The Miniature Ships of Mr. Theodore Gommi

In the 1930's and into the 1940's, there ran in Popular Science a series of articles on the construction of miniature model ships. These were the master mind of builder and ship enthusiast Theodore Gommi of Hoboken, New Jersey.  While these might not have been the first miniature construction articles to run, they were the first to have possibly found a mass audience here in the United States.
He wrote these articles so that someone who possessed even the most basic of tools could build a fine model. To my knowledge, he was one of the first authors to suggest the use of balsa wood in the construction of miniature ships. He was also an advocate of the "bread and butter" method, using several sheets of thinner material to build up a hull.
Most of his articles concentrated on the construction of warships in 1/1200, though he did cover the larger 1/600 scale as well. Obviously, converting from one to the other was a fairly easy task. Most of the time, his designs were fairly sound, such as an article from August of 1934 that covered the construction of the USS Saratoga and some four stacker destroyers in 1/600.

(All Images via Popular Science/Google Books)

However, when later destroyer classes were built, he had a tendency to make their turrets slightly on the small side. This image of the USS Winslow from an article on building destroyers in the June 1939 Popular Science shows just that.

Most of the other details were there, albeit simplified, as one would expect on miniatures.
Sometimes, his model designs showed the limitations of the available information. His plans for the USS North Carolina, from January 1939, appear to have been based upon the ship's profile only. This is something I plan to cover another time in a little more depth.
The work of Mr. Gommi went a long way to advance the construction of miniatures here in the United States, yet he seemed to have put aside the articles after 1944. He appears to have continued building models, however, much as he had before and after the series.
Needless to say, his contribution stands, and indeed appear to be one of the few popular articles on the subject published in the United States during the first half of the 20th century. 

Shall I Begin Again

I suppose it was bound to happen.

As I started getting into model warships again, I strayed. My goal was pure, or so I assumed. It was to build a motorized fleet of models. To that end, I wrote on my maritime history blog about a series of small model ships that were indeed designed to be motorized (or at least had that potential).

Building A Navy, One Foot (or 30 Centimeters) At A Time

This is when I went astray.

There were three kits I wanted to build that fell outside of that purview. These kits, two Lindberg) former Pyro) kits, the Zuikaku and Yamato in 1/1200, and a Lindberg 1/1150 Musashi, were simply models I wanted to try out. The two former I had never built, though I did have experience with the origin of the latter, the original Lindberg Yamato.

These models were an attempt to see what I could do. The Zuikaku was the only one of the three to be built from the box. The Lindberg nee-Pyro Yamato is based upon the older Aurora Yamato, and needed much correction, and so I did. 

The Musashi, however, sealed my fate.

I drastically corrected the model, over-correcting in one area. The model was cut to waterline, over-corrected the bow (I made it too wide from its previous too narrow), and corrected the sheer. Yes, the model is oversimplified and has many other problems, but the end result was that it now even more resembled that legendary ship.

And I found myself smitten with miniatures.

Some clarification. 

My definition of miniature is any model less than 304mm (12") in length, less than 1/900 scale. This means that a great many of my 30cm range models, most in fact, do not qualify as true miniatures. And there are indeed many models that fall into this range.

Beyond kits, however, are the old, die cast models and toys that sometimes make a pretense towards being scale-like, others that are purely toys. There are abandoned wooden models built at some point in the past. Then there are collectibles.

All shall be welcomed here.

I suspect my output will be sporadic, but I hope that it will be nonetheless interesting.

So, welcome aboard.