Help. Jack's Ship - a Birthday present

Jack's daughter Helen bought him this model ship for his 87th birthday.  She found it on ebay and the story goes that a young couple found it in the loft of the house they moved into.  

  

The ship doesn't have a name on it and Jack would like to find out if it is modeled on a particular ship.  It is very well made and detailed, so whoever built it took a lot of care and effort to get things right. 

 It doesn't have a figurehead so we were wondering if it is French?

The ship has 50 guns above and below beck. 

 If any one has any idea please let us know, Jack would be very interested.

Jack's 28mm 'Canteena'

Jack has been busy building a number of 28mm 'Canteenas' for friends and family.

Jack was a '£10 Pom' in the 1960s - for those who don't know, or can't remember this was the scheme under which Brits were subsidised to emigrate to Australia.  Jack lived out there near Perth for a while and even served in the Austrian Citizen's Military Force  unit of Cameron Highlanders - kilt and all.  The point for mentioning this?  Well Bob and I were saying to Jack that he had mispelt 'Cantina' but I notice there is a 'Canteena' bar in Australia. Although it is newish, maybe this was a long lost Australian memory coming to the surface?  It's a good excuse if nothing else!

The roof lifts off and the building is design as a small storage box.

Jack's 28mm ACW gunboat

In his early 80s (now 87) Jack made this model for our 28mm ACW wargames.  She is equipped with two Redoubt Miniatures guns and gunners and figures from their naval landing party.

The flag pole is removal so she can also be used as a Union ship.  Again with the Redoubt gunners and sailors from 1st Corp.

 

Jacklex - 20mm Miniature Soldiers of London

Another look back at some of Jack's earlier work.

Jack showed us a set of 20mm British Guardsmen he produced back in the late 1970s/80 under the banner Miniature Soldiers of London - London Pageant. The idea was to produce a range for the tourist souvenir market covering the Household and Guard regiments.  He started with a Guards unit and outsourced the painting. Although some sets sold, not enough and they went out of production with only this set being produced.

87 today!

Jack celebates his 87th birthday today. An old wargamer soldier on. Happy Birthday

28mm ACW/Wild West Water Tower

Sorry about the absence of posts,  I keep this page for articles and pictures about Jack and his models.  When we get together for an actual wargame, I post them on our sister site abcwargamers.blogspot.co.uk.

As part of a further reprise of the range of Jack's models he has made for our games. A year or two ago, Bob and I were talking to Jack about getting out ACW/Wild West train back into action and the lack of scenery.  I showed him a paper model of a water tower from the White Wash City set.  Whilst he liked it, he felt that he might be able to make something.

Here's the result!

HMS Cressy complete

As you may recall from posts elsewhere on this blog, Jack has been working on a model of the WW1 Armoured Cruiser HMS Cressy.

Although it was due to have been completed at Christmas, as is almost always the case at shipyards the construction suffered some delays, not least when his son showed him a picture of HMS Cressy with an Admirals walkway on the stern which Jack didn't have on his picture!  Whilst not many people probably knew about the walkway, it had to be retro-fitted.

Anyway, he finally finished this week and I thought I show you some pictures of the finished article. 

The model is made from cardboard, foam board, coffee stirers, bits of wood, wire rods and home castings. All the lifeboats and the steam launches are also hand built and all the guns rotate! 

Not too bad for a lad of 86 years young!

Jack's Landau collection

Some pictures of Jack's 54mm collection of Landaus which he produced and are now sold by Little Legions.

The Royal Landau

20mm Colonial Standard Bearers at last!

Finally, the 2 British Colonial Standard Bearers that Bob discovered the moulds for on Jack's workbench.

Like them so much might get him to run off a couple more to make command stands and unit standard bearers. I know that they stopped caring flags into battle in the  late 1870s, early 1880s, but they look nice.