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Give up

Jimbo, I have done 3 Bluenose 1:64 models over the years. Why 3? It is because I am from Nova Scotia the home of the original Bluenose I. The first was from Billing Boats and made in 1974. It was my first build and I don't recall any major difficulties in the build. After I retired I was looking for a hobby so restarted building model wooden ships from available kits to pass down eventually to my grandsons. I decided to do another Bluenose to start, this one from Model Shipways (USA). I purchased it and completed it with very few problems. I enjoyed it so much I bought another one! I now have 3 Bluenose models to pass on. Then COVID 19 hit I decided to continue my building and purchased a Bounty kit from Amati. That kit was a little more problematic in that the plans were all in Italian! There was an English translation provided in a separate booklet but it was annoying to have to flip back and forth between the plan sheets and the booklet. I eventually finished it after about 600 hours work. It turned out great so I am happy. Then in September 2021 I bought an 1:64 HMS Pegasus Amati kit. It came with 12 sheets of plans, ample woods and etched copper parts plus this time the plans included English along with the Italian. Perhaps Amati is starting to realize not everyone can read Italian instructions. With this kit I am at the point of mounting the three masts after attaching the spars. I have noted the initial instructions for the hull and deck fittings do not match up exactly with the rigging drawings. So I am going to have a few frustrating moments rigging the masts. Many of the drawings are not that clear in detail. There is just too much detail on some sheets to make it easy to follow. Especially with the rigging. However, I am just going to use my imagination and make sure the end results looks nice. I have learned that with most kits require the builder to improvise and make modifications where necessary. Models being mostly wood it is easy to add, take away, patch, etc. Imagination is a great tool!

Having owned sailboats I have a working knowledge of the slope sail/rigging plans so I found the Bluenose builds reality easy. The square rigged Bounty a little more difficult, but the HMS Pegasus a downright pain (but I will eventually get it done). I know this response is more than you possibly want but in the end I would strongly recommend one of the Bluenose kits. There are two Bluenose models - the original version with sail only and the Bluenose II that is the modern version with modern life raft capsules and two propellers, etc. Then there is also the Chinese version that some on this site are building. That model looks to be high quality but not something anyone without great experience would want to tackle.
 
Jimbo said:
Hi,
I have been building model kits since I was 12ish
but while I enjoy building models, I look at the detail and effort people put into their models and think ! OMG, I could never achieve that ! I have watched so many YouTube videos but nothing ever comes close!!
However! my question is, has anyone spent a fortune on a kit, started it, then gave up :(
I have Given up on !
Cutty Sark
The Royal Caroline
Queen of the river !
all quite expensive kits :( but I knew I could never achieve the looks of the builds on here :(

Now 65 thinking maybes it's time to give up ?

but I do love watching the builds on this forum. Keep it up.
Click to expand...
Hi Jimbo,
I'm glad you've expressed this sentiment. I've had the same sort of thing in all my hobbies, from languages, watercolor painting, R/C planes, plastic kits, and ship models. I'm 65 too, and about 3 years ago, I finally decided that I'm going to take each project on as a tool to learn just one or two (maybe three if they're not too much beyond my current abilities), and do it and learn it the best I can. I look up techniques, read books, and watch youtube videos of people explaining how they do it. I practice and just try to do it a little bit better than I did before. I'm not looking for perfection, because I'd noticed that all my life my desire for perfection kept me from having fun at the things I most love to do (conundrum right there). I like to review 'full builds' also, as there are many modelers out there who bless the rest of us with their how-tos, without which I would be in the dark. Right now, I'm working on a plastic Revell sub 1:144 scale that is teaching me quite a few things, like proper planning, weathering, and how to depict rust on the hull. When I get stuck, I study how the experts do it.
In short, I try always to 'go to just the next rung on the ladder', not focus at all about the roof, the end goal.
 
Sea Burd said:
When I was a kid, we would build models and light them on fire or blow them up at the ball diamond at the park. Maybe try this. It’s pretty satisfying
Click to expand...
This is hilarious. I did too, almost as a passion! To this day, I'll finish a kit/project, and my son will say, 'Hey, should we light it on fire?' Kills me everytime!
 
