Here is a photo, by Macomb IL aviation artist Bob Johnson, of my 1:300 cardstock model of the BENSON/GLEAVES class destroyer USS MACOMB:

USS MACOMB

Feel free to pull up other photos of my cardstock model ships:

• Here are some photos I did Christmas 2000, with my new digital camera -- principally of my more recently completed 1:700 GLEAVES/MACOMB- class destroyer:
  • The 1:700 GLEAVES in flash-light -- "at night-time"?
  • The 1:700 GLEAVES in flash-light, port stern quarter.
  • How a an oncoming GLEAVES might look at night, from a submarine periscope ... or a liferaft?
  • A GLEAVES with a 1:700 Destroyer Escort and a 1:1200 HUNT Type 1 (uncomplete) in a badly focussed photo.
• Digital camera photos just of my L/AA and L&M class British destroyers:
  • In blue/twilight? light.
  • Traditional portrait of just the L&M class destroyer,all weapons -- even the pom-pom antiaircraft guns -- trained.
  • Dark photo almost lifelike. Note how British destroyers had even stern guns trained forward, preferably.
• An earlier FINESCALE MODELER photo--of just the (1:700) destroyers.
• 1:700 USS SIMS and RMS ARTIGLIERE(Photo by Tom Metcalf of Juneau, Alaska, about 10 years ago.)
• 1:600 RNeN TROMP and HMAS PERTH on a dark background. (Photo by Bob Johnson.)
• 1:300 USS MACOMB (crash-dived) by a Aichi Type 99 "Val" divebomber on its after antiaircraft gun emplacement (as happened off Okinawa, historically), with 1:700 and 1:1200(!) SIMS class U.S. destroyers. (1:300 Val divebomber designed and constructed by my son, Robert Coatney. Photo by Bob Johnson.)
• 1:700 HMAS PERTH, with (1:700) British HMS LANCE and HMS MARKSMAN destroyers. (Photo by Bob Johnson.)
• Newly designed ships at 1:700 scale: BROOKLYN (light cruiser), WICHITA (heavy cruiser), SAN FRANCISCO, 1942 (heavy cruiser), GRIDLEY/BAGLEY/BENHAM (destroyer with 16 torpedo tubes), SAMUEL B. ROBERTS (destroyer escort).
• 1:700 U.S. Navy cruisers and a BAGLEY class destroyer vs. a plastic model of the Japanese battle cruiser HIEI. WARNING: BIG file.
• Here is the essence of cardstock model ship-building:
  a 1:700 3-dimensional BROOKLYN arising out of its 2-D kit-sheet.
• 1:48 Soviet BT-5 (6T-5) fast tank and assorted ship pieces, including a 1:700 GRIDLEY atop a 1:300 GRIDLEY hull, a very large-scale Italian twin 4.7" gun turret, a large-scale USS MONITOR American Civil War ironclad (which is the free model on this webpage, by the way), a 1:150? scale British single 4.7" gun turret, and a progression of British twin 8" gun turrets. WARNING: VERY BIG file. (700K--I'll try to reduce these.)
• A scale comparison of U.S. BUTLER-class destroyer escorts (1:300 and 1:700) and British HUNT class escort destroyers (1:300, 1:600, and 1:1200). WARNING: BIG file.
• New (19Dec01) Cruiser photos, PQ17 covering force, DIDO, etc.
  • DIDO, NORFOLK, and LONDON from the starboard stern quarter photographed with flash.
  • DIDO, NORFOLK, and LONDON from the starboard bow quarter in indoor light.
  • Light cruisersDIDO, PERTH, and BROOKLYN from the starboard photographed with flash.
  • Convoy PQ17 "Covering Force" heavy cruisersNORFOLK, LONDON, WICHITA, and TUSCALOOSA(?) from the starboard in evening indoor light (with non-PQ17 BROOKLYN in background).
  • Convoy PQ17 "Covering Force" heavy cruisersNORFOLK, LONDON, WICHITA, and TUSCALOOSA(?) from the starboard, photographed with flash, with non-PQ17 BROOKLYN in background).

I photocopy the plans (of the hull, superstructure, stack, and turret pieces) onto heavy paper cardstock--usually light gray. I then crease, cut out, fold and roll, and assemble these components. I have to fabricate the detailed equipment--gun tubes, searchlights, masts, AA guns, lifeboats, aircraft, etc.--from other materials, usually.

I have written up general and specific instructions, and I can make these models whenever I want ... at whatever scale. (1:1250 seems to be about the smallest practical scale. 1:300, for destroyers, is the largest I have attempted so far.) This is a an entirely different technique from plastic modeling, and patience and flexibility are required. The rewards are great, however: finally, I am able to build the model warships I have always wanted to ... and inexpensively!

Unfortunately, designing cardstock model ships is considerably more difficult than constructing them. The hull, especially--with its compound curves, sheer and tumblehome--defies even 3-D CAD programs in the effort to make its 3-D configuration transform/conform to a 2-D shape. Intensive test-building is required when designing cardstock model ships, and a design flaw usually doesn't show itself until the model is completely built ... sort of..

Now, would you like to return to my Home Page to look over my FREE military history game?

[10Jan96, updated 15Aug07]