Painting Ships.

I can see why you are so good at painting ships Jim.

Lovely collection. You are skilled Jim! And now we know your secret about painting ships. :)

Thanks Sandra and Ibolya. Another reason I had to stop building was where to put them. The one on the right (H.M.S Fair Rosamund) is 33 inches long and 29 inches high.

That was quite an art! Jim. Glad you still are interested in ships and now painting them.

I've had a lifelong interest in sailing ships, and always admired the ship models in museums in Greenwich and Portsmouth. I think these old ships were an astonishing feat of engineering in their day. My kids bought me kits to make, I never had the skills necessary to make them from scratch. This is fabulous work, Jim.

Thanks Maureen. Lewis, I bought the kits initially, but the expensive wooden versions and not plastic. That said, all you got was box of strips, dowels, wires, strings, a few plywod shapes, a bit of ornamentation small flags etc, (and in the case of one, sails) an instruction pamphlet and a a couple of sheets of drawings. After that it was pure D.I.Y. Things like stands and mounts you make yourself with nothing supplied. You need quite a few tools too. I was a member of Model ship World where you post W.I.P pics (like here) and those guys are fanatics; retired seamen, yachtsmen and sometimes active sailors in service. It doesn't pay to get so much as one piece of rigging wrong. An Italian sailor sent me a full document on rigging as an internet file. . I sent down to Portsmouth ? for two of the kits from the internet. All worth it in the end though.

Just stunning! So beautiful, Jim. My grandad and the rest of my mother's family...all seafaring from Devon...would have loved them

You clever man Jim, these are wonderful.

Wow Jim, this is a different kind of art but definitely art! You must have a great deal of patience to complete these wonderful models. Well done you!!

Thanks to Thalia, Carole and Margaret for the rewarding comments. This is sort of my own personal dockyard on land...(-: