A friend has built scale models mostly of sailing ships for about 35 years. His ships are exquisitely detailed and in my opinion, built to museum quality. Each model is displayed in an appropriately designed wood framed case and displayed throughout his home. His latest work was to be his farewell project, so it was his largest and most demanding - the H.M.S. Victory, a model built to 1/78 scale. The project took him about one and a half years to complete and incorporated some 10,000 parts, including 1300 copper cladding tiles for the hull, each cut and bent to the correct size, 102 canons and canon portholes, 500 deck planks, each shaped to the appropriate angle to fit the narrowing deck, and even 540 knots in its  intricate rigging, all individually tied.  Having seen his work, I now have a new respect for the builders of those ship replicas displayed publicly and in museums.

My friend contacted me several months before completing the project with a request to build the case for this model. The model is roughly 55" from bow mast to stern, 20" maximum width, and 36" from its keel to the top of its highest mast. I designed the case to accommodate the model with about two inches of clearance from these extreme dimensions. The case is about 5' long, 2' 4" deep, and 3' 7" high (excluding the belaying pin bolts). I used white oak for its strength and finished it with tinted Danish oil (medium brown Transtint pre-mixed with acetone and then mixed with natural Watco Danish oil) and wax to resemble English common  furniture and building construction of the age of the original ship, ca 1800. The top is three panel construction with mortise and tenon joinery. (I chose three panels over a single panel to reduce sagging of the Plexiglas panels.) It is attached to the corner stiles with wood screws turned to resemble belaying pins. The corner stiles are mortised into the base frame and held in place with epoxy, while the tops are separated and structurally stabilized with arched rails (with mortise and tenon joints). The base is frame and panel construction. The frame is 1 3/4" thick and 5 1/2" wide, and constructed from two boards, each of which was shaped so that together they would create the final edge design, as shown in the picture below. The base panel is twice book matched curly white oak on a plywood base. The back of the case is a removable frame that serves as a door for accessing the model. The back frame fits snugly between the stiles, and a spline in its lower rail registers into a groove in the base to add rigidity and to help avoid warping of the panel. I provided a keyed lock as a security gesture. We decided to use 1/4" Plexiglas in place of tempered glass to reduce weight and cost. The case alone weighs about 100 pounds.

My appreciation to the ship builder (who is pictured placing his masterpiece in the case for the first time) for his confidence in my ability to properly show his work. It is a beautifully crafted model of a proud ship.

(The front of the case faces the windows in the photos below.)