joe100

Thanks!

I think you and I are the only two that frequent this section of the forum.

Thank you. She turned out exactly as I’d hoped. The crew on deck really bring her to life in person

My latest project, IJN Kongō, as she appeared in early 1944, before her final refit, is complete. The model is entirely scratch built from boxwood and brass, with over 2,500 individual photo-etched pieces alone. Construction time l ran to Just under 8 months. She is 1/1500 scale or 125’ to 1”. The case is made from spalted tamarind and Patagonian rosewood finished with tung oil, with a glass cover assembled from copper which was acid etched. The marquetry for the rising sun motif took a few days if work, and I think it compliments the model well. I do enjoy spalted tamarind, it’s probably my favorite wood for a ship’s base because of its visual interest. The name plate is acid etched brass which was enameled. This was quite a complex job in itself and took several days to complete. The hull of Kongō was made from carved boxwood, with the balance of the superstructure made from brass and individual photo-etched brass parts. The funnels are made from aluminum with the correct bulging at the top. To man the ship, there are several hundred crew members on deck. The rigging is nitinol wire, and paint, as always, is ScaleColors exclusively. The ship is depicted as she would have appeared in port in the early months of 1944, before she was refitted with dozens more anti-aircraft emplacements. I chose this fit because it allowed me to model all 3 towers on her turrets, which I thought was more interesting. The model is probably the most complex I’ve built so far, and she was an absolute joy to build. The photo-etched superstructure came out just as I’d planned, and she certainly is striking. Several challenges needed to be overcome, such as the funnels with the bulge at the top. This had to be achieved very carefully because I still wanted to represent all of the interior trunking, so they had to be scale thickness, shaped correctly, and carry this detail. This was probably the single most difficult aspect of the build. She’s finished in ScaleColors Kure grey, with some light weathering. If you’d like to see photos of her being built, I keep everything on my website, www.josephlavender.com.

Hey thanks! Im glad you like it because I’ve caught some hell for it, which was extremely annoying. I think it works well. I haven’t progressed any further than what you see sadly, I’m writing a book, and it’s been taking up a lot of time

Thanks Dan!

Getting closer

Excellent. I do need to get a move-on with her, I’d like to have her finished, and HMS Vindictive finished by the IPMS show here in the US in August

Greetings I thought it would be fun to share my work in progress photos of the Japanese battleship Kongō, as she appeared in early 1944. The model is built entirely from boxwood and brass, and measures about 5.5 inches. The base is made from spalted tamarind and Patagonian rosewood. There is also a glass case which fits over the base. The model is scaled to 125’ to the inch, or 1/1500. This model is relying heavily on photo etched brass parts, which I have made myself. In addition to the many boxwood, brass wire, and brass stick parts, there are over 2,500 individual photo etched pieces. This includes about 250 crew figures which will be added later. Thankfully, Dr Joseph Ed. Low recently published his absolutely wonderful series of monographs on the class, and saved me from a massive mistake resulting from poorly researched western books previously published on the ship. In his book he clearly shows the radio towers only lasting through the late spring, early summer of 1944, and that the misc. anti aircraft guns were added at the same time the towers were removed. Most western sources, until now, show both existing at the same time, which is clearly not true. A bullet dodged.

I no longer Build kits either, I like a nice old imperial scale, something easily divisible by 12, and this really gets up folk’s ire at times. I do it as a nod to tradition, they don’t seem to understand anything about tradition. Im glad you like Bounty though, and for the kind words, indeed. I’ll post a build thread of the current project shortly, IJN Kongo, 1944

Well thank you! I’ll certainly take the compliment, considering your body of work has always been an inspiration to me. I’ve always been surprised that miniature modeling has been seen as some sort of wizardry that shan’t be mentioned. Inevitably, the second question after “how?” is “why?”. It seems many are focused on scales that the manufactures set, and if it is 1/700 or 1/350 they just glaze over.

