Which side?

[ubjs]

If I am going to show a modelship in a stand, in this case Vasa from 1628, should one show the starboard or port side?

[Jim Rogers]

Your ship your call.

[reklein]

Take a picture of both sides,print them out, then compare the pics side by side.

[Keith Black]

 Sometimes one side is better than the other but the way I see most ships shown is bow on the right side as if the ship were sailing left to right. Is this because we read left to right? Are models predominantly shown with the bow on the left built in Middle Eastern countries, reading right to left?  

[Jaager]

Plans are left for us from the era of wood and sail with the bow on the left and on the right.  There is no rule.  (It may be something as simple as the dominant hand of the designer.)   In museums, a predominance of left side on display or right side on display probably reflects the bias of the curator.  If your model is scratch built POF and one side is left frames showing and the other is the completed ship, it would depend on which view you wish to show off at the moment.

[catopower]

1 hour ago, Keith Black said:

 Sometimes one side is better than the other but the way I see most ships shown is bow on the right side as if the ship were sailing left to right. Is this because we read left to right? Are models predominantly shown with the bow on the left built in Middle Eastern countries, reading right to left?  

Does this mean my Japanese models should be shown vertically? 🙃

[Keith Black]

22 minutes ago, catopower said:

Does this mean my Japanese models should be shown vertically?

Only if they're modeled sinking. 

[Roger Pellett]

In the 1960’s when Naval Architecture students were taught hand drafting  of lines drawings, we were instructed that the bow always faced to the right.  This would mean the the drawing would show the ship’s starboard side.  I don’t know when this custom began.

 

Roger

[Harvey Golden]

5 minutes ago, Roger Pellett said:

In the 1960’s when Naval Architecture students were taught hand drafting  of lines drawings, we were instructed that the bow always faced to the right.  This would mean the the drawing would show the ship’s starboard side.  I don’t know when this custom began.

 

Roger

I was also thinking about drawings. . . Chapelle's lines-drawings are very inconsistent, which strikes me as a little odd.  No doubt certain schools have their "ways," but others just followed their fancy.  The thought of a boat (in model or lines drawing) traveling the direction one reads is interesting, but when I 'read' a boat, I go from bow to stern, so my inclination is to draw them pointing left. (My mentor told me not to draw them that way, BTW...) 

Harvey

[AJohnson]

Conventions mentioned above notwithstanding, but does anyone think any preference might be influenced at all by if you are left or right handed?  It may sound daft, I only say that as I like to display my models showing their port side, but it occurs to me that may be because I’m left handed and do the same for model aircraft.  Just a random thought....

[mtaylor]

No preference here but like others... there's "wall side" and "viewing side".   Purely random from where I sit.

[Bob Cleek]

I always put the side that has the most errors closest to the wall.  

[druxey]

If it's a half model...no discussion!

[Cathead]

I've developed the habit of designating a "show" side of the model early on, and always work on the opposite side first. That way, initial mistakes are concentrated on the "wall" side and I have a better chance of a higher quality "show" side. 

[Jaager]

5 hours ago, Harvey Golden said:

Chapelle's lines-drawings are very inconsistent, which strikes me as a little odd. 

If HIC was replicating an existing historical plan, he used the direction on the original plan,

I am guessing that when he  was starting with a half model or table of offsets he used his own preferred orientation - probably bow at the right side edge.

[Harvey Golden]

3 hours ago, Jaager said:

If HIC was replicating an existing historical plan, he used the direction on the original plan,

I am guessing that when he  was starting with a half model or table of offsets he used his own preferred orientation - probably bow at the right side edge.

That makes very good sense, but there are still a good number of drawings he made from lines that he took that are not pointed consistently.  I think if he had felt strongly about one direction or the other, he would've pointed them thus, even when basing a drawing off of a historic plan, but who knows?

-Harvey

[thibaultron]

Maybe it depended on which side he was able to take the lines off of.

[reklein]

Another solution would be to display the model in front of a mirror,or ,at least be able to walk around the display.

[catopower]

5 hours ago, reklein said:

Another solution would be to display the model in front of a mirror...

I don't like that option as there's always some ugly guy on the other side looking at me instead of the model.

Edited May 2, 2021 by catopower