Draft:Philip Warren

Philip Warren is an English ship model maker who is known for building a Matchstick Maritime Fleet, which includes over 500 vessels and 1000 aircraft, and all the Royal Navy ships since 1945.

Life and Work

Philip Warren is from Brandford in Dorset, England, and was a director of a stationery wholesale company before his retirement. He started building models of naval boats at the age of 17 due to a fascination with ships. Like many children of his era, his interest in warships came about due to going through childhood during World War 2.

When he first began model making, he used balsa wood and tissue paper to make models. He switched to matchsticks because he found that material more suitable for static waterline warship models, while matches were common. His models are hand-built and are made in 1/300th of the scale, using only a few building materials, including matchboxes, matchsticks, a ruler, razor blade and glue. He never uses any other materials and paints the models by hand. Also, his squadron markings and lettering are made without using transfers or stencils. Completing his models requires looking at photographs, drawings, and plans of real ships. His largest model is 1m (3ft) long.

Philip said, "It was obviously at the time just going to be one model, and that would get it out of my system."It didn't quite work, and here we are 62 years later and 430 models later. He also said that, 'I always try to make the next one my best one.'

When Warren began matchstick model making, matchboxes were easy to get a hold of, but in recent years, he has relied on donations to keep up with his work. He has continued model making into his 90s, stating that "Physically one has to use the fingers and obviously the painting is extremely delicate, and tiny, and so hopefully that keeps my eyes and my brain and everything else working."

Models

Philip Warren's earliest model was the Royal Navy's HMS Scorpion, which was less detailed compared to later models. Following its completion, he built a different destroyer, a battleship, a cruiser, and later an aircraft carrier. As the years passed, his attention to detail and accuracy improved, making models with many moving parts, including missile launchers, radars, gun turrets, swing wings, and helicopter rotors. His collection of models includes 500 vessels and 1000 aircraft from the very last World War 2 battleships to nuclear-powered submarines and modern aircraft carriers. In his over 70 years of model making, he built one or more of each class of Royal Navy ships from 1945 to the present day, including 7 Leander class frigates. He completed the HMS Queen Elizabeth before the original was finished.

In addition, he has also built Commonwealth ships. Furthermore, Warren has constructed 60 US ships so far, including four giant supercarriers, two battleships, and various cruisers, demonstrating the evolution of vessels that contained guns to those with missiles. Moreover, he built around 50 ships from the Navies of nations other than Great Britain or the USA, including Germany, Italy, Spain, and Holland. Warren made Soviet fleets as well, from Krivak frigates to the enormous missile cruiser Kirov. His aircraft models span from older aircraft, such as the Swordfish, to modern supersonic jets. The moving parts of those models include the wings of the F14 Tomcat swinging and the rotors on helicopters folding and revolving.

Warren built his first model in 1948 and has improved his technique over the last half a century, always using the same system and materials. Warren creates his models from a framework made with matchsticks, which he covers on the decks and sides with wood from matchboxes. The gun turrets, superstructure, radar aerials, and missile launchers are also made out of that material. Matchwood is used exclusively in the models. That includes anchor chains, ship railing, and the finest detail.

It takes Warren around 1500 matches to build each model, and he has used over 650,000 matches in his career. His biggest models have used 5,000 matches and 200 boxes each. It can take Warren over a year to finish a model. He very rarely gets rid of models and has never made money from his hobby, despite being told by numerous museum curators that his models have considerable value. Warren's models have not been built in historical sequence but preserved so well that it's difficult to tell which models are older. In 1989, Philip gave Prince Andrew a model of the frigate Campbeltown.

Exhibits and Recognition

Various national and local charities have displayed his work, including The National Museum of the Royal Navy, the Fleet Air Arm Museum, and Nothe Fort. The Duke of Gloucester honored Warren with a glass trophy for his service to the Northe Fort community for his yearly display of his matchstick fleet.

Personal life

Warren has one child and was married to his wife Anita for 47 years until her death.

Links

• The remarkable model navy fleet... made out of over a MILLION matchsticks