This perticular model took part of 2021 and almost all of 2022 to finish. To be exact, a year and week. I probably could have finished her earlier, but in the end, the time I spent was well worth it. The model was made entirely from boxwood and brass, fully planked. The rigging is copper wire and the sails and flags are made from silkspan. The base is made from spalted tamarind and the sea is carved and painted boxwood. The model was built from original drawings made by the RN. I’ve chosen to depict the ship coasting into Tahiti in happier times. Most folks don’t realize that the weather was pretty poor through the time Bounty was in Tahiti, and I’ve chosen a moody sea. The paint scheme, I believe, is far more accurate than the blue and yellow we see in later paintings. The contemporary paintings we have of the ship were painted by artists who never actually saw the ship in person. The rest are done much later, and we do some some artistic flair with the colors. Bligh himself comes tantalizing close to the paint colors used, but he leaves us high and dry in the end. We know for a fact she was left in her civilian colors, her hull was coppered, and her fittings changed to bronze from iron. Also new masts were stepped, in the RN fashion, on which Bligh comments he’s not satisfied with how this was done. As for the colors, I think she would have been at least partially, if not fully painted black. The interior facing portions would have been red, as was the style of the day, but I just can’t see such a working vessel being painted anything fancier than black. Sadly we’ll never know. The model contains several thousand pieces and was built to a scale of 28’ to 1” or 1/336. The hull is carved boxwood with individual planks are held to the hull with approximately 1,500 tree nails which were inserted into predrilled holes. Paint, as always, is from ScaleColors. HMAV Bounty was a small collier purchased by the Royal Navy in 1787 for a botanical mission to Tahiti. Bounty, originally named Bethia, was built by Blaydes Yard, Kingston-upon-Hull, England and modified for her mission by the RN at Deptford Yard. The ship was sent to the South Pacific Ocean under the command of William Bligh to acquire breadfruit plants and transport them to the West Indies. That mission was never completed owing to a 1789 mutiny led by acting lieutenant Fletcher Christian. The mutineers later burned Bounty while she was moored at Pitcairn Island. I have spent years reading about and studying Bounty, her crew, and her mission, and I’ve even been fortunate enough to acquire pieces of the real ship herself. If you’d like to see more of my work, I keep all of the model photos here: www.josephlavender.com

Here we have HMS Tiger, The Most Splendid Cat, arguably the best looking warship the Royal Navy ever built. Launched in 1913, built by John Brown & Co in Scotland, she was assigned to the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron during the First World War. Tiger would go on to fight at the Battle of Dogger Bank in 1915 and the Battle of Jutland in 1916. Her official motto was “Quis Eripet Dentes” or “Who Shall Bear my Teeth”. The model is entirely built from boxwood and brass. The sea base is carved jellying wood and painted, and her rigging is mostly nitinol and copper wire. Of course the paint is by ScaleColors, nothing else will do. This model is a bit smaller than my usual scale of 125’ to 1” or 1/1500. Tiger here is around 1/1900 scale. I wanted to see if I could achieve the same fidelity at a magnitude smaller than my usual work. While I am quite pleased with this one, I think I do prefer 1/1500 as my working scale. If you’d like to see more of my work, I have a website with all of the pictures at www.josephlavender.com

Greetings. I’d like to share my latest model, HMS Glatton as she appeared in the final hours of the war. The model is completely scratch built to 1/1500 scale or 125’ to 1”. The model is made from boxwood, brass, and the sea base is carved and painted wood. Paint is from ScaleColors of course. If you’d like to see more of my ships models they’re all on my website www.josephlavender.com I started this model a little before finishing Duilio, so total build time was about a month. Glatton, 5,746 tons displacement and her sister ship Gorgon were originally built for Norway but they were requisitioned at the beginning of the First World War. Due to higher priority construction, Glatton wasn’t commissioned until August 1918. Her 9.2” guns could range out to an astonishing 39,000 yards or a little over 22 miles. While the Royal Navy classified her as a monitor, she was more appropriately classified as a coastal defense battleship intended for shore bombardment. On September 16, 1918 while anchored in Dover, Glatton suffered a low-order explosion in one of her 6” magazines. The survivors were able to flood the forward 9.2” magazine, preventing it from exploding too. However they were cut off by fire from the aft magazine. The situation was very dire as a ship loaded with ammunition was anchored extremely close to Glatton. Had either of the large caliber magazines touched off, it’s likely the ammunition ship would have gone up too taking most of Dover with it. Glatton’s Captain ordered a pair of destroyers to torpedo Glatton and sink her before she exploded. This was accomplished and the wreck is currently under the Dover car ferry terminal. By disassembling Glatton’s sister ship during the subsequent investigation, the cause of the accident was found. While under construction, the shipyard, Armstrong Whitworth Elswick, left off critical rivets in the steel plate between the boiler rooms and the 6” magazines. Additionally the magazines should have been insulated with cork, but it was found that while some cork was on place, there was a mass of newspaper used as a substitute in places. Heat from cinders piled against this steel plate was pushed through the rivet holes, likely igniting the newspaper stuffed between the plate and the magazine causing the explosion. This shoddy workmanship cost the lives of 79 men who mostly died of horrifying burns, and injured another 124. Not to mention what could have happened had a main magazine exploded.