Jimbo said:
Hi,
I have been building model kits since I was 12ish
but while I enjoy building models, I look at the detail and effort people put into their models and think ! OMG, I could never achieve that ! I have watched so many YouTube videos but nothing ever comes close!!
However! my question is, has anyone spent a fortune on a kit, started it, then gave up :(
I have Given up on !
Cutty Sark
The Royal Caroline
Queen of the river !
all quite expensive kits :( but I knew I could never achieve the looks of the builds on here :(

Now 65 thinking maybes it's time to give up ?

but I do love watching the builds on this forum. Keep it up.
Click to expand...
Hey Jimbo-
Yep, I quit on my first build, AL Bluenose II. Bought it when my first daughter was born and I got all the way through first planking and just gave up trying to watch the VCR tape that came with the kit and very poor instructions and put the whole thing in the garage.

That was 21 years ago! When lockdown started I eyed the kit and thought there must be some YouTube videos of people who got through this. I was amazed at what I found and the communities I discovered and now I just wrapped up tying all my rat lines and I’m starting rigging. After 21 years, and a year of on and off again modeling I’m nearly done!

My experience: Quit if it’s not fun or life gets in the way! Do what you feel like doing. Don’t focus on how huge the job is, maybe it’ll take years to finish a build. Do it when it sounds like fun! (Must admit, though, tying ~600 rat line knots SUCKED!!)

Good luck!
Dave
 
Zocane said:
This is hilarious. I did too, almost as a passion! To this day, I'll finish a kit/project, and my son will say, 'Hey, should we light it on fire?' Kills me everytime!
Click to expand...
Funny! My family is asking what I’ll do with my Bluenose when it’s done and I’m like ‘I don’t care. Maybe blow it up with firecrackers? Give it away?’
 
Davefx35 said:
Jimbo,
I‘ve found myself in your position many times (as recently as yesterday).
Like many, I’m always amazed by the level of skill on this forum.
Sometimes I get dejected thinking I’ll never be at that level.
Truth be told, I will never reach the highest level.
At other times I’m able to use it as motivation to improve my own work.
Don’t give up! Take a break when it gets to be too much. Charge ahead when the storm passes.
Every so often I step back and realized that I have accomplished something worthwhile, flaws and all.
I’m 72 with badly shaking hands and eyesight issues, but still trudging ahead.
Hang in there and enjoy.

Dave
Click to expand...
Afternoon Dave,
i know exactly where you are coming from. I am 78 with failing eyesight , but like so many others on this board I
encourage you to carry on.
 
When I started building ship models at age 67, I joined a modeling club, Rocky Mountain Shipwrights. The club has meetings where members "show and tell" their work, watch hands-on presentations, and get info and support from other members. We also have a monthly workshop where members bring in their builds (or parts of builds) so we can get hands-on instruction and answers through specific demonstrations and recommendations. So now I'm 85 and still nowhere near an expert. But with the support of the club, I am encouraged to keep building and enhancing my skills. And now I can help less experienced members which I enjoy as much as modeling.

So if there's a modeling club close by, I encourage you to look into joining and growing.

One other thought if I can be presumptuous: Don't let your EGO get in the way. Ask for help here at Ships Of Scale and elsewhere.
 
Jimbo said:
Hi,
I have been building model kits since I was 12ish
but while I enjoy building models, I look at the detail and effort people put into their models and think ! OMG, I could never achieve that ! I have watched so many YouTube videos but nothing ever comes close!!
However! my question is, has anyone spent a fortune on a kit, started it, then gave up :(
I have Given up on !
Cutty Sark
The Royal Caroline
Queen of the river !
all quite expensive kits :( but I knew I could never achieve the looks of the builds on here :(

Now 65 thinking maybes it's time to give up ?

but I do love watching the builds on this forum. Keep it up.
Click to expand...
I feel the same am 82 but still building ship for my sanity I will never achieve the level that is posted but it still learning .
 
