A scratch built model is one that is not built from a kit nor purchased already complete. The maker must find or create a plan and build up the model from whatever materials he has. Because of the work involved and the level of detail available from commercial model makers today scratch building is not usually the method of choice for enlarging a collection. But if there is no commercial model and it is possible to find or make accurate plans scratch building offers a good alternative. That was the situation in 1966 when I found an Israeli magazine with reasonable plans (and some photographs) for a new refrigerated cargo ship in service with an Israeli flag company.
The ship was named Lemoncore. She had several sisters with similar names; for example Bananacore and Avocadocore. The ships were operated by an Israeli company, Maritime Fruit Carriers., and carried citrus from Israel to other countries. On the return voyage they often met fishing vessels near South Africa and brought back a load of Hake to Israel.
I had the dimensions of the ship and was able to copy the drawings in a scale of 1:1200. There was some scrap balsa wood available, and a model that was less than 6 inches long could be produced from it, I was not thrilled with the idea of using balsa wood because it is so soft that any strong bump might leave a permanent mark in the model. But balsa is also easy to cut and shape, and I did not have many items in my toolbox.
The most important piece to make as the main hull. I cut two pieces from the thicker strips of balsa and used them for the hull and raised forecastle. The rough cut pieces were glued together and then the bow and stern were shaped using a set of small files. The half round file was most useful in getting the shape of the bow to my satisfaction.
The main superstructure was similarly made from 4 layers of a thinner piece of scrap balsa. The round file was perfect for making the after end of each upper deck, The winch platforms between the hatches came from the same balsa. But the hatches and their raised coamings were much lower. I cut them from pieces of a popsicle stick. The two kingposts just forward of the superstructure were from a collection of spare parts. I think they might have been on a Tri-ang model originally. The other masts were all straight pins with the head removed. The final items, 2 boats and an anchor winch, I found in my spare parts box.
Painting was easy. I had some brown paint for the decks, white for most of the ship, blue for the funnel, and a light green for the canvas covers on the boats, hatches, and winch. The anchors, ports, and doors were hand drawn with a fine tip pen in black ink. The same pen md the funnel emblem, but with white ink. A blue ink ball point made the name on the bow in Hebrew. When felt tip pens became available I added red and green sidelights below the bridge.
I think it has held up well over the past 50 years.
Wetherhorn 