Hello, from the Great White (as in snowy) North! My name is Chris Andersen (handle: 1812er). Thank you all for welcoming me to this forum. I'm a retired regional archaeologist and heritage planner for the Province of Ontario. During my working career I was regularly involved in the documentation, conservation and protection of historic shipwrecks. With Ontario having over 250,000 freshwater lakes, including all but one of the Great Lakes (as well as access to the Arctic Ocean via James and Hudson Bay), it sometimes seems as though every body of water in the province that's large enough to float any kind of boat holds at least one sunken wreck. From the dugout and bark canoes of our earliest Native Peoples, through the Age of Sail, to the mighty ore carriers and other cargo ships of today, wrecks of virtually every class and kind of vessel are found in our waters.
Since my retirement, I've decided to revive my long-idle hobby of building model boats and ships that are representative of Ontario's very diverse maritime history, including the warships of the Revolutionary and War of 1812 periods, the history and development of small craft in Ontario (primarily recreational rowing and sailing boats), and so on. However, as a native Scandinavian, I am also very interested in Viking (and related) vessels, and, as a good Canadian, I can't resist the lure of the legendary Bluenose.
Most of my old scratch-built models were in 1:87 scale as my building of model boats was originally undertaken as an adjunct to my Depression-era, HO-scale model railway; for which almost all my rolling stock was scratch-built from basswood and/or styrene. Models built to this scale include canal bateaux, a very small steam packet boat, and several steam-powered log warping tugs (known as "alligators"), and various other small craft. Unfortunately, these all vanished after my model railway was dismantled more than 20 years ago.
I have now embarked on "v.2.0" of my model boatbuilding career, which will not be limited to either scratch-building or 1:87th scale. Thus far I have completed Billing's Roar Ege Viking ship, an old Poseidon Museum Studio's Princess Rebecca rowboat (sold), a Viking ship cross-section (scratch), and a Mohawk River bateau (1:87, scratch). Currently on the stocks, I have one of those new, cheap, Chinese, P-O-B kits of the Naxos fishing boat, just to see what these new laser-cut kits are like. Once that's done, my immediate build list includes: Model Shipways' Taurus tugboat, Billing's Bluenose II, Model Shipways' Bluenose, and another Princess Rebecca. I hope that this range of kits will help me to develop and improve my model-building skills.
That being said, I am far from being any kind of an expert at model ship construction. I consider myself a modeller of intermediate competency, at best. I would ultimately like to build replicas of vessels such as the USS Niagara, HMS Ontario (1780), the Diana/USS Hamilton and Lord Nelson/USS Scourge, the HMS Nancy, the USS Tigress/HMS Surprise and the USS Scorpion/HMS Confiance, and later vessels such as the SS Atlantic, the Turbinia, Knapp's Roller Boat, a typical stone-hooker, whaleback and an 'alligator', among others. It's an ambitious order book, for sure, and there is no way I will be able to achieve any of these goals without the advice and assistance of the talented folks who so freely share their knowledge and skills here on the Ships of Scale forum.
I look forward to sharing my efforts with you and to benefitting from yours. Thanks, everyone!
Since my retirement, I've decided to revive my long-idle hobby of building model boats and ships that are representative of Ontario's very diverse maritime history, including the warships of the Revolutionary and War of 1812 periods, the history and development of small craft in Ontario (primarily recreational rowing and sailing boats), and so on. However, as a native Scandinavian, I am also very interested in Viking (and related) vessels, and, as a good Canadian, I can't resist the lure of the legendary Bluenose.
Most of my old scratch-built models were in 1:87 scale as my building of model boats was originally undertaken as an adjunct to my Depression-era, HO-scale model railway; for which almost all my rolling stock was scratch-built from basswood and/or styrene. Models built to this scale include canal bateaux, a very small steam packet boat, and several steam-powered log warping tugs (known as "alligators"), and various other small craft. Unfortunately, these all vanished after my model railway was dismantled more than 20 years ago.
I have now embarked on "v.2.0" of my model boatbuilding career, which will not be limited to either scratch-building or 1:87th scale. Thus far I have completed Billing's Roar Ege Viking ship, an old Poseidon Museum Studio's Princess Rebecca rowboat (sold), a Viking ship cross-section (scratch), and a Mohawk River bateau (1:87, scratch). Currently on the stocks, I have one of those new, cheap, Chinese, P-O-B kits of the Naxos fishing boat, just to see what these new laser-cut kits are like. Once that's done, my immediate build list includes: Model Shipways' Taurus tugboat, Billing's Bluenose II, Model Shipways' Bluenose, and another Princess Rebecca. I hope that this range of kits will help me to develop and improve my model-building skills.
That being said, I am far from being any kind of an expert at model ship construction. I consider myself a modeller of intermediate competency, at best. I would ultimately like to build replicas of vessels such as the USS Niagara, HMS Ontario (1780), the Diana/USS Hamilton and Lord Nelson/USS Scourge, the HMS Nancy, the USS Tigress/HMS Surprise and the USS Scorpion/HMS Confiance, and later vessels such as the SS Atlantic, the Turbinia, Knapp's Roller Boat, a typical stone-hooker, whaleback and an 'alligator', among others. It's an ambitious order book, for sure, and there is no way I will be able to achieve any of these goals without the advice and assistance of the talented folks who so freely share their knowledge and skills here on the Ships of Scale forum.
I look forward to sharing my efforts with you and to benefitting from yours. Thanks, everyone!
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