About fa Bart historic ship models

The FA. Bart is a creation of Herman Visser (born 1950). He grew up sailing the Rhine and experienced the final years of the steamboat era. He always had a soft spot for old vessels. He has been building ship models since childhood and during the time that he sailed the Rhine he continued his construction activities in the forecastle of the old "Linquenda".
Later on he persisted this, using his experience gained in previous models for every new one. In this way he developed his own style, the main characteristics of which are as follows: the models are always built to a scale as from 1:33, they date from the period between 1870 and 1940 and each model is as historically accurate as possible.

On the photo: The "Linquenda" at anchor on the Rhine near Krefeld

In order to achieve this he uses original drawings as the basis, studies old photographs of the ship or of similar vessels, visits museums and reads a variety of publications. He has his own ideas about ship model building. Ships can have characters - friendly, sturdy, dignified, ordinary, decorative, graceful or kindly.

They have to be good, honest, pure ships. They should express emotion. As he puts it: "If you can't smell the tar, the thing is no good". Before you can construct a good model you have to be captivate by it.

His models are expensive, to possess one is to be rich beyond compare. What he builds he builds with loving care. His ships have one thing in common with their real life predecessors: you're proud of them, you can love them and you look at them with a great deal of pleasure.