THE ROPE 50TH ANNUAL SHIP MODEL EXHIBITION 2025


坪井悦朗 TSUBOI Etsuro
50年前の1975年、ザ・ロープの創設に参加した7名のうちの一人である。卓越した技術を持ち、特にスクラッチビルドによる極小のミニチュア模型に情熱を注ぎ、1/300 スケールのミニチュア模型を数多く製作した。彼の作品は非常に精巧で、特に HMS Victory の製作には10年もの歳月を費やし、模型の正確さを追求するためイギリスのポーツマスまで実物を見に行ったほどである。彼の模型は帆船模型として世界最小の部類に属し、しかもスケール感満点の超一流品である。 お手元に用意した拡大鏡を使って、とくとご覧いただきたい。
50-03
ロイヤル・ジョージ
坪井悦朗
年代 |
1715年 |
船籍 | イギリス |
縮尺 | 1/192 |
キット | 自作 |
製作期間 | 2 年 |
チャタム造船所でクィーン(1693年)から再建され、1709年にキールが打ち込まれ、1715年に進水した100門1等戦列艦。1735年に大修理が行われ、1737年に完成、1741年に初めて就役した。1756年に100門の新型艦ロイヤル・ジョージが進水するとロイヤル・アンと改名された。
50-04
HMS Victory
TSUBOI Etsuro
Period: |
1765 |
Nation: | British |
Scale: | 1/300 |
Kit: | Scratch-built |
Work devoted: | 10 years |
Mr. Tsuboi’s side story of making the HMS Victory follows: He states: “If someone asked me to pick out my symbolic model among the miniature models I worked on, I would chose HMS Victory. As I have worked on miniature models of relatively small size ships, I decided to make a challenge on making the ship of the line. I purchased monographs and plans prior to my modeling. I wondered if I should make it at 1/192 scale or at 1/384 scale but I made up my mind to build the model at the same 1/300 scale as I preferred to be consistent with the other miniature models. My decision turned out to be a tremendous amount of work required to finish it. It finally turned out to be about 10 years of hard work. While I was working on it, there were some parts which I could not understand very well. I decided to visit Portsmouth to clear my doubts. By observing HMS Victory at Portsmouth, I tried to make my model as authentic as possible.
The 1/300 scale made the actual length of my model 224 mm. The length of the four boats on board were 18mm, 28mm, 32mm and 36 mm respectively. The size of the rigging line became 0.04mm for the ratlines, the main lower stay being 0.51mm. The actual size of the rigging resulting in 20 different sizes of line, all of which had to be made from scratch, since line that small was unavailable. There were also 6 different kinds and sizes of deadeyes ranging from 0.8mm to 1.3mm. Gratings had a thickness of 0.25mm. All of this scratch work required me to start making proper jigs first.”
-The ROPE Tokyo Honorary SMA Members By Don Dressel, SMA Newsletter, October 2017
50-05
La Renommée
TSUBOI Etsuro
Period: |
1744 |
Nation: | French |
Scale: | 1/300 |
Kit: | Scratch-built |
Work devoted: | - |
The picture above is the Le Renommee, I believe based on information from books and plans by Jean Boudriot (ANCRE) in French (I do not know if any of his books were published in Japanese – some of them are published in English). I also believe that all the plans were originally in 1:48 scale, which indicated that the plans had to be rescaled to 1/300 by Mr. Tsuboi. -The ROPE Tokyo Honorary SMA Members By Don Dressel, SMA Newsletter, October 2017
50-10
Presentation of a Model to Dutch Navy Board
TSUBOI Etsuro
Period: |
17th century |
Nation: | French |
Scale: | 1/33 (Ship Model: 1/1000) |
Kit: | Scratch-built |
Work devoted: | ー |
His extraordinary skill and craftsmanship was demonstrated in his first scratch built model, the Presentation of a Model to Dutch Navy Board, which was based on the oil painting by John Seymour Lucas. The figures were made at 1/33 scale and the ship model was at 1/1000 scale with its length of 55 mm. This model triggered Mr. Tsuboi to make only miniature ship models thereafter. - The ROPE Tokyo Honorary SMA Members By Don Dressel, SMA Newsletter, September 2017
50-13
ハリファックス
坪井悦朗
年代 | 1768年 |
船籍 | イギリス |
縮尺 | 1/300 |
キット | 自作 |
製作期間 | ー |
アメリ力がまだイギリスの植民地であった頃、そのアメリカで建造されたスクーナーである。全長98㍉の中に、大きな模型と何等変わらない細工を施した。ちなみにデッキの板の幅は0.7㍉、滑車は小さいものでは0.2㍉の穴に0.15㍉のローブ(繊維?)が通っている。ローブの多くは髪の毛よりもはるかに細い。