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While searching through our archives, staff at Hobbies HQ in Norfolk found a stash of old instructional plans that were once part of the Hobbies annual, dating back to the 1950s. The plans were originally sold to hobbyists who wanted to make wooden models from scratch, and some were quite ambitious indeed. To help keep the lost art of wooden model-building alive, Hobbies have decided to release these plans for free to allow a new generation of hobbyists and modellers to try their hands at 1950s construction techniques.
Included are the plans for a pleasure boat, complete with space for a working motor, a rather splendid 'Nuclear Submarine 'Dreadnought' design, as well as plans for a model lightship and a WWII-era Armstrong Whitworth Whitley bomber. Also included are links to the supplies you might find useful. The plans were originally produced in A3, but can be printed in A4 with appropriate adjustments to scaling.
Whether you're interested in modelling history or just looking for a project to while away long winter evenings, dust off your tools and take a look at these classic wooden model plans from Hobbies!
These plans are a chance to build a bit of modelmaking history, and furthermore we're also offering a£50 Hobbies Gift Voucheras a prize for the best video/photographs of a finished build. Send your entries to:[email protected]. (Please note that we may use the entry pictures as promotional material).
A simpler design more directly suited for sailing on open water, the Challenger is a simple but rugged hull design with a full keel that can be sailed on ponds, rivers and model boating lakes. Instructions for a mast, rigging and sails have sadly been lost to the archives, but we recommend a light cloth or even paper sail, and dowel and string for rigging.
This free cabin yacht design is perfect for a more practical hobbyist who wants their own miniature sailing boat. Whether you want to make a detailed and accessory-ready model or rig it as a full sailing boat and get it out on the water, there's a lot to like about this kit.
A more practical design for those looking to spruce up their house a bit or add some colour to their kitchen. This holder holds three plant pots of reasonable size, and is modelled after an old gardening wheelbarrow. Despite its three-legged design it’s pretty stable and solid if properly put together using the right hardwood.
Feeling a bit handy? These free plans will help you assemble your own bookcase and bureau set with just basic resources and tools. The bookcase is 36 inches high, 24 inches wide and ten inches deep, with two shelves for books and a top bureau shelf for writing and storage.
The Armstrong Whitworth Whitley was a Royal Air Force medium bomber developed in the 1930s that participated in the first bombing raid on German territory during the Second World War. Although widely used until 1945, the Whitley was unpopular with...
Lightships like this one were used all over the world to mark offshore navigation hazards in places where lighthouses or offshore platforms were unfeasible. The earliest were built in the 1730s. Crews would maintain the light and the ship, and...
The HMS Dreadnought (S101) Was the Royal Navy's first nuclear submarine, commissioned in 1963. Built by Vickers Armstrongs in Barrow-in-Furness, the Dreadnought was a joint Anglo-American project, with an American reactor inside a British hull. The design caught the popular...
This ‘Crusader’ Pleasure Boat isn’t just a static model – it can also be equipped with a powered propeller shaft and an electric motor ( Available from hobbies.co.uk) to turn it into a proper powered model. If you use waterproof...
