I started building model ships in my early teens and looking back my first efforts were pretty ordinary, of course I thought that they were great at the time. My models were made from whatever materials that I could find in my dad’s shed and were painted with leftover enamel house paint. None of them were radio controlled but some did have electric motors.

In my later teens I started to build model aircraft so ships took a back seat for a few years. After I crashed a few aircraft I went back to building model ships as they were much more forgiving.

I have had a go at building all sorts of model ships from all sort of materials. Early models were from balsa wood, plywood and even cardboard. Later I moved on to building in different varieties of wood and now most are built with fiberglass and plastic. I have found that each model is a learning experience and I would like to think that each one is just a little bit better than the last.

The photos below show some of my early ship models.

These are some of the first model boats that I made when I was in my early teens in the mid 1970’s.

The models got a little better as skills improved although the modelling budget was still very limited so materials were often second hand. The two ships in the center of this group were built from cardboard covered with several coats of enamel paint to waterproof them.

PS Urana. This is a freelance model of a Murray River Paddle Steamer. A very basic model with the hull made from plywood and the superstructure made from cardboard.

PS Jindera. This is another freelance Paddle Steamer model. The whole thing was built from 3mm plywood and was a bit top heavy.

I started to get into building and sailing model yachts. Here we have a 36R, a One Metre and a 10 Rater.

A Group of models that I had constructed by the early to mid 1990’s. I still have most of these models and they still run occasionally.