Latest News

CLICK ON ANY PICTURE ON THIS

SITE TO ENLARGE IT

This site displays the obsolete art of scratchbuilt static models of Merchant ships from the 1840s to the 1960s, as practiced by ourselves (Robert & Christine Wilson). 
Please note:     The models are built mainly for the pleasure of it.      On completion, they are generally available for purchase as and when we run out of storage space, although, as you see, we do not specifically advertise them!    

Here is a link to a model ship website that displays our models in a much better format than here.    They asked permission to display them some time ago, and I was happy to oblige!

http://www.finewaterline.com/pages/albums/rwilson/rwilson.htm

We can recommend a fellow ship model builder for anyone who wants a private commission built.    
We continue to receive a trickle of messages along the lines of:
"If you ever feel like building........, I will definitely be interested in purchasing it."     To accept any of these proposals would be like accepting a private commission, under a different name.    All this achieves is that the suggested model will not be built, at least in the near future!

Contact us

Tuesday, 25th April, 2012

CURRENT BUILD (Commenced today):
Moss Hutchison cargo liner Amarna, of 1949.

For those of you (if any) who are interested, here is a link to a photogaph of the ship:
Amarna image link 

-

Shelterdeck Publishing

"The Voyage Is Done & The Winds Don't Blow"
(11.7 inches by 8.3 inches)

























By Robert A. Wilson, F.R.S.A.
Ebay link here: Ebay Link
The above Ebay listing has now closed unsold.   I am leaving the closed listing because it shows three sample pages.
CONTENTS:

1840 – 1850 – The decline of the East India Company & the appearance of steam.

1860 – 1880 -Iron, coal & steam.

1880 – 1900 -Rising steam & the final boom years of sail

1900 – 1920 -Sail, steam & a whiff of diesel

1920 – 1939 -The voyage is done & the winds don’t blow
I have removed the link to various intenet sellers because they are all listed as "temporarily out of stock!"     When I contacted Amazon with a view to supplying some, I was told that they will only deal with authorised suppliers (Of which I am not one, despite holding the only available copies)!   
Should I wish to join their scheme, I would make a loss on each and every book sold!
It is now available from:
Link To Voyage Book Page (Direct link to listing page)
This is Fixed Price, buy it now at :
www.specialistauctions.com 


This is a UK-based selling site similar to Ebay and it only takes a minute to register as a buyer.   Normal payment methods - Paypal - cards etc.

-

Models Completed 2012

County of Roxburgh

Sofala

Mary Sinclair

Mary Sinclair           
British topsail schooner.     20'=1"   Completed  8th Feb.
County of Roxburgh
British four-masted ship.     25'=1"  Completed 27th Feb. 
Sofala 
British cargo ship.   25'=1" Completed 13th Apr.

Steam & Motor Ship Models

Winchester Castle

Kenya

Kassos

Politician

Louisiana

Carmania

Sailing Ship Models

Squirrel

James A. Wright

Svaerdstad

France

Phasis

Donna Francisca



-

How To Build Miniature Ship Models

I am often asked about my methods of building miniature ships.    This can be a time-consuming process, going over it time & time again to different enquirers, all coming out with different requests.    Because of this, I have produced two CD disks in PDF format (this is international).     They are NOT movies and will only work in computers with Acrobat Reader installed.   These days, that is most of them and new computers will already have it in them.    Even if you do not have Acrobat Reader, it may be obtained from the internet as a free download.
Here are direct links to the two disk listings:
Click Here For Sailing Ship Disk
Listing closed but still viewable.

Click Here For Cargo Ship disk
Listing closed, but still viewable
These disks are now both listed on:
www.specialistauctions.com
Where they may be found via Collectables - Nauticalia - Model Ships.
Here is a direct link to the page:
Direct link to page
This is a UK based auction site similar to Ebay.   It only takes a minute to register as a buyer.     Normal payment methods, Paypal, cards etc.   Both disks are listed at Fixed Price, Buy it Now and the prices include post and packing to anywhere in the world.

Sailing Ship Construction Disk

Steam & Motor Ship Construction Disk

Observations

Fairly regularly, I am asked for information on nautical matters by all manner of people.   Some I know, some I don't know.    I usually do my best to supply information, often stopping what I am doing at the time in order to find the required information and send it off.      In 9 out of 10 cases, I do not even receive a simple e-mail "thank you" and am really beginning to wonder why I bother at all!   

It really looks like there has been an almost complete collapse of international communications.    Even when I am trying to purchase something, I often come upon a blank wall of "your call is important to us, please hang on until someone is free to disconnect you!"  Followed by the obligatory quavering music.     Or leave a message and "we will get back to you!" (which they seldom do!    

I was pleased to see that I am not the only one suffering from this after finding this in the daily Mail website:

Collapse of International Communications Link

Couple of days ago, I saw a cartoon on the internet.   Two dogs speaking to each other about websites like this (known as "Blogs").

One is saying to the other "I used to have a blog, but I decided to go back to pointless incessant barking!"

Wray Castle & Aviation Link

It is now 53 years since I was enrolled at the Merchant Navy training establishment at Wray Castle, on the side of Lake Windermere.   Late last year, we had our two-yearly reunion in the Lake District.     Amongst many old friends reunited, was ex fellow cadet Tony Dewsbury, now of Seldec Publishing.    Here is a link to his website that covers aviation and maritime publications in the following fields
Aviation - Marine Radio - Ships Clocks - RAF Sector Clocks - Wray Castle - Maritime History.
http://www.seldecpublishing.co.uk/

Wray Castle

Wray Castle Radio Equipment Room - 1959

-