For everyone interested in ship paper modelling the letters JSC is a well known quality sign. JSC is a publishing company in Gdansk in Poland that has published some houndred models in different scales, mostly 1:400. I was tempted to go to Gdansk to see the exhibition of the Fourth Polish Championship of plastic and paper models. Gdansk is only a 19 hour Baltic cruise away from my home town,  peoples desires for taxfree drinking make the tour rather cheap and I was kindly invited by the owner of JSC to start my visit in Poland with a dinner. I accepted and suddenly found myself at the saturday dinner table in the middle of the most lovely family. JSC means Janina and Slavomir Czolczynski, who are the mother and the father of the family. Janina is the administrative and life giving center of the firm and family. Slavomir is a naval architect and official supervisor of sailing ships. He shares his interest in paper modelling with his elder brother Miroslaw and some of his old friends from the Politechnical Institute in Gdansk. Several of them have published models through JSC. One of their teachers in the technical institute was the famous professor Witold Urbanowicz who wrote a very interesting book on ship architecture in the 60-ies when also I met him at a ship architecture symposium in Gdansk.
  Actually Slavomir learnt from his brother how to build paper models some time in the mid 1950-ies. The first model he built was a small destroyer in scale 1:400. Ten years later he had built about 200 paper rmodels. 60% from printed originals and 40% scratch built. The first little paper ship opened up an interest that grew to a way of life. First to the Politechnical Institute and then to the employment as a naval architect and designer in a shipyard.
  Slavomirs first paper model ship was designed by Andrzej Samek. Other of Slavomirs paper model  friends from the Politechnical Institute, like Jan Schmidt, also started to build paper models designed by Andrzej Samek. Andrzej Samek was born in 1924 and has just celebrated his 50 years at work.  He was a trained engineer and is since 1983 professor in Politechnika Krakowska specialiced on manufactoring and automation. He his also a Natural Science historian. He is a great expert on sea shells and has dived in many seas around the world. He is the president of Krakow aeroclub. He is an expert of early XX century ships. And he is model designer. 
  Now Andrzej Samek also designs models for JSC. Could it be better? The original inspirator has become a part of the movement. One day Andrzej Samek told Slavomir: "I have had many students. But how glad I am to know that so many children are glueing my paper models..."
 (More about Andrzej Samek, his shells and paper models, can be red on the web site http://m6.mech.pk.edu.pl/sop2000/jubilat.htm )

  Bartosz                               Jedrzej 
 
   There was a time ago a report on the Card Modelers List by David T. Okamura who had compared an older JSC model - the Mikasa - with the new Yamato model and found what a difference in quality some years and computer drafting could do. By the family dinner, I actually got rather close to the very motive power behind the development. Slavomirs teenage sons got interested in computers and learnt to handle the Corel Draw. The oldest son, Bartosz, started to draw architectural models and also translated the ship model designs of Slavomir and his friends into printable computer files.  The younger son, Jedrzej, is mostly interested in vehicles and designs tanks and cars to be loaded on the 1:400 ships. Slavomir has always had a very good hand over the JSC models so that they look similar even if they are constructed of different designers and that they get the right paper and detailing qualities. But it is thanks to Bartosz that the JSC models have reached new qualities. The Yamato was designed by his uncle Miroslaw, who also won the first place in the class C7A of Naviga World Championship at Mons in Belgium this year for his building of the model. But it was drawn by Bartosz. (Also class C7B was won with the help of a JSC model: The Viribus Unitis, designed by Andrzej Samek.)

Yamato                                                               Radetzky

An other wonderful model that Bartosz draw is the United States. But this model was designed by Slavomirs old friend from the Politechnical Institute, Jan Schmidt, who also designed the first three JSC models. I also met Jan Schmidts daughter Kasia at the dinner. She is going to marry Bartosz in November. They met thanks to paper modelling and I owe them many thanks for taking me on a sightseeing tour to ships in Gdynia. One of Slavomirs model designing friends is himself computer drafting. He does not work as naval architect but as forester. His name is Marian Katny and he sits with his computer far out in the forest and designs ships like the Italian cruiser Bolzano. I should also tell that I was lucky enough to see some new models on Slavomirs working table. There were beautifully assembled all white prototype models of the Greats Eastern, Western and Brittain. Oh what wonderful models! Built by Andzej Samek. I am really looking forward to se them published next year. 

Slavomir Czolczynski and the prototype model of Great Eastern, built by Andrzej Samek from white paper and bamboo. 

A good thing with paper modelling is that you can build up an own maritime collection or "naval museum" at a reasonable cost. But what I like most with paper models is that they give you friends. This latest tour to Poland really made me happy. And I really want to tell you that whenever you see or build a JSC model, you should know that its quality has its base in one of the most lovely families I have ever met.