Building baby battleships

Prize-winning model ship-builder Sunil Kamble shares why toys are serious business.

It took senior lieutenant Sunil Kamble (42) just 72 hours to build his award-winning battleship.

And though the ship took the first place among 26 people from 18 different states, the ships is not likely to go into battle any time soon – unless it be a battle in a bathtub.

Less than a meter long, Kamble’s ship is a miniature of the stealth missile frigate INS Tahwar, and the model he made is used for planning design changes to real navy ships.

- The models are used for making improvements on the real ships, Sunil Kamble explained.

- While building a modelship you get to know all about the weapons. Then, for instance, you can tell where the best position for a particular missile would be on the ship.

Moving guns around on a small-scale model is easier than moving them on a real ship in a dock – so Kamble’s role, far from that of a child playing with toys, is closer to engineer or ship designer.

- I get a number of ideas while building, and I develop knowledge about improvements that could be made, he informed.

None of his innovations are yet to be found on a ship.

- But the time will come, he remarked with certainty.

Kamble is divisional commander of the Maharahstra Naval Unit, with 200 cadets under his eye.

During their training he lectures on sharpshooting and other topics, and when not busy with the navy he teaches as an English professor at Siddarth College of Commerce and Economics.

Kample suggested that civilians who want a peep into naval life attend the navy’s open boats event during the first week of December.