Models of Ships of the 16th-18th centuries from the Collection of S.V. Lushkin
Ship modeler Sergey Vladimirovich Lushkin was born in Cherepovets in May 1953. He graduated from the Leninsky Komsomol Higher Naval School for Submarine Navigation in 1975 and completed the Higher Officers Courses in 1980. He served on the submarines of the Pacific Fleet. In 1992, after he was transferred to the reserve, he was keen on the history of the Russian shipbuilding of the 16th – first half of the 18th century. As a result, he began to construct ship models himself.
As the ship modeler points out, it is not only meticulous, but also complicated work because almost no drafts of those times have come down to us. The earliest drafts in accordance with which the boat and sound ship models were made dated back to 1739. They were found in the Navy Archive in St. Petersburg.
The private collection of Sergey Lushkin includes about 30 models and half-models. All of them were made without paints using original colours. Such kinds of trees as birch, aspen, maple are applied to get white colour; different species of mahogany – red-cinnamonic; apple-tree and maple – yellow-ochre; stained oak – black; apple-tree, acacia and box-tree – yellow. Blackening of metal is accomplished by means of oxidation of brass, cooper and iron. Most of the articles are one-seventy-second scale models and one-forty-eighth scale half-models. Homemade lathes were manufactured to prepare details. They can saw materials which are up to 0,2 mm thick, cut, drill, and make ropes of any thickness. It takes from 6 months to 4 years to create one model. It depends on the completeness of information and complexity of the model.
