Can you identify this cargo ship?

Thanks for the added information. I don't believe you have much chance to identify the ship model here at Yahoo Answers in 3 days time. I would recommend you build a webpage with all the information you have about your dad's ship building hobby. Where he seen these ships? Is there any photos or sketches he worked from to accurately build these models. Maybe a proximate year he started on the model, etc. Also leave a place on the webpage for people to leave comments so you can get a dialog started. Then you can visit different forums asking people if they can identify the vessel.

In the mean time I would not name it. Leave it as a mystery to entice people to investigate the ships origin. There are people out there that as a hobby track many old ships. These people don't normally hang out here.

I feel confident that you would be able to identify the vessel in time. I think someone out there might even have a photo of it in their collection that has not been uploaded to the internet yet. You just need to get the word out.

"May the winds be at your back and a bright star to guide your way." - Captain Jack

I started building models in the 50's and moved on to building sailboats in the 70's and have read a zillion books....so here's my input....

it's a50's--- 60's boat......still has a nice round stern..they didn't get into chopping the transom till the 80's.......diesel powered from the short stack

it's a coaster....or coastal if you like..."short seas" trader meant to pull into a dock where there are cranes, as she doesn't have any cargo handling capability shown

The 'wah' of the design says European to me, and more specifically Dutch or German....so hunt up "Dutch coasting vessels of the 60's" or something like that on the 'net and see what you find...

I don't know if you are doing this as a quiz or if you want to know the actual name but there are many many ships that are built and look like this model and it will be hard to figure out the true name