Intoduction