Queenthunk Amalanathan’s interest in the intricate craft of building authentic scale models of naval ships began when he was studying at The American College in Madurai. In the last decade, he has handcrafted as many as 30 models of iconic ships and sailing boats including INS Vikramaditya, the flagship of the Indian Navy. Most of the models he has made are ‘seaworthy’ and he tests them by floating the vessels in waterbodies in and around his neighbourhood. A fleet of miniatures of the Kochi Water Metro carrier, the INS Vikrant, an indigenous aircraft carrier, and INS Viraat, the second Centaur-class aircraft carrier are some of the latest additions to his collection, among many others. “I travelled along with the three-feet-long INS Viraat on trains and cars while transporting it from Madurai to Mumbai. It now sits pretty at a retired Naval officer’s home in Pune,” says Amalanathan, who recently moved from Coimbatore to Madurai on work. “The retired veteran served as an aviator. He became nostalgic and excitedly explained to us the working of the aircraft carrier. He also motivated me to build more miniature models.”
Though the models are crafted in balsa wood as the base, he also upcycles materials like old telephone wires, broomsticks, discarded plastic sheets, and metal chains. “For crafting helicopter rotors, you need materials in less than 1mm thickness. I upcycled old X-ray sheets to achieve this. For INS Viraat, I also used aluminium sheets for the outer frame which was challenging. For the rotor extensions, I upcycled beads from chains used by my daughter. It’s a durable model, built from scratch.”
