Existing comment:
Model Hull Construction:
British dockyard models made in the 1600s and early 1700s are known as Navy Board models. Their plank-on-frame construction mimics full-scale building practice except that, for reasons unknown, they were only partially planked, leaving the regularly spaced frame timbers of the lower hull exposed to view.
Between about 1710 and 1740, model builders gradually turned to a new method of construction. So-called Georgian models looked more realistic that Navy Board models, as their hulls are fully planked beneath the waterline. Yet internally they are actually less realistic, as they contain no hull frames whatsoever.
Most dockyard models were made at the same time as the ships they depict. Block or model models, on the other hand, were made beforehand as part of the design process. Because they were solid throughout, and because fittings like channels and gunport lids were merely painted on their external surfaces, they could be produced in as little as three weeks. |