Introducing Myself...

R

Raul Armada

Joined
Dec 1, 2021
Messages
18
Points
58

Hello fellow model builders,

I'm new to the forum, my name is Raul Armada. I just moved to Cutler Bay Florida from a very long residence in New Jersey.
In my younger years I was a chain-smoking, or chain-building, modeler. Many interests- cars, planes, space, but my passion was ships. I couldn't get enough of them. Back in the 70's and 80's, I spent hours searching and visiting every hobby store I could to find ship model kits. I traveled a lot then and whenever I was in a new city I would include a visit to a local hobby shop in addition to seeing the sights. At one point I had 55 model ships in my collection displayed in their own room in my house. I had about 2 dozen kits waiting to be built. Then strangely and suddenly, I reached burnout. My last model was a 1:100 scale HMS Victory. I finished it just before the birth of my first daughter. Life got busy after kids, marriage and career and I found little time to think, or work, on my models.
We sold our house and relocated and I had to pack away all the model ships I had in my collection. They wound up in attics and basements all over kingdom come, and unfortunately over the years many were damaged or thrown away and only a half dozen or so still exist. Fortunately that includes HMS Victory. She was in pretty bad shape after moving so many times over the years, but I recently had her restored back to her original condition. Special thanks to Mr. Bill Crane of Premier Ship Models in N.C. for his wonderful restoration.
A few years after my "early retirement", I had an eye injury which luckily I recovered from but in the process I discovered I had a cornea condition that caused my vision to degrade from my once 20/20 vision. I see OK with contacts, but certainly not as well as I used to when I modeled.
I'm planning to slowly build my model ship collection again now that I'm retired in Florida. I might even try another model kit on my own, although I'm really rusty. They say it's like riding a bicycle, but we'll see about that.

Thank you for reading my introduction. I look forward to using this forum more actively.

Sincerely,

Raul
 
Welcome aboard the forum.

Take time and look around many good helpful posts on what or how to do things

Use the search tool to check out a subject or specific model.

And please start a build log when you get to work on next project

Kurt K
Oklahoma City OK
 
Hallo Raul,
a warm welcome here on board of our forum.
Enjoy your "first" build - you have now the free time to do what you want - and we hope to see your work on the model(s)
 
Welcome Raul to the group. I do believe that sometimes our skills do become a bit rusty when we are away from our hobbies for extended periods of time but we never really lose those skills. As long as our brains, hands and eyes function reasonably well we will be able to continue in this hobby to the end of our days.

Jim
 
Hi Raul! Really excited to see pictures of your past models as well as your current projects. Please make a build log of your current ship project so the rest of us can benefit from your experience. Many members here have build logs full of techniques and tricks to make the model building easier or more detailed. Browse the forum, and search for some particular ship favorites, but prepare to spend several hours buried in interesting information! Also note that many of our build logs are advertised in links in each builder's post signature below their name, so you can go to a build log for a ship you recognize very quickly.
 
Raul Armada said:
Hello fellow model builders,

I'm new to the forum, my name is Raul Armada. I just moved to Cutler Bay Florida from a very long residence in New Jersey.
In my younger years I was a chain-smoking, or chain-building, modeler. Many interests- cars, planes, space, but my passion was ships. I couldn't get enough of them. Back in the 70's and 80's, I spent hours searching and visiting every hobby store I could to find ship model kits. I traveled a lot then and whenever I was in a new city I would include a visit to a local hobby shop in addition to seeing the sights. At one point I had 55 model ships in my collection displayed in their own room in my house. I had about 2 dozen kits waiting to be built. Then strangely and suddenly, I reached burnout. My last model was a 1:100 scale HMS Victory. I finished it just before the birth of my first daughter. Life got busy after kids, marriage and career and I found little time to think, or work, on my models.
We sold our house and relocated and I had to pack away all the model ships I had in my collection. They wound up in attics and basements all over kingdom come, and unfortunately over the years many were damaged or thrown away and only a half dozen or so still exist. Fortunately that includes HMS Victory. She was in pretty bad shape after moving so many times over the years, but I recently had her restored back to her original condition. Special thanks to Mr. Bill Crane of Premier Ship Models in N.C. for his wonderful restoration.
A few years after my "early retirement", I had an eye injury which luckily I recovered from but in the process I discovered I had a cornea condition that caused my vision to degrade from my once 20/20 vision. I see OK with contacts, but certainly not as well as I used to when I modeled.
I'm planning to slowly build my model ship collection again now that I'm retired in Florida. I might even try another model kit on my own, although I'm really rusty. They say it's like riding a bicycle, but we'll see about that.

Thank you for reading my introduction. I look forward to using this forum more actively.

Sincerely,

Raul
Click to expand...
Hallo Raul alias @Raul Armada
we wish you all the BEST and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Birthday-Cake
 
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