One of the English members of a model airplane builder's forum in which I participate used the above term. Is it common in the UK? It's entirely new to me.

never heard it, but it is over forty years since I last bought an Airfix kit and glued the fiddly little bits to my fingers.

Never heard (or read) it before. Tumblehome is recorded in some dictionaries (link) as "the inward curve of a ship's topsides". It's an oldish word (link). Thanks for bringing it to my attention.)

Zmj, this makes sense, since we're discussing the construction of model seaplanes.

Bob, we're building larger flying models, not the fiddly little Airfix plastic things!
See paragraph six in post #24 and elsewhere: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=855219&page=2

I know. There was meant to be smiley on the end. I forgot to put it there though.

from Basic Ship Theory by E. C. Tupper and KJ Rawson, 2001 (first published in 1968):

tumble home and flare
Wallsided

From The Sailor's Word-Book : An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, Including Some More Especially Military and Scientific ... As Well As Archaisms of Early Voyagers, Etc by Admiral William Henry Smyth, 1867:

tumbling-home
flare


From The Language of Sailing by Richard Mayne, 2000:

tumblehome
flare

From the OED Online:

tumble, v.

11. intr. Of the sides of a ship: To incline or slope inwards, to contract above the point of extreme breadth; to batter. Usually tumble home. Opposed to FLARE v.

a1687 PETTY Treat. Naval Philos. I. ii, Let the supernatant sides of a Ship so much tumble..as that the said sides may remain perpendicular when the Ship stoops. 1711 W. SUTHERLAND Shipbuild. Assist. 165 Tumbling home; when the Ship-side declines from a Perpendicular upwards, or, as some call it, houses in. 1761 H. WALPOLE Let. to G. Montagu 28 Apr., Old Newcastle, whose teeth are tumbled out, and his mouth tumbled in. 1848 T. WHITE Ship Build. 39 The upper works usually incline towards the middle line, or as it is termed ‘tumble home’.

[I don't know how that 1761 quote got in there.]

tumbling home: the inward inclination of the upper part of a ship's sides; opposed to FLARE n.1 4: see TUMBLE v. 11. Also tumbling-in.
1664 E. BUSHNELL Compl. Shipwright 11 Then set off the Tumbling Home, at the Height of the two first Haanses. 1769 FALCONER Dict. Marine (1789), Encabanement, the tumbling-home of a ship's side from the lower-deck-beam upwards, to the gunnel. 1832 Encycl. Amer. XI. 367/2 Nothing can be urged in favor of tumbling in..but that it brings the guns nearer the centre. c1850 Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 157 The topsides of three-decked ships have the greatest tumbling-home, for the purpose of clearing the upper works from the smoke and fire of the lower guns.

flare v.
intr. Of the sides of a vessel: To swell or bulge out gradually upwards; also, to flare over.
1644 Sea-man's Dict. 40 When a ship is a little howled in neere the water, and above that the work doth hang over againe..they say, that the worke doth Flaire over. 1836 W. IRVING Astoria (1849) 86 Their gunwales flare outwards. 1883 90Harper's Mag. July 934/2 It will be best to have the sides of our oblong diving-bell flare a little.

flare n.4. a. Shipbuilding. Gradual swell or bulging outwards and upwards.
1833 T. RICHARDSON Merc. Marine Archit. 1 To give them more flair in the stem-head. 1882 PAYNE-GALLWEY Fowler in Irel. 25 The sides are nearly upright with little flare.

wall-sided a., having perpendicular sides like a wall

1711 W. SUTHERLAND Shipbuild. Assist. 165 *Wall-sided. 1769 FALCONER Dict. Marine (1780). 1830 LYELL Princ. Geol. I. 180 A deep wall-sided valley. 1840 R. H. DANA Bef. Mast xxix, She was a good, substantial ship,..wall-sided and kettle-bottomed. 1866 HUXLEY Prehist. Rem. Caithn. 88 The transverse contour of the skull inclines to be pentagonal and wall-sided.

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Thanks for the dissertation on tumbling, tinman. We wonder why "gunwhale" was spelled "gunnel" in 1769 and "gunwale" in 1836. .... probably originally meant "gun wall."

Well, the OED lists the following spellings:
gonne walle
gunwayle, -waile
gun-wal
gunwale
gunwhale
gun(n)al
gunnel
gunhil

It's usually spelled gunwale, but pronounced as if it were spelled gunnel (to rhyme with tunnel).

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Before you buying [sic]a tumbling machine
there are some important considerations to bear in mind.