Hello Jimbo

I too have had times when I have put the models down and left them frustrated.
After I built the Harvey . I bought the Le Hussard and started it. After planking the hull with the first planking I found That the hull was too shallow and the front section and stern post were too long for the hull so I put it away in frustration and bought the Bounty in about 92. Started it and found problems with not getting the hull right shape and just to overwhelming for me . So it too went the way of being hidden away. I then bought the Mare Nostrum and completed that one successfully so confidence built. After a hiatus of many years I revisited the Le Hussard and extended the hull and completed the model. In between I did the Jole Brise to increase my skills and get the nerve up to tackle a larger kit. I then bought the Endeavour a AL kit and severely bashed it as an exercise to see what I could get away with on a kit. Now I am finishing the Bounty that I put away all those years ago (build log still going) and still experimenting with changes.
So in finishing Jimbo it is OK to have a break from a kit and you don't need to have the best or most accurate model out there just have one that you have put your own touches to and what you are happy with building with the skills you have. I actually started to build wooden boats many years ago to teach me patience and to allow myself to express my own interpretation of the model I am building at the time with the skills I had.
But Mostly enjoy the pleasure of making something that is Your own work of art not a copy of someone else

Rob
 
I know exactly what are your feelings Jimbo. I have also followed those magnificent builds on this & other forums thinking that I can never achieve that level. Also I have stopped building many models which have not pleased me and burned them in the fireplace of our house.
A few months ago I really thought hard what should I do, because I like building models, but at this age (74) think that my skills are not on the level they used to be. So I choose a very simple model with easy hull, only one mast, simple rigging, no guns etc, and try to build that as good as I can. But I have to admit that I was very near to burn this one too, because the planking did not go as I wanted and it looked terrible.
But then I was looking through some planking tutorials found in internet and tried to follow the steps exactly as they adviced, and hey, my enjoyment rose again when I found out that finally the planks went very nicely and my satisfaction was great. I had done the planking wrongly for decades.
So please, do not give up! Select a simple model with not so many details for your next model, work only one or two hours per day, study tutorials of the items not quite familiar to you, and you will find out that sooner or later you'll have a model of which you are very satisfied.
 
Jimbo

That's all excellent advice. I built a tiny scratch model of a Bristol pilot cutter when I was twelve and the Revell Constitution in the 1970s. I'm now eighty nine, and I've recently finished Chris Watton's zulu Lady Isabella. It can't of course compete with the masters, but it's adequate. I've now embarked on the Marisstella trabacculo, and if I'm spared I'll have a go at Chris' HMS Flirt. I've abandoned a few models on the way, and I now have to work to control my shaky hands and eyes. But none of that matters if you enjoy the process and your family think the results are marvellous. I very much hope you keep going. Rodric
 
Jimbo, you have received many great suggestions from members all over the world. Many of the members are very versed on model ship building but they to have run into headaches from time to time. Please don't "give up the ship" but take a break for now. I would suggest setting aside your current kits and when you are ready try a easier kit to start on. I would suggest the New Bedford Whaleboat; the 18th Century Longboat; any east coast Skipjack model; a New England tugboat and/or fishing trawler or a Gulf Coast Shrimp boat. All of these look great when finished and everyone will love looking at them in your home! Best of luck, Magic Mike
 
It took me 25 years from the time I started building my first wooden ship to when I finished it, the building time was only the first 6 months and the last year, I lost interest because it was too hard for my skill level so it sat in a cupboard the rest of the time.
The interest and motivation can come back it just needs to be something you want to do.
 
