Promoting the Hobby

[Donnie]

Here in Mississippi (USA), I think that there are two other people that I know of that have this hobby. How many are in your area that you know of?

Down here in the south, I think it is rare that this hobby exist. I had thought about putting out flyers in my neighborhood to promote. I am sure that there has to be someone near that wishes they could find some type of hobby like what we enjoy.

Anybody got any ideas on how to spread the word around? I am not sure if visiting any local schools would be in order. They might be fascinated by it at first, but not sure about long term.

We have a Hobby Town USA and I could ask the owner if I could put up a flyer, but I would say that 99.99 % of the folks that go there are into ANYTHING that goes fast. As a matter of fact, you would be lucky to even see a few plastic ship models laying around.

What I have experienced is that the right person with the right amount of influence has to introduce people to ship building.

Donnie

 

[Seafever]

Martha's Vineyard Island Massachusettes here ! I am going to display my model at Edgartown Marina When Finished for all to see and will note my conection to Ships of Scale . I always talk to people at gift shops here some sell Ship models I will ask to put a Mention for the Site Also The Black Dog bakery . The best Place would be in The Boston Nautical Museum and at the Constitution Site . Not to Mention Nantucket island where the Famous Natucket Sleigh ride was created . Light houses, Indian reservations , Hobby stores , Historic sites . Etc......... just to name a few ideas .

 

[Tony P]

Sad to say the younger generations are not taken with building anything like we were as kids. They have things today that were only Sci Fi dreams when I was a kid. Almost all the brick and mortar hobby shops have closed. In the 60's and 70's every store had a huge modeling section, it was the thing to do then. Plastic modeling is going through the same thing, at a larger show say of 200 or 300 modelers if there is a dozen kids "juniors" in the show its alot. Wooden ship building I think is in a class by itself, granted most are in kit form but its real craftsmanship that builds a wooden ship, not saying plastic modeling in high quality is easy but its different. Craftsmanship has disappeared everywhere not just in modeling, everyone wants instant gratification, no one wants to actually build anything, thats work, they would rather just buy everything. I think most of the modelers today are in "our age group" say 35 to whatever. We that do build are lucky I think as we have something that is truly interesting, fun to do and when you do your best and build a quality model its very satisfying, not many people do what we do and or get the pleasure we do from our hobby, maybe Im glad of that too.

Tony

 

[Børge]

Hi

I think one major problem would be the internet, kinds from 10-18 years spend a lot of time in front of the PC, i know our kids does it more than we did as kids (some years ago ).

When i was young (a couple of weeks ago) we spent more time outside, and when i was inside i loved to work, and fidle with things.
I always liked to work with wood
So if the young ones today dont have the interest, or posibilities to do this kind of things, they will be fever. I guess


Børge

 

[Tony P]

Yes we all or most of us anyway started modeing as a kid when everyone built models, we did our "young adult" thing settled down and got nack into it. As for the internet, its a trove of information that I sure wish I had as a kid, I had Enclycopedia's which I loved to explore and books in the library with black and white photos, the kids today dont know how good they have it. Right, either we were outside from sunup to sundown or on rainy days we built models. Now the kids including mine what they were younger would complain its too hot or cold to go outside, funny, it was never too hot or cold for me !
There are a few start kids I see who have the history bug that model and do good work too, but as they get to be 16 or so most of them get busy with 16 year old things for the next 10 years.
Right Popeye, no one wants to do much anymore wether is models or building anything else, maybe you and I are prejudiced as we have worked with out hands our whole lifes, but in general the younger generation is not getting into any kind of manual work, they all want to sit in a cublicle !! The sad part is when our generation dies off will there be anyone building models at all anymore ?

Tony

 

[Seafever]

When I was a kid I had belonged to a plastic Model Club for a small fee that lasted a year every month you would get a model of the month from the Red Baron to the PT 109 easy kits but it was the way we had fun . Wish they still did that .It started with an easy to build kit and got more difficult . Today Computers have changed the way kids grow up . Today you can build a beautiful model on a computer screen and when your done you'll be lucky if it doesn't get deleted . But look in any Sea Related Museum and you'll always see a beautiful wood ship Model that your kids will drop thier jaws when they see it . Maybe some Ship Model company will start a Model Club and offer wood ship models by the month club. Today kids live thier lives on a tiny keyboard cell phones texting messages you can't event read at blazing speeds and have no time and when they finish they get on the computer and go to facebook or twitter . And when they drive are they event watching the road or know how to read a map ? When they see a Desk phone they ask me what is that thing ? And TV was free not as good a picture but Dad could tweek the rabbit ears and we could watch it. today Your paying over $100 a month to watch TV . Do you remember thinking My Dad and Mom are square ? Wonder what kids think of us who talk on a real telephone and don't like texting ? And build wooden Ship Models .At least we can translate the model instructions now and have a place to go to enjoy our old dying craft . Just like Fibergalss took out Wooden Boats when they run out of oil it will be our Wooden Ships that will once again sail across the Open Sea .And then who will be the Square ?