The Jugger-Nauticus
Written by Santiago Plicio for our Winter 2019 Newsletter
Compared to the very many fairground-themed models I have made over the years, I have made relatively very few boats, though I have always loved ships of all sizes.
In 2012 I built a small ship which was followed by The Voyager in 2013–14, The Wrath of Tides in 2015 and The Phantom in 2016.
After another couple of years focused on fairground models, I switched my attention to another series of boats, the first of which was the The Storm Slayer. This whetted my appetite to try exploring new shapes of the ship’s hull and I went on to design and construct two more boats.
I was pleased with them all but each one seemed to push me even more towards the challenge of creating a ship with a much more curved hull than I had so far achieved. I still felt driven to build a boat with the kind of curved hull as seen on the old sailing ships of the 17th or 18th century, and that was the main objective.
The Jugger-Nauticus
Once I succeeded in achieving the curved shape of the hull I just had to complete the full ship. Assembly continued fast and furious until a much bigger and wider beast had come together, even larger than I had anticipated.
It dawned on me that the main central mast, if it was to be kept in proportion, was now going to be higher than the space available in my car and so I built the mast to the available height but added a detachable section with its own rigging.
I built two portholes in the centre of the ship with steps to descend to the inside, and also steps to go to the two main top decks.
I added just one cannon before deciding not to add any more, and used a cream-coloured plastic material for the sails, similar to the other ships which had red sails. The ship was finished off with rigging, an anchor, rudder, hoists, cranes, steps to board, rear lights, a bell, plus a few other little details.
I decided to stand the ship on a fixed motionless platform underneath due to the size and weight of the model, though I may in the near future introduce a mechanism to introduce an ‘at sea’ rocking motion.
It really is a beast of a model but it’s ready to sail and all that was left was to christen it. I name this ship ‘The Jugger-Nauticus’ — may she conquer even the deadliest of seas.
See more photos of this model.