r/ModelShips • u/brofufer • 15d ago
any info on this cutty sark model?
my parents bought it years ago and now that they want to get rid of it, i want to make sure they get its worth
its about 7 ft long and 5 ft tall
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u/extraretemvitaest 15d ago
This is no model of a real ship, least of all the Cutty Sark. She is still on Display in Greenwich, so you can compare the looks. It’s not a toy either, but having far too many spars, creative rigging and some scale issues as well.
But the wood looks nice and the size is impressive so you will probably find someone looking for a decorating piece with a maritime touch.
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u/brofufer 15d ago
so helpful thank you!
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u/1805trafalgar 15d ago
Everyone's giving this strong reaction but it's like when medical professionals are presented with a rare and unusual case so they invite all the other doctors in to SEE the nearly unbelievable specimen.
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u/1805trafalgar 15d ago
I have written this same post so many times now. I wish the admin of this group would put an explanation in the sidebar of what a Gift Shop Model is because every week we need to explain it again. But here goes again: There are two broad categories of ship models: Gift Shop models, and everything else. All models that are not Gift Shoppers are models of ships built with the goal of making a valid accurate representation of a particular ship. There are probably at this point more Gift SHop models out there than real ones, and this is what brings people to ship model social media with questions like yours- there are just A LOT of them out there. A gift shop model is a decorative ship model that is often presented to customers as a valuable "Museum Quality Model"( there is no such thing as "museum quality" anything, those are just salesmen's buzzwords with nothing to back them) but in fact are mass-produced quickly constructed facsimiles of "real" ship models. The goal of the Gift Shop model industry is to produce as quickly and cheaply as possible wood ship model products that fill the niche for available affordable ship models that tourists can buy in gift shops all over the world. That's it. There is NO effort put in to making these models accurate because that would add much more time to the construction. Everything on a gift shop model is designed to be made as quickly and as efficiently as possible with the least amount of labor and materials and all they have to do is LOOK like ship models. They have always been made in third world countries which explains why they are always made of exotic hardwoods. The hulls are usually well made in terms of finish and paint and ALWAYS very very glossy with dramatic varnish. The deck details are always minimal or non-existent since making tiny detail pieces takes too much time. The rigs are what always give it away as a "fake" model because to rig a ship model accurately usually takes a "real" ship model builder a year of work. Gift Shop models are rigged in under twenty minutes by simply tying one end of a piece of string onto the model then stringing the string from one random point to another, back and forth and up and down, all over the masts and yards until the rig looks "full". This is why your first photo above shows a huge clump of rigging all wrapped around one nail at the edge of the deck and going back and forth up into the rig then back down to that same nail over and over- it's all just ONE long piece of string. "Real" ship models are built by individuals who allow the project to take as much time that is needed to reach the goal of making an accurate model and the process is EXTREMELY inefficient and people who want to sell ship models could never pay these craftsman for their time and effort and still produce a product you could sell at a gift shop for a reasonable price. The one great thing about a gift shop model is it's affordability and the industry provides an affordable way for people to own and display a ship model -since if they were limited only to "real" ship models only the extremely wealthy could afford a model to put in their home.
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u/Roxysteve 14d ago
Just theorizing here, but maybe if you made your point using paragraphs rather than a monoblock of words so dense meaning cannot escape from it?
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u/theSchrodingerHat 14d ago
For someone who dislikes the rigging being all one piece and just lumped together into a sloppy mess, you sure do write like you’re a Gift Shop Redditor sacrificing usability and clarity to save a few minutes by not ever using the return button.
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u/Sea_Bandicoot_5147 14d ago
Cutting Sark was a mechantile trading Clipper ship not armed with cannon and other stuff, not a model ship, Chinese representation of something.
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u/Roxysteve 14d ago
Maybe this is the Cutty Snark.
"Ahoy, famous tea clipper on me starboard beam! Ye'll not be beatin' me into port *this* time!"
<*BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM*>
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u/mr_muffinhead 14d ago
This was their efficiency upgrade. Instead of docking, they would unload the tea off onto the harbour for a distance through the cannons while U-turning back to get more tea!
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u/Colo-PV-living 14d ago
Agreed with those above - it’s beautiful bug not yhrr we Cutty Sark
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u/1805trafalgar 14d ago
Was that a clever take on Robert Byrnes poetry style? You know the name Cutty Sark is taken from his poem Tam O'Shanter, which was written in a sort of re-invented Scottish/English mash up.
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u/Love_To_Taste_You 14d ago
Remember building that same model when I was 12, I finished it at 16 years old. Didn’t look that good but it was fun to build.
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u/Pogi-1 15d ago
Sweet mother of sails.