The Good News Magazine

Local Authors Write About Model Boat Building

John Into and Nancy Price, residents of Talbot County, have written a book entitled Fundamentals of Model Boat Building for model makers of all levels and for those who simply enjoy models.

John Into and Nancy Price’s new book Fundamentals of Model Boat Building.

John has been making models for nearly 50 years. He was strongly influenced by his great-uncle, Grover Into, who made models for Mystic Seaport and The New York Yacht Club. John’s wife Nancy began working with him when they opened their model making business in 1993. She is now a respected model maker in her own right.

They specialize in making models on commission and are known for designing and making every part of every model that they build. "A problem that model makers face is that if they are unable to make their own parts, they are at the mercy of what's available. This often means using parts that are not quite right and may be out of scale."

It is a painstaking and time-consuming way of doing things, but they believe that working in this way not only gives them the ability to make custom models that truly represent the subjects they are reproducing, it also gives them full control over the quality of the finished product.

John and Nancy also practice the art/science of photogrammetry, which means that they can determine dimensional information from photographs. This gives them the ability to make models of boats that no longer exist, or are in other parts of the world. As a result they have made models for customers in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

They have made more than 300 model boats for collectors at all levels, naval architects, corporations, television personalities, museums and others. Some of the models that they are especially proud of are in The St. Francis Yacht Club, in San Francisco, and in the Antique Boat Museum, in Clayton, New York.

They decided to write Fundamentals of Model Boat Building after speaking with renowned decoy carver Bill Veasey, who contacted his publisher; Schiffer Publishing. Pete Schiffer met with John and Nancy and discussed the idea of a book that would not only teach the reader to build a single model, but a book that would teach the art of "scratch-building." That is, to teach the reader how to see a subject boat and to gain an understanding of how to successfully make a model of it without reliance on a kit. It was not a simple task. It took four years to write the book.

"We do a lot of shows around the country and speak with many people that are, or would like to be, model makers. As we wrote the book, we tried to pay particular attention to the questions that would come up regularly, such as 'how do you conceptualize a model?', 'what woods do you use?', 'where do you get your plans?', 'how do you learn to make hardware?' These questions are important and we answered them as we wrote."

Many of the illustrations in John Into and Nancy Price’s new book Fundamentals of Model Boat Building help explain the process of scratch-building, or building a model boat from start to finish without a kit.

Model making does not involve any single skill. Fundamentals of Model Boat Building explains how to recognize different types of boats and their characteristics. It covers techniques, including specialized measurement techniques, carving, working with line drawings, creating drawings, and all facets of making a model. It also teaches concepts about boat design, different types of model construction and much more.

The Annie Buck, a local Chesapeake Deadrise, is used as an example in the book. By learning what a boat must do within the conditions it faces, the reader can begin to understand its design based upon common sense. From there, the reader is taken all of the way through making a basic model of the Annie Buck.

Nancy and John explain, "We are very excited at the response our book has received. Among the positive comments that we've read are several "5-star" ratings on Amazon, as well as from Fine Woodworking magazine, who recently used it as a prize in a contest. New reviews are coming in almost daily."

Folks can get a signed copy of their new book at The News Center at the Talbottown Shopping Center in Easton on Saturday, June 4 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. They will also be displaying some of their models and will be happy to answer questions. John and Nancy will also attend the 24th Annual Antique and Classic Boat Festival at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, in St. Michaels, on June 17 through 19.