The Jugger-Nauticus Ship

Compared to the very many fairground themed models I have made over the years, I have made relatively very few boats though I have always loved ships of all sizes.

In 2012 I built a small ship which was followed soon after by The Voyager in 2013 and which I further upgraded in 2014. I also built two models I was very proud of with The Wrath of Tides in 2015, The Phantom in 2016.

After another couple of years focused on fairground models, in 2019 I once again switched my attention to focus on another series of boats, the first of which started with the building of The Storm Slayer. This whetted my appetite to try exploring new shapes of the ship’s hull and I went on to design and construct two more boats.

I was pleased with them all but each one seemed to push me even more towards the challenge of creating a ship with a much more curved hull than I had so far achieved and this is how this current model got started.

My previous boat models have been displayed at Meccano clubs meetings and were well received but at the back of my mind I still felt driven to build a boat with the kind of curved hull as seen on the old sailing ships of the 17th or 18th century, and that was the main objective.

As has been the case in the past, once I finally I succeeded in achieving the testing curved shape of the hull I just had to go on and complete the full ship and the assembly continued fast and furiously until a much bigger and wider beast had come together, even larger than I had anticipated.

It quickly dawned on me as a consequence that the main central mast if it was to be kept in proportion, was going to be higher than the space available in my car and so I built the mast to the available height and with a detachable section instead that had its own independent riggings.

I built two portholes in the centre of the ship with steps to descend to the inside, also steps to go to the two main top decks.

I added just one cannon before deciding not to add any more, and because in the other three ships the sails are in red, I decided to used a similar plastic material but in a cream colour for this ship’s sails.

The ship was finished off with rigging, an anchor, rudder, hoists or cranes, steps to board, rear lights, a bell, plus a few other little details.

I decided to stand the ship on a fixed motionless platform underneath due to the size and weight of the model, though I may in the near future introduce a mechanism to introduce an ‘at sea’ rocking motion.

It really is a beast of a model but it’s ready to sail and all that was left was to christen it.

I name this ship ‘The Jugger-Nauticus’, may she conquer even the deadliest of seas.