Thank you

Thank you

It’s not too often I build a WWII era warship as most of them have been done to death, however, the heavy Italian units seem to get very little play. Duilio was an Andria Doria class battleship that was extensively rebuilt in the 1930s. So much so, it’s almost possible to consider them new builds, just recycling a large bit of the original ship. At the time this was done, it seemed like a cost-effective way to add 4 new battleships to the Regia Marina, but in the end they wound up being nearly as expensive as a new build anyway. The rebuilds weren’t terrible ships considering they were built to counter the French, not the heavy units of the Royal Navy. The model was built to 1/1500 scale or 125’ to 1”. The hull and most large details are made of boxwood, with the balance being mostly brass and the sea is carved and painted Nootka Cyprus. She is wearing a camouflage scheme known in Italian as Spina di Pesce, which was used in early to mid 1941. Paint is from ScaleColors of course. If you’d like to see more of the process or would like to see more small ship models, you can visit my website at www.josephlavender.com A bit of history: Duilio was an Italian Battleship that served in the Regia Marina during World War I and World War II. She was named after the Roman fleet commander Gaius Duilius. Duilio was laid down in February 1912, launched in April 1913, and completed in May 1916. She was initially armed with a main battery of thirteen 305 mm (12.0 in) guns, but a major reconstruction in the late 1930s replaced these with ten 320 mm (13 in) guns. During World War II, she participated in numerous patrols and sorties into the Mediterranean, both to escort Italian convoys to North Africa and in attempts to catch the British Mediterranean Fleet. In November 1940, the British launched an air raid on Taranto; Duilio was hit by one torpedo launched by a Fairey Swordfish torpedo bomber, which caused significant damage. Repairs lasted some five months, after which the ship returned to convoy escort duties. A fuel shortage immobilized the bulk of the Italian surface fleet in 1942, and Duilio remained out of service until the Italian surrender in September 1943. She was thereafter interned at Malta until 1944, when the Allies permitted her return to Italian waters. She survived the war, and continued to serve in the post-war Italian navy, primarily as a training ship. Duilio was placed in reserve for a final time in 1953; she remained in the Italian navy's inventory for another three years before she was stricken from the naval register in late 1956 and sold for scrapping the following year.

Glad you like ‘er

Thanks!!

Greetings! Time to share some photos of the finished SMS Emden, 1/1500 scale. The model is completely built from scratch and depicts the ship as she appeared early on during her raiding cruise in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The hull is made from boxwood, the balance of the detail is brass, and the rigging is a mix of copper and Nitinol wire. The sea base is carved from Nootka Cyprus and painted. As usual no resins or anything there, just paint. The base for the case is made from olive. The scale is 1/1500 or 125’ to the inch. You can see more of my work in my gallery. www.josephlavender.com

I’m always late to the party This is 43 AWG copper wire, anodized dark brown.

Oh yes, very well done!

Miniature ship models have always fascinated me, but it would be impossible and very limiting to place them inside a bottle. Although the glass case she’s in is semi permanently sealed.

Sadly there would have to be sacrifices.

Thank you!