Projects

Y.T. said:
Good evening friends. Often I hear people saying "need getting more new people into a hobby". Interesting to know. Why do you need others to join?
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Actually we need more young people to get involved in this hobby,but most young kids are involved in plastic modeling like,tanks,cars ,airplanes and such ,wooden ship model building is much more complicated and time consuming,even plastck ship modelbulders say that they have hard time with the trasitioning.
 
hey Doc what about the Stern of Le Fleuron or another french 74. when my books come in I will be building one I have the plans already for the Fleuron and would make for a really nice Aft Model
 
DocBlake said:
I regret my ignorance of CAD every day, I have TurboCAD, but tutorials only show the most mundane topics...nothing aimed at a model ship designer wannabe! I’d love to do a stern section of a Swan class or such, with magazine, great cabin etc. in a larger scale (1:32, 1:24). I guess I’ll have to wait until someone who knows what they are doing draws the plans! Hope I don’t die first
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I think the Swan class books have the drawings and you can make a stern section.
 
zoly99sask said:
Actually we need more young people to get involved in this hobby,but most young kids are involved in plastic modeling like,tanks,cars ,airplanes and such ,wooden ship model building is much more complicated and time consuming,even plastck ship modelbulders say that they have hard time with the trasitioning.
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Exactly right we older folks need to take some young folks under our wing sort of apprenticeship and get them involved. We arent getting any younger and any skills we have will die with us. We need to teach young people this hobby, they are the future. I promise my Grandson will have every opportunity to learn it, the only unknown is will he continue to pursue it. I've taught him fishing and RC flight he now flies my drones and planes at 4 years old. I'll teach him hunting, trapping, flintknapping and any other skill or hobby I know. I think it's important to show young folks there is more to life then video games and TV.
 
Exactly right we older folks need to take some young folks under our wing sort of apprenticeship and get them involved.

and sometimes it is the other way around my grandson who is in college for civil engineering I have to ask him about 3d modeling or understanding engineer drawings.
 
When i feel bit ready in want to build the Stern part of the Friesland from scratch . Need help from high skilled builder to help with carvings and castings at that time. So hope i am still young enough then to get under someons wings.
 
Am I young enough at 80 years old still need to be taken under the wings of the best to learn more,,,I would like to take this opurtunity to give my opion on some things,had this discussion on MSB would like to carry it on here, on SOS there are some FANTASTIC MODELERS both USA and INTERNATIONALLY, one of my goals is to do a ANCRE build but right now have not got the skills hopefully with DAVES AND MIKE41 i will progress to it,,,what I am saying is THE BULK OF THIS HOBBY THE ONES WHO ARE COMMING UP BOTH THE YOUNG AND YOUNG OLD are the NOVICES and especially the intermediate modelers we are the ones THAT SUPPORT THIS HOBBY BOTH FINANCIALLY AND IN BUILDS, we need more builds and manufactorors to produce items for the mass who want to prggress, older intermediate modelers especially can not take 5 to 7 years to complete a project, for me when I choose a project it I look for something that I can finish in SAY 4 to 6 OR 7 months, let me here coments both pro and con, THIS IS MY OPION. Don
 
keeping in mind the time it take to build, adding lessons on "how to" so a builder can carry that on to the next build, keeping in mind shipping cost so it is important to consider weight of materials and send nothing extra.

some builders have no interest in a certain subject BUT if that build project is a learning experience the subject is secondary to the methods and lessons learned.

the focus is "learning" this art form and not buying a kit that takes years to build. Fast easy builds are better than long drawn out builds that you struggle with.

we are well aware of the pro and cons and working out the details.

to offer plans, building projects or semi kits or wood packages still leave a big gap it is still up to the builder to figure it all out. So now it is a shifting of focus of learning modeling skills.

it hurts my brain to think a group would focus on things like absolute historical accuracy, milling wood to within .0005 thousandths of an inch, using the most expensive wood you can buy, polish the model to a mirror finish. you are catering to the 1% of the builders in the hobby stupid in my opinion. Shunning the use of plastic, or resin casting or 3d printing used in wooden ship modeling really?
There is nothing wrong with "folk art" or even a totally made up ship, common available wood is just fine you do not need some rare exotic wood that only grows on the northern slopes of a mountain range is some tiny corner of the world.
Groups the advocate perfect blemish free wood and reject anything else. Wood is created by nature it is never perfect if you don't have the skill set to work around a blemish of finish you own wood try another hobby
 
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another thing is most these ships didnt use the rare exotic woods. Look at masts and carvings and lot other stuff were made from softwoods of Pine and Fir. these 1% morons would crucify you for using them even if you point out to them that the originals used them. so its not about accuracy for them guys its about we are richer than you and can use these insanely exspensive woods and tell you what the ships were made of so that we can have bigger egos thinking we can tell everyone else what is right no matter we are wrong or not.
 
JosephH said:
another thing is most these ships didnt use the rare exotic woods. Look at masts and carvings and lot other stuff were made from softwoods of Pine and Fir. these 1% morons would crucify you for using them even if you point out to them that the originals used them. so its not about accuracy for them guys its about we are richer than you and can use these insanely exspensive woods and tell you what the ships were made of so that we can have bigger egos thinking we can tell everyone else what is right no matter we are wrong or not.
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Joe,for scale shipmodels you can’t use the same wood as the original,just too grainy and they are not good for microcarvings and other detailed works
 
actually you could come close Aspen and other soft woods are similar and were used and they super easy to carve. it would also be really close. I use cherry and aspen for almost everything. you dont need exotics aspen has almost no grain and there are things out there called stains to give you the look of the actual woods. the use of exotics is just for those that want to brag about the woods they used. stains and other woods when finished properly you wont know the difference visually other than grains.
 
Sorry, but now I have also write some words and give my two cents to this discussion.
I do not underline Daves and Josephs opinion.
Everybody should be able and allowed to built his / her model like they want, 100% accurate or folk art, with cheap or expensive timber, out of expensive kits or scratch out of your banana boxes.
SOS stands for this subjective personal taste and subjective decisions how or what do do.
We are open for the 1% as well for the 99% of modelers.
You do not have to like it, but we have to accept decisions others are making, and definitely these people are no morons.
Therefore I ask you to keep the ball down and come back to discuss with arguments .

(in my opinion) Zoltans point is correct:
Ships were most built out of oak - not really usable in scale 1:48. So they use pear, elsbeere or other woods
A lot of Modelers are using ebony for some parts of the model, this was not used in real ships.
Everybody should do it like they want, and not like some people think they should!
 
I think using whatever you desire to build what you desire is a great thing. I get it that some folks want pure builds historically correct I am on a quest for that exact thing with wanting to build the Constellation, I want it correct. it will be the first model I build this way and may be the only. for most builds I'm not apposed to using whatever gets the job done if that's something I 3D print so be it. I'm absolutely not apposed to using what you have. I have seen plastic ships, Paper ships, metal ships and even Bone ships in some cases if the person didn't tell you what it was built from you would swear it was all wood.

One thing I think is important to longevity for new comers in this hobby is to not bite off more then you can chew. we have a lot of members on this forum we can get help when we need it, but there are ten fold the number of ship builders out there who aren't part of a forum for whatever reason be it to shy, don't have the web, some just don't know there are forums and the list can keep getting larger. for those folks there is zero help once they sink a grand into a ship to build and find its way above the skillset that leaves a bad taste in the mouth for sure and the chances of completing that model are pretty slim buying another to try very Rare. Build what you like? Yes absolutely that helps hold interest IMO but I also believe one should build inside of his skillset for the first one or two and as cheap as possible so any loss is minimal.

My first ship was a mess. I paid near $300 for that kit at a time when that was a few days salary that's a hard pill to swallow when that money could be used for something else. My thought then was well that's the first and last if I cant make it at least look acceptable there is no sense wasting funds on it. I am not the type to give up easy so after thinking about it for a couple hours I bought another kit. many folks will do this, but most wont. I opted for a kit I thought would be easier turn out was wasn't but I learned from my first mistakes also something not everyone can do. I started a friend out building about 4 years ago he wanted to build a ship with a ton of details and carvings I talked him into something alittle more fitting his skills for a first build. his First was worse then my first but since he only paid $29 for the kit and had a blast learning he bought another and in a year had bought and built 6 of those easier ships by his 3rd year he bought the ship of his dreams Mantua Sovereign of the Seas at $1000 and he is still building that ship today and loving it I've helped only with understanding the instructions and she's a fine vessel that he is doing fantastic work on. he honed his skills and is doing amazingly on it. I asked him a few weeks ago if he would have bought that kit fist would he still be building, and without hesitation his answer was absolutely not. He said the build is difficult and would have been virtually impossible as his first build. with all the model choices out there I find it impossible to believe that there are zero low skill ships that folks wouldn't enjoy building and not on a favorite ship list. many first step kits are of the same ships people want to build and more are coming out so if you want to build the Bounty you can as beginner all the way up to advanced there are options.
 
let me expand on this comment about using expensive rare wood.

common available wood is just fine you do not need some rare exotic wood

I did not say there is anything wrong with using rare exotic wood I am saying you don't have to use them. The comment was directed to some groups when a new builder posts a question 'what wood should I use?" and the replies are you have to use boxwood or Swiss Pearwood and Ebony for wales, Holly is the only accepted wood for decking etc the reason for using these woods is because they are the
traditional woods and these are the accepted woods used by the craftsman. I have seen comments like "I would never ever use Basswood or Aspin or those cheap woods.
I am a wood dealer and so many times I get first time builders email me saying they were told they have to use this or that type of wood. I will tell them fine you can use European Boxwood and for your build that will cost $1,400.00 OR you can use Maple for a cost of $200.00

it is not the use of anything for your personal build, it is when any group pushes their ideas on the general public saying if you don't use what we tell you, then your not accepted as an accomplished builder.

so yes when a builder realizes the extremely high cost of using rare wood they tend to walk away from the hobby.
 
We are open for the 1% as well for the 99% of modelers.
You do not have to like it, but we have to accept decisions others are making, and definitely these people are no morons.

that is correct the 1% the master builders are NOT morons

there is a saying "knowledge without attitude" that is where we are and there are others with the attitude of we are better than everyone and we won't help you, your on your own and when you are good enough then come see us.

it's ok to have your private little club and where members pat each other on the back saying how good we are.

i am saying this hobby needs groups open to all builders all styles from the masters to the beginners and everyone willing to lend a helping hand.
the masters inspire us all
 
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