Otay... here comes more than you ever wanted to know about gondolas :-) As to what my design is based on... I just d/l'ed pics from the web & scanned a couple from my library so I could get an idea of the hull shape & relative dimensions, but it most closely resembles illustrations I found of a a couple of traditional styles (Sdolo & Sdolo da barcari) that were featured in a book on the History of Venice :-) Two traditional gondola decorations that I did leave off (because of my relative lack of skill as a modeller) are the "fero" (iron decoration at the prow) & "felse" (a removable tent-like apparatus used for privacy) Once I manage to beat Lightwave into submission I hope to add those later. I didn't bother to "dress it up" because most of the traditional accoutrements,(lanterns fore & aft, various bench type seats, pillows, etc., etc.) are available in FreeStuff or elsewhere & I saw no need to "reinvent the wheel :-). Just as an example Del has a wonderfully detailed lantern in FreeStuff that would be perfect :-)