Paul Eisenberg's Incredible
1:200 IJN Battleship Text by Rob Mackie |
| Paul Eisenberg’s 1:200 IJN battleship Nagato is a site to
behold. Laid down in November 1995, Paul recently added the finishing touches and
“put her under glass”. The creator of this masterpiece is a 58 year old high
school history teacher who started scratch building at age 11. P.C. Coker's "Building
Warship Models"greatly influenced Paul's modeling. After reading it he built his
first major work of "reasonable quality," a 1:200 Conti di Cavour. He
generally favors 1:200 scale and has also built Dunkirque, Kongo, Akizuki, Bolzano, I-400
submarine and Pelicano. The Nagato's hull is constructed in the fashion of an ice cube tray or egg carton using sheet basswood sections "plated" over with styrene sheet. Not surprisingly, the pagoda mast structure was the biggest challenge. Aligning the nine deck levels and the hexapod support structure was quite difficult but also "most enjoyable", according to Paul. The wood deck is a scribed styrene "For Sale" sign. Each turret was individually constructed-no resin casting shortcuts on this model. Paul used neither etched brass nor pre-constructed fittings in constructing Nagato. Everything on the model is scratch built with the exception of the anchor chain. Paul didn't keep a project log so he is not sure how much time Nagato consumed. He worked in spurts, rarely less than two hours, nor more than eleven. He occasionally put aside the project, once for as long as one month. And throughout his wife was "understanding to a fault." We look forward to featuring Paul's other models in future Warship updates. In the meantime feast your eyes on this masterpiece and be humble. Click the thumbnail to view full size picture
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