LEWISTON – Pandy Zolas took 20 years to make a model of a Gulf shrimp boat patterned after one he found dry-docked in a Texas shipyard.

Twenty years.

It’s plank-for-plank, light bulb-for-light bulb accurate. He even sent the winch maker a letter asking for plans so he could get his tiny net-hauler just right. All told, Zolas took 1,000 hours to design, then 1,600 hours to build the “Charles M,” the most detailed miniature in a collection defined by detail.

“Ship modeling is not to have something done. The pleasure is to make it,” said the retired naval architect.

And he isn’t one for shortcuts.

Another of his models, a Greek fishing boat, is covered with 2,100 dots so fine they look like they were drawn with the tip of a black marker. Each dot’s actually a miniature dowel 1/28 of an inch wide. It took 60 hours to whittle all those pegs, then another 160 to gently tap them in place and sand them down.

At 73, Zolas works on his models every day, as long as it doesn’t interfere with time with his wife and kids. His study and workshop are room after orderly room. There are scrolls of dozens of blueprints in a closet. Design books in English and Greek. In the wood room, materials are sorted by type and bins read: maple, cherry, bamboo, parquet birch.

His elaborate boats, full and half-models, were displayed at the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath over Columbus Day weekend.

Zolas seems to relish little accent pieces. A Maine lobster boat has a toilet with a moving pump handle. (The toilet, lid and pump took three types of wood.) Another cargo boat has cabin doorknobs the size of a pin head.

He crafts all the little parts and bits with rare exception. Zolas knows the tricks: dab a ribbon with a little glue, bend it, and it looks like a flag rippling in the wind. He makes hull planks by bending them around a mold, wetting the wood and sticking it in the microwave (but not too long – the wood changes color).

Research, he insists, is the fun part. Zolas’ current project is a replica of a friend’s fishing boat converted into a yacht.

“I spend 2-3 days just taking the measurements and the pictures,” he said.

The boat’s name is “Breath.” After the owner, who has a sense of humor, fell off it, he taped “My Last” onto the name. Zolas will recreate the yacht down to the little white sign that indicates no high heels or scuffed work boots allowed.

He says he picks projects based on “beautiful shape, good history or something interesting.”

Up next?

“I have a long list right now, I think it’s 18. The biggest problem is which one of the 18 to start.”