Williams is a member of the Sun City Model Builders Club and has completed 17 ships, nearly all of them old sailing ships with tall masts and plenty of rigging. They can take months to complete.

And while Laney is meticulous in following the plans for each model — the intricate rigging on most of the ships would be enough to drive a lesser hobbyist mad — he is no mere assembler.

Another example is that you can study the rigging of ships models to understand how differently rigged sails pull ships in different directions, and could for example have changed the landing site ...