Phil  Warren from Blandford Forum in  Dorset   UK has since completing  constant scale first ship model in 1948  been adding continuously to his matchstick fleet so that the collection has now burgeoned to over 500 different ship models.... ALL BUILT ENTIRELY of the material of a MATCHBOX....

All the ships are of the worlds navies  POST  1945-- which makes for interesting viewing to see  survivors from the WW1 Royal navy... The Ships of the Royal navy make up the largest part of the collection, there are however  numerous models of the the US Navy, the Russian navy, the French navy  with representatives of Spain,   Italy, Germany and all the Commonwealth navies. Each and every model, both ships and the many hundreds of aircraft are all handmade to a constant scale of 1/300  using nothing else but the  matchsticks and the wood from the matchboxes. Absolutely no other material is used...!! All painting is done by hand, squadron markings and numbers are all done without transfers....- this alone is mind boggling!

Phi's fleet can be seen at most of the major UK modelboat shows, it will be a special  feature at the modelboat exhibition part of the  INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF THE SEA  being held at  Portsmouth UK June 30 -July 03  http://www.festivalofthesea.co.uk/

JIM BAUMANN

ModelWarships.com -- -- 6/22/2005