Landlubber Mike

Wowzers, what a book! I see AK put out a few other "F.A.Q." books - does anyone have them and have any thoughts or recommendations? This one looks like a real excellent how-to.

Very cool - i'll have to look into them!

That's really great Fran, nice job!

Nice! What kit is that?

Thanks guys! Harv and Fran, break out the Optivisor and get going! If I can do it, you most definitely can!

Masterful PE work there, wow!

Very interesting, thanks for the clarification. Looking forward to this build!

Looking forward to this one! Great Spitfires and the art work is nice as well... Those Quinta 3D decals look fantastic. Are they applied as decals, or are they glued on?

I love it! Great model and great diorama! I've always been scared away from those Aires and other figures, as the boxes make the figures look a little rough. But they seem to actually be quite nice with crisp details.

Some final shots. At some point I'll likely put it in a waterline diorama, but I'll do that when I have a batch of completed models I think.

At the risk of getting tossed off this board for going small instead of going big, here is my first 1/700 ship. It's the PitRoad Hatsuzakura ("year's first cherry blossom") with Fivestar full upgrade set. I have a few nice 1/350 and larger kits on the shelf with full aftermarket upgrade packages, but thought I would start with something relatively small and inexpensive to learn how work with PE so that I could do the larger kits justice. Let's just say the PE is so small that I now feel comfortable handling anything in the larger sizes. But, I really had a blast building this one, and will build others in the future. There is such more variety of ships at the 1/700 scale it's incredible. In particular, there are tons of auxiliary vessels you can build. I'm a little more partial to subjects that are on the odder or more workhorse side, than something bristling with a million guns. As you can see, fine tweezers and an Optivisor are a must!

Really amazing work. Those scarpf joint decals are fantastic! I have to say that I wasn't sure if the Rexx products were worth the price, but wow, that exhaust pipe is incredible!

Thanks for the kind words Peter. I feel like I'm still very much an amateur. You should see some of the work posted on MSW - there are some world class artists there.

Couldn't agree more about the techniques crossing model types. I certainly will approach some of my wooden models differently after learning techniques from the plastic side. I'd really love to sometime build a weathered wooden fishing or Dutch commercial vessel in a waterline diorama setting.

Thanks for your thoughts Rob. When I first picked up the Badger kit, I was starting from square one - had no clue about tools, adhesives and other materials, paints and finishes, etc. Also, it had been close to 30 years since small plastic kits I did as a kid, so I didn't fully appreciate more complicated modeling techniques like jigs, etc. I read a few of the beginner books out there, but thank God for the internet! I'd be lost without the help from kind-hearted fellow modelers. With all your skills and experience, you'll be able to jump right in and go to work. I hear you on the larger vessels. Ship modeling involves a lot of repetitive tasks - in some ways you can get in a groove and it's therapeutic in a way, while in others, building yet another cannon and rigging it with 2mm blocks gets old quickly. Can't wait to see your work! Good luck with the build!

Thanks Mike, really appreciate it.

I thought Peter Jackson pulled the plug. He's sorta THE key player as he's the funding source.

That Felixstowe looks incredible, wow! I see work like this and it makes me think about hanging up my airbrush for good.

Thanks Peter. This has been a good learning experience and a fun build. I've got the fuselage assembled and the paint coat down. I need to blur the demarcation between the two colors, and then can start the weathering and final assembly.

Rob, many thanks for the kind words. The Duchess looks like a really fantastic kit! With your modeling skills and experience building the kutter, I think you should be completely fine. I'm building Chris' Pegasus kit (from Amati) and it goes together very nicely. That was the next ship after the Badger that I did (Badger being my first), and I was such a novice at the beginning, and in many respects still am, but I think it came out ok. The wood ships are fun, and I started back in modeling with wood ships because of the variety of materials (wood, string, cloth, metal, etc.) you can use. You can really bring woods to life with oils and other finishes. On my current builds I'm "painting with wood" and using woods like ebony, yellow heart, redheart, paduak, holly, etc. to represent the colors in lieu of painting. Plus, I had memories of painting plastic models with those Testor's enamels. I didn't want to do models where I just put it together in a couple of days, slapped a coat of paint, and called it done. Of course, I came to realize that kits changed a ton since I was a kid, and with things like airbrushes, new paints and finishes, PE and resin aftermarket, etc. Now I'm more into plastic than wood, but mostly because I'm more interested in the subjects. What's been cool is learning techniques from one type of modeling that I can now apply to the other and vice versa. It's been interesting seeing that even in the plastic world, there are techniques that plane modelers use that ship and car modelers tend not to, and that car modelers use versus plane and ship modelers, etc., but the techniques can be helpful across modeling subjects. Personally, I think 1/64 scale is a good one. The Badger is probably a good 20" from end to end, and probably about that in height. Long story, but I was going to work on a larger ship with I think 24 cannons that was in a 1/70 kit. I was going to convert it to its sister ship to do something different, but the kit hull was the wrong proportions and I couldn't make it work without a ton of effort. So, I decided that eventually I will scratch build it. It was a fairly good size at 1/70, but I took the plans for the ship that I purchased from the National Royal Maritime Museum and printed them out at 1/48 scale. Huge difference in size! 1/48 is a scale that a lot of scratch modelers work in, but for a big warship, you are talking a lot of bench space. I have three other wooden kits in various stages at the moment. Once I get through the stash, I'd like to scratch build some. I'd probably look to do them in smaller scales though. I'm just about finished with a 1/700 IJN destroyer, and have really enjoyed working with small scales. I like the old Dutch ships, but if I can get the carving down, I'd love to build the 1693 HMS Sussex at 1/100 or even smaller scale - the ornamentation is really beautiful: Anyway, sorry to ramble on. Looking forward to watching you work on your Duchess!

Thanks Peter. They do take longer for sure, but like other models, it usually depends on the subject, how much extra detail you put in, etc. Some ships like the Victory take people upwards of 3-5+ years - and that's for people with a lot of modeling time on their hands. If you did smaller craft though, you could knock those out in a few months. Like anything else, it takes a bit of time learning how to work the material, use different tools, etc. What's really impressive to me are people who find some plans and scratch build their ships - even building every last cannon, bolt, etc. Those people blow my mind with the kind of work that is possible.

I haven't used it, but my guess is like Gorilla Glue, you shouldn't put it in your hair...

Looking great Bill. This is one of my favorite of the Wingnut subjects - love the bird aspect! Now I just need to find someone looking to part with a kit...

Hang in there - TJTX, at least you have the smoker in the clear

Harv, get well soon!