Mike Taylor has once again contributed an article. This time about the Cleveland Class Cruiser, USS Duluth. Check it out below.

article here

As always if you would like to discuss this article or leave feedback for Mike, do so here.

Thanks,
Jim

Mike, a truely wonderful addition to Armorama! :-)
I love it! It's been quite a few years since I've built anything "ship". The camo is terrific. Is it all done by hand? The water looks incredible too.
Very nice job!

I've never done a ship and am always amazed at how nice they look-especially yours. It looks very nice. I really like the shape and look of the bow and stern waves-you got it right. You should tell us all how you did the water.

Thanks guys, for the kind words,

I wish I had a dollar for every time I've been asked about water! I'll tell you I go ino it in the West Virginia article posted here. I will do an article dedicated to that in the future though...Mike T

Naval model aren't really anything I've ever done. It is great to see someone who can handle all of the aspects of the naval scene!! Simply breath-taking!!

I was just wondering about the wake on boats. I noticed that some of the ships you have made have a wake in front, in the middle and from the back (this just goes to show my lack of knowledge in this area). How is a wake created and what was it that made you put the wake just where it was...the front and back for understandable, but the middle threw me off a bit. Explain please...I'm just curious. The only boats I know are the faster, smaller boats you would waterski after...

When does a boat become a ship?? The bow is the front and the aft is the back right???

H Brian,

The middle wake is a remnant from the breaking bow wave that travels back along the hull. I almost forgot! I'd like to say thanks to Jim for that wonderful job he did on the black and white photo's backdrop. When I went to see how the article looked I was amazed thinking he'd found a wartime photo as it wa loading. As it got further along I realized what he'd done. Excellent work Jim...Mike T/Modelguy2

Mike,
Lol....darn I was hoping to fool you completey. Just kidding. Thanks for the compliment. The photo is proof of your good work.

I can see why a lot of us are interested in your water effects also as they are quite convincing. It must be hard to store all these bases though. Do you have a special shelving unit or something?

Jim

Jim all of my children have left home : ( Meaning these are all for customers..Mike

Mike,
Ah...well I saw your 1/350 Bismark on SteelNavy so I would imagine that after a few big ones like that you would run out of space fast. Some day I really need to just realize my dream of being filthy rich. That way not only will I be able to have all the room I need to build my stuff, but I can commission work from master builders (like you) and have sort of a military model museum in my 4000 sq. ft. basement. hehe

Hmm....on second thought I might need to share that space with my Star Wars collection too.

On another note, it seems like the Ship building community is a lot more likely to display images of a build rather than images with an article. I am glad there are some people, like you Mike, who are willing to write down some of what's involved with a project. This topic would make a whole book on it's own but I really can't say enough about this kind of "passing on the knowledge" effect. I personally credit Shep Paine with getting me involved in armor modeling as a youth. It was his well wrtten yet straight forward inserts in Monogram models that made the idea of painting, detailing, and building dioramas a reality for me. Bottom line....I wish more ship modelers were like you.

Cheers,
Jim

Nice article! Currently I'm looking for more how-to on building ships than about water. I think one of the more difficult things about ship building is making the small model look 'big'.


I believe (someone correct me if I'm wrong) that floating vessels (for lack of better name) that are less than 200 feet in length are classified 'boats'. Vessels that are longer than 200 feet are called 'ships'.

YodaMan

Being a submariner, the only thing called a boat is a submarine. Anything else is a ship...errrrr...actually a target! :-)

A superb job Mike. I really like the realistic looking water!

I may be mistaken, but, if a vessel goes into or on another vessel, the smaller vessel is a boat and the larger veesel is a ship.
capnjock

That's how I've always heard it too...... a boat is something that goes on a ship, though they do refer to submarines as boats....probably due to the Germans calling them U-boats

Mike, excellent work on the Duluth! You can be proud, and thanks for adding it to Armorama!

GREAT ARTICLE JIM - THANKS
ROBERTO