- Joined
- Aug 30, 2020
- Messages
- 639
- Points
- 308
Thank you for accepting me, here is my model shipbuilding story.
I have always had a fascination with old model sailing ships and marvelled at the skill to build them.
I guess it was on dialup internet one day I came across Modeller’s Shipyard in Australia that sold wooden model ship kits, my limited research at the time found I should start with a kit that was a challenging but should be achievable with my limited and average woodworking skills, so on 11/09/1995 I purchased “A Schooner for Port Jackson”, I know it’s that date because I still have the receipt in the box.
So on to reading the black and white photocopied manual and learning so many new terms like fairing, wedging and planking etc. had me wondering if I had bitten off more than I could chew. Undeterred I started construction which progressed reasonably well as I tried to visualise what the instructions were conveying, I did take a few photographs at the time of the early progress which I also have still in the box taken on a 35mm film camera(remember them).
Well it was all going reasonably well until I got to the second layer of planking, about a third of the way through I realised it was a mess and didn’t know how to fix it, disheartened and disappointed it went into a cupboard for many years only coming out occasionally deciding it’s probably too hard to salvage, I think I was resigned to the fact it was never going to be finished.
Fast forward to 2020 and Covid-19 when strange things started to happen, after some spring cleaning around the house the ship again saw the light of day but this time I was determined to make progress, with the help of now fast internet I set about researching wooden model ship building and to my surprise I found the Schooner kit is still available now from Modelers Central, I found quite a few photos of others that have completed the kit which also spurred me on and other resources such as this site “Ships of Scale”
So with renewed enthusiasm I have repaired the faults to a level I am satisfied with and almost finished the build, will post some photos when completed although it would pale in comparison to some of the amazing work from other builders I have seen posted here.
Looks like I found a new hobby as my second build is ready to go and will be Occre’s Revenge, hopefully I am up for the challenge building on the skills I have already learnt.
Cheers
I have always had a fascination with old model sailing ships and marvelled at the skill to build them.
I guess it was on dialup internet one day I came across Modeller’s Shipyard in Australia that sold wooden model ship kits, my limited research at the time found I should start with a kit that was a challenging but should be achievable with my limited and average woodworking skills, so on 11/09/1995 I purchased “A Schooner for Port Jackson”, I know it’s that date because I still have the receipt in the box.
So on to reading the black and white photocopied manual and learning so many new terms like fairing, wedging and planking etc. had me wondering if I had bitten off more than I could chew. Undeterred I started construction which progressed reasonably well as I tried to visualise what the instructions were conveying, I did take a few photographs at the time of the early progress which I also have still in the box taken on a 35mm film camera(remember them).
Well it was all going reasonably well until I got to the second layer of planking, about a third of the way through I realised it was a mess and didn’t know how to fix it, disheartened and disappointed it went into a cupboard for many years only coming out occasionally deciding it’s probably too hard to salvage, I think I was resigned to the fact it was never going to be finished.
Fast forward to 2020 and Covid-19 when strange things started to happen, after some spring cleaning around the house the ship again saw the light of day but this time I was determined to make progress, with the help of now fast internet I set about researching wooden model ship building and to my surprise I found the Schooner kit is still available now from Modelers Central, I found quite a few photos of others that have completed the kit which also spurred me on and other resources such as this site “Ships of Scale”
So with renewed enthusiasm I have repaired the faults to a level I am satisfied with and almost finished the build, will post some photos when completed although it would pale in comparison to some of the amazing work from other builders I have seen posted here.
Looks like I found a new hobby as my second build is ready to go and will be Occre’s Revenge, hopefully I am up for the challenge building on the skills I have already learnt.
Cheers
