships used it, mainly from the Baltic trade but sometimes from further afield.
My scale-length graving dock is 750mm long (about the full length of the layout actually) and the tracks run a circle around it. This is roughly 350ft long by 96ft wide. I was looking for a ship around a scale 200ft LOA to fill the space and really dominate it infact!
I did notice Academy do a New Bedford whaler in 1/200, but have found reference elsewhere to it perhaps scaling out larger than that. With a little work it is probably quite close (at least in hull shape) to a late C19th British merchantman. Maybe rigging it as brig would make it look more ‘in scale’ Does anyone think that may be of use??!?
cheers guys for the ideas. I have an interest in C19th merchant ships, but it has never before extended to modelling them. (probably because there no kits out there to actually build…)
I’m not sure, but I think that little Academy whaler kit may in fact be a reissue of the old, old Pyro Charles W. Morgan. If so, it may be just about the right size. An American whaleship has a pretty distinctive “look” to it, but if you left off the whaleboats and, perhaps, played around a little with the deck furniture (get rid of the tryworks, for instance), it might well be able to pose as a generic British merchantman.
Another possibility - if you’ve got room for it, and it sounds like you might - would be the Revell 1/200 Passat. That’s a big sailing ship, and 1/200 obviously is smaller than N scale, but you might be able to work around the problems. I haven’t seen it “in the flesh” (it’s a rare kit in the U.S.), but by all accounts it’s a fine kit.
I have an N scale drydock, on an Ntrak module. It measures 21" overall length, and 5-1/2" wide, built for the Lindberg “Bobtail Cruiser”, which I am building as USS Caronade IFS-1. with the necessary concrete aprons, and cranes, the whole thing is 12" X 24". The Revell “Russian Spy Trawler Volga” would give you a 14-1/2" X 2-3/8" hull which is already very close to 1:160. It is a deisel engined ship, but could be modified to a steam freighter with little effort. I’m using it as a ship under construction, on the same module. There is also a plastic kit of the “Cutty Sark” that has a hull that is about 8", that could be built as a 105’ schooner in N. As has been mentioned, a hull can be any scale, it’s the doors, portholes, and height of the cabins (or deck to deck height) that gives the hull scale. This is the drydock w/ Caronade in early construction:
That Dry Dock is a wonderful model- and there was me thinking i was original!! My plan is for something much the same- but as I said above I have a lot more length- around 750mm. Grimsby docks in the 1910’s was an overcrowded place- it caused a huge problem for the railway company (and shipping co’s) that worked from it, but results in a wonderful prototype for the modeller as there were sidings everywhere- non of which were laid out in any recognisable pattern and some lines which had radius’ that make N gauge ‘trainset’ curves actually to scale!
Thanks for the information. I will dip into the market and see what I can do- I initially wanted a simple kitbuild, but I do like the idea of making a N gauge ship from a smaller scale hull.
Oh- and while we’re at it, these waterline models look very nice for the N gauge model railroader- don’t know if they are available in the states though