Hey, Jimbo. I got a Model Shipways kit of the "Young America" cilpper ship at age 9 in 1955 at 1:192 scale (TINY!) the WORST scale for a novice! Dad and I took it out of the box and quickly realized it was waaaaay beyond our skill set. And He was a physicist, engineer , inventor, designer of WWII weapons systems and pioneer in computer designI
After 30 years or so as a restorer of period antique furniture ,I took the model out of its box (having carted it around for 50 years!) and started it in 2005. I just finished it a few months ago as a "Covid Project" more than a decade later. I finished it as a "dockyard model", that is with stub masts and minimal rigging, not wanting to spend another year or two masting and rigging it. The dockyard approach is a legit way to avoid having to go the full rig route, It was how "builders models" were made in days of yore to focus on the engineering of their latest hull design. You can see my finished product in no. 12 of the picture galleries along with a couple other of my models. Remember ,these models are the product of decades of experience restoring mostly 18th and 19thc. period furniture and wood objet d'art, which is like getting kits in a box with no instructions and broken and missing significant parts. Some research required!
Some good advice came in the old early 50s instructions for the " Young America': regarding simplifying parts of the construction at such a tiny scale" Your model will not be judged by what isn't there" or what you leave out for practicality sake, "but by what IS there".
Starting with "Cutty Sark " or "Royal Caroline " is like taking on the Sistine Chapel as as first architectural model.
Model shipways has a series of models progressing in challenge priced from twenty to fifty bucks ,or available as a combo package for$170. Th Norwegian sailing pram is featured in the latest offering from S.O.S.
Also may I recommend ,from the same catalog, the 18thc. 1:48 scale long boat 11 3/4" long by 10" tall, and / or the18thc. armed Longboat at1:24 scale, 24" long. These both have that romantic appeal of the 18thc. English Royal Navy design for an undaunting entry into period ship model building. these are Chuck Pissaro designs .Chuck is one of the best contemporary designers of very accurate kits for any level of skill and experience bar none. His instructions are complete, well thought out and presented. These kits are available with reasonably priced sets of tools and paints to facilitate the supplies necessary for their completion. They have excellent construction materials.
I have no stock or material benefit for recommending Model Shipways products, but having experienced the urge to throw the products of other kit makers against the wall in a fit of pique I know whereof I speak.
The primary ingredient necessary to successfully realizing your own work of art is, of course, patience and suspension of judgement while you are engaged in the creative process ABOVE ALL WITH YOURSELF!
Good luck, have fun. Allow yourself to be distracted and spirited away from all the horrid crap going on in the world around us on the wings of a delightfully absorbing creative project. The rest of the S**t will still be here when you get back.

Pete GUtterman




,
 
I am on my first one and the whole thing started badly when I didn't read the instructions properly and stufed the keel. Then I have made a series of mistakes since then and I have only just finished the first planking of the hull! That was achieved with a whole lot of wood filla!!
Anyway, now I just ned to get the second hull planking done and I can start on the easy stuff (Haha) And now I have found out the hull shape is different to the bit that goes over the bow so `i am going to have to do something about that too.
I have found the best part of building the ship for someone like myself who lacks the ability to do most things with their hands and never build anything before is that I am learning new skills and enjoying the process. I am hopeful that with wood filla, glue, paint and putty I can make a ship that looks something like what it is supposed to. I am already looking in to the next build - hopefully a NZ sailing ship - that I can use what I have learned on this one.

As I say, it is my first go so am still in the honeymoon phase, but I am finding it a great way to relax and switch off and better than the TV!

Kia Kaha

Chris
 
Sounds like your build is going the same way as mine and you're correct in saying that it allows you to learn a whole lot about how to correct situations you find yourself in. You get to enjoy the experimentation of different solutions and learn what works and doesn't. So enjoy and I will to.

Stay strong

Bruce
 
When I was maybe ten or twelve I was building a Revell plastic model of a Delta jet (F-102?) I got to the point where I wanted to install the functional landing gear, but had already glued the upper and lower halves of the wing Together!
"Hey..Daaaaaaaaad....!"
" Did you read the instructions,Peter?"
"Uh Huh..."
"ALL of the instructions first?"
"Well......"
"You have to read ALL of ALL the instructions FIRST. BEFORE you start! Maybe Twice would be good..."
(Dad was, among other things, an engineer)
Then he fixed my landing gear dilemma.

My current build is the 1893 regatta yacht "Brittannia" a Mamoli kit. Despite the fact that the company was bought by Dusek (much to its benefit) reading all of the instructions first is only marginally helpful. They are in Italian, French, German and Google English. As a matter of fact the instructions are only marginally helpful at best. If you are familiar with Mamoli kits you have become aware of the fact that it is physically impossible to plank a hull stacking 3/8" strips of basswood one on top of the other as the instructions would have you do. They even have drawings of this process! Not photographs as those would have disclosed their sleight of hand. ( I wonder, did anyone at Mamoli ever actually TRY planking a model using this method?)
So yes. having to muddle through a mine field of mistakes ,bad instructions, correcting errors as you go along is the unavoidable path to learning how to build a ship(or any other kind of) model! Including the landing gear on a 1950s Revell model of a Delta Jet.

Joining a model club is VERY helpful. Misery loves company.

Just muddling through, Pete
 
Kurt Konrath said:
Can you provide your city or region of the UK to us.

You might want to check out who from the many members of this forum are from the UK, maybe one may be close enough to you to come give you help and guidance on getting one kit finished, that is the key to get going again, one at a time slow like a turtle.
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Hi I'm in Motherwell, Strathclyde.
 
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