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Patrons of the Mount Airy Library may not know it, but this month as they walk past the library's display case, they are walking past six to nine years of painstaking work by Larry Valett.

Valett, who lives in Mount Airy, admits that building model ships is "kind of a unique hobby."

The three ships currently on display represent many hours of Valett's work in his Mount Airy basement on weekends or late at night. "I always try to find five to 10 minutes to work on it [each day]," he said. "Slow and steady wins the race."

Ships are displayed throughout Vallet's home; nautical books gather in the family den and in the basement, dissecting different parts of the craft or different periods or ships.

"It's just like a project on the work bench," he said, comparing it to repairing a car or woodworking furniture. "You just get the nautical bug," he said of the hobby that is a way to artistically reign in his interests.

Model shipbuilding involves an extreme amount of work, detail and time, said Frederick Hobby Town USA general manager Debbie Middendorff. "There's a heart and soul that goes beyond most hobbies," she said. "It's not a simple bare-bones basic something you throw together on a weekend."

In the front room at Valett's house a ship has a shark swimming alongside; ships at the library have a man or pigs. "On my model I try to add a man or a shark to add scale," he said.

There are niches for the hobby: Some people build World War II ships or cruise ships or French or Spanish ships from the year 1588 or modern times.

At Hobby Town USA in Frederick ship kits available for sale range from Noah's ark for to a working steam engine to a Baltimore Clipper. Kits range in price from about $20 to $150.

The store is full of trains, airplanes, cars and other kits and projects, with the ship models taking up a fragment of a wall. Middendorff said the store has very few ship modeling kits simply because they are more time consuming. "The average 10-year-old is not going to do a wooden ship model," she said, saying it's usually more people in their 40s to 60s that can commit and focus more extensively.

Though Valett has no specific focus — his last two ships were a Spanish galleon and a Portuguese carrack — what he cares about more is the history, the research and the authenticity of the tiny models. "I choose what appeals to me," he said, adding that the last few years he's chosen boats for color, style and design. He also enjoys rigging challenges, the boats with complicated roping systems.

Researching the ships can be more complicated than some might think. Many model ship builders take information from old paintings in the Vatican to the aged writings of monks.

Ancient colored tapestries, wall murals and archaeological finds all contribute to naval historians search for accurate representations of what sailed the seas hundreds of years ago.

There are different "classes" of ship building, from the hobbyists who piece together a ship from a kit to the ones who don't use kits but instead will go to lengths such as soaking wood in streams for days to rid the timber of its sap. "There are even guys who make their own rope," Valett said.

Valett classifies himself as a Class C shipmaker, one who starts with a wooden kit and set of plans, but modifies it to the most authentic upgraded model possible, including meticulous staining or painting of the wood where three years of work can be ruined with a slip of a hand.

Valett's interest started when he was in high school after visiting his grandfather, who had an unfinished ship. Later, a neighbor in his native California lent him a garage to build a ship. A photo of the two is still in the basement, the tow-headed teen next to the 350-pound ship sailing in a pool.

The large vessel was a far cry from his current creations. "There's a practical side ... where do you put a giant ship?" he said, saying ships now are about 33 inches long, protected under glass boxes from dust and the elements. "It's an investment."

A corner of his basement is a workshop – ship blueprints lay waiting for the next project, directed lighting casts shadows on bottles of glue and a box of wooden strips, a future ship, waits on the floor. Small drawers are filled with random tools of the trade such as tiny bolts and even cargo netting.

In addition to being a model shipwright for nearly 30 years, he is also an avid scuba diver. He studied marine engineering at the California Maritime Academy and is a member of the Nautical Archeology Society. He worked for the U.S. Navy for several years, and though he moved on to other professional pursuits, he hasn't shaken "the nautical bug."