MODEL BEHAVIOR : Precision and Dedication Pay Off as Seaworthy Craftsmen’s Ships Come in at Muckenthaler

From the seagoing vessels of Egyptian pharaohs to Hollywood’s African Queen, from the tall ships celebrated by Melville to long ships such as oil tankers and aircraft carriers, the Muckenthaler Cultural Center has set sail through history.

More than 50 model ships, intricately detailed and painstakingly crafted by members of the Southland-based Ship Modelers Assn., will be on display in the center’s art gallery through Feb. 27.

Painstaking perhaps. But are they art?

“They’re high decorative art,” said Bill Russell, coordinator of the show with exhibition administrator Robert Zingg. “You see them in large residences, like the White House. They’re art because they involve artistic choices--choice of colors and woods, for example.

“The 17th-Century ships also have Baroque sculptural decorations. If you consider the original sculptures art, then you might consider a miniature of the same sculptures art.”

And far greater craft.

“These ships are not toys,” said Russell, who made the replica of the Colonial schooner Sultana (1767). “If I started to make one today, I wouldn’t expect to finish it for two years. It is a massive job.”

Model builders try not only to capture the aesthetic beauty of the originals, but historical accuracy in construction and the history of the vessel itself--what battles it may have fought in, for instance--are also paramount concerns.

Builders of American ship models find source material including detailed drawings at the Smithsonian Institution or the National Archives. Modelers of British ships communicate with the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich or the Science Museum in London. In most cases, the models are made from scratch.

Ancient Egyptian ships by Jack Elem, a veteran model-ship builder who died this year, presented special challenges. Information for Queen Hatshepsut’s ceremonial barge (built circa 1500 BC), for instance, came from temple wall carvings; he fashioned it from gold leaf and woods including jelutong, paduak and boxwood, and carved the figurines by hand. For the seagoing Byblos (2500 BC), Elem sewed the small planks together with miniature rope.

Approximately a quarter of the models are based on modern ships, from the 1920s on; the majority are of earlier sailing ships. Average length is two feet.

At six feet long, the Batamya (a composite model by Tom Palen based on two 1976 French-built sister oil tankers), “is on the large side,” Russell said, and boasts the smallest scale, 1/16-inch equals one foot. “When you’re dealing with a ship 1,200 feet long, even a 1:200 scale (model) turns out to be six feet long.”

Whitehall boats were small work and pleasure crafts, ranging from 14 to 22 feet in length; the example (1829) made by R.D. Kalayjian offers the largest scale, one inch equaling one foot.

Detail can be astonishing. Do the modelers use magnifying glasses, or even microscopes, to handle tiny wood pegs no bigger than ink dots?

“The good Lord made ship model builders myopic,” said Edward Averkieff of La Habra, who fashioned the Dutch-built trade vessel Roter Lowe (1597).

Russell serves on the board of directors of the modelers’ association, which boasts 150 members and is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

Although the H.M.S. Bounty (1787) model on display was made by a surgeon, Henry Bikhazi, generalizations can’t be made regarding about the club members’ professions. There also are lawyers and architects, cabinet makers and plumbers.

“For whatever reasons, the vast majority are men,” Russell noted. “But there have been a few prominent women; one of our members who died recently wrote a book on the subject. The majority are also older, though not all by any means.

“The real requirement, first of all, is an interest in history. (You’re going to) really dig out the background of these ships. It’s helpful to have an artistic bent, but you must be a good craftsman, especially a good woodworker in small sizes, and metal on the modern ships.

“Most important, you have to be patient. You’re undertaking several thousand hours of work, and you have to be oriented to getting it right. You have to be willing to throw it away if it isn’t right.”

The greatest frustration concerns the exacting sequences required by the myriad of tasks.

“Especially when you’re rigging sailing ships, you have to do first things first, or you get into situations where you can’t do them second,” Russell said. “Things that are easy at a particular time become difficult or impossible if you move beyond that point. Your fingers are too big to get in, you can’t get tweezers in.

“You’re forever thinking about what you can do when.”

The modelers are not above poking fun at themselves: Using scraps such as old brooms and chicken wire, the H.R.H.C.B.V. Gloomph (1989) by Jack Moffett of Whittier covers some 2,000 years of ship design by using Egyptian oars, Chinese junk sails and a color TV strapped to the bridge.

Russell has been making model ships for about eight years. He now has two completed ships in his Cerritos home, and one that he’s working on, to show for his efforts. But having something to show is not the important thing to Russell.

“There’s satisfaction in finishing,” he noted, “but the doing is the rewarding part.”

* What: “Sailing Through History With Model Ships.”

* When: Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Through Feb. 27.

* Where: Muckenthaler Cultural Center, 1201 W. Malvern Ave., Fullerton.

* Whereabouts: Take the Riverside (91) Freeway to the Euclid exit and head north; turn left on Malvern Avenue.

* Wherewithal: Free.

* Where to call: (714) 738-6595.

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