Leroy Laney built his first model ship when he was in the second grade.

So taken was he with the project that for years after he would receive from his mother new and more elaborate model kits each birthday and Christmas.

Laney is 71 now, a widely published economist spending the yet-bright twilight of his career as a professor of finance and economics at Hawaii Pacific University and an economic adviser to First Hawaiian Bank.

In the private hours he allows for himself, Laney is drawn to the solitary task of re-creating in miniature intricate naval architecture of another place and time.

"I get a lot of satisfaction out of it," he says.

The finely appointed home that Laney shares with his wife, Sandy, offers tangible evidence of Laney’s remarkable dedication to his hobby. Amid a tasteful selection of vintage firearms, swords and other antiques are a half-dozen astoundingly detailed wooden models of famous 18th-century European vessels, each years in the making.

At one end of the living room is a wooden replica of the HMS Bellona, the first of a line of 74-gun ships used by the Royal Navy in the late 1700s. At another there is a model of the HMY Royal Caroline, which served as Britain’s main royal yacht in the mid-1700s.

Laney completed the Royal Caroline over a period of four years. He did all of the planking himself with tiny wooden pieces ordered from a shop in Cornwall, England. The flags on the ship were ordered from a specialist in Germany.

And while Laney is meticulous in following the plans for each model — the intricate rigging on most of the ships would be enough to drive a lesser hobbyist mad — he is no mere assembler. Laney does copious research into his subjects and their eras and often makes aesthetic decisions that are not only historically warranted, but also bear his creative imprint.

Alas, the Laney home is simply running out of room for his Plexiglas-encased masterpieces. Laney reckons the time will soon come when he will have to retire his tools and return his hobby space to its former purpose as a guest room. Something will surely be lost when that happens.

Check out Laney’s models on Twitter at #IncidentalLives.

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Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@staradvertiser.com.