| HMS Indefatigable |
The Indefatigable project has been completed. She was pieced together from drawing of her as a 64 gun Ship-of-the-line and some drawings of her as a Razeed Frigate. Remaining gaps were filled in with best guess '18th century ship DNA'. She does carry sails, something rather controversial in the Model ship world. My personal opinion is that a sailing ship without sails just isn't a sailing ship. They are probably the most dangerous aspect of a model though. Done wrong or careless, they can really distract from the beauty of a classic wooden vessel.
While details are important, the most important factor in creating the illusion of a real vessel is that details are created to scale and have the same observable features the real size items have, if one was to look at a real size vessel. For instance, the boats in the image above, one clinker and the other carvel built, have the size, sheer and shape of their larger cousins. Details too small to notice are often omitted since they may look exaggerated. An example of this is that sometimes the use of over-sized treenails (wooden nails) can make a model look like she has the measles. Quite a distraction from the overall look and feel.
In the end, it's still much in the eye of the beholder! I'll just continue on doing my thing, improving along the way, as long as there's clients to create for. In the mean time, she's crossing the Atlantic on her way home.
This post first appeared on The Art Of Age Of Sail - Engineering History, please read the originial post: here
