Hello All,

Very impressed with this site.
I have quick question in regard to the height of finished 1/350 scale ships ie Bismark or the Missouri.
The reason is that I am building a large cabinet for my models to be displayed in & I am not sure what height to set the shelves at.
I already have a full display cabinet for my finished armour & airplane models, its nearly full.
I was thinking about 300mm but I dont have one completed to give me a reference.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards

TRISTAN

Hi Tristan

First things first, so... Welcome aboard MSW
Regarding your question, and I must say to you that I don't have either of those ships (not my scale!) but I could suggest you the following:
- make a series of holes (half way) on the inside of the cabinet, so that you can reposition the shelves if there's a need (just like the Ikea and other brands cabinet/book shelves).
- depending on where you are going to place your cabinet and in what shelve your placing your Yamato and Bismark, you could also consider using glass shelves - although heavyer, they allow to look through to the "next level" (just a though)

Hope this helps
Best regards,
Skipper

Of course it depends on the exact ship you're modeling, and how you mount her. It's 5:30 am and I haven't had my second cup of coffee yet so don't hold me to these numbers. Bismark was about 45 meters high, which works out to about 5 inches in 1/350. Then there is the base. If you just go with a simple plastic base, like comes with many kits, that might be another 3 inches. If you do what many ship builders do and make wooden base, with brass or wood stands to it, four or fives inches. All together 12 inches between shelfs would do it for most kits.

Tristan, welcome to the site!

As Rodger suggested, one of the major considerations is just how much of a base you intend to use.

I have both the Tamiya 1/350 Enterprise and Missouri in my display cases at the moment. Rather than the more frequently seen style which use brass stands on a wood base, I prefer placing the ship on wood blocks which are on the base. I just prefer not to have to drill holes through the hull to hold the ship in place. Not only does this allow the ship to be removed from the base (if you want), the height of the base winds up being just under 1 inch (2.5 cm or so).

Skipper's suggestion about adjustable shelves is spot on, that way each shelf can be adjusted to minimize wasted space.

The height for my Missouri (including the 1 inch base) is 9 5/8 inches (call it 24.5 cm) and that leaves plenty of room above the masts so they don't scrape taking it in or out of the shelf.

The Enterprise is a bit bigger and that shelf is 11 inches (call it 28 cm), and is probably as big as you'd need. Just remember that these are figured using a base that only adds 1 inch to the height of the model, so if your base is higher, that has to be taken into account, so your original guess of 300mm leaves more than enough room.

Again, welcome to the site!!

Tom

I've got both of the kits built (along with several others) I use the bases supplied with the kit the heights are around 280 mm, so 300 would work, but I'ld go minimum 320 for "wiggle room" in case you have to pick them up.

HypaT80,

I like Sippers idea, haveing some kind of adjustment is the best way to go. It is also best to incorperate blasters idea in any kind of shelf or bookcase, you always want "wiggle" room because no matter how we measure things always error on the large side. You can take away on wood work easier than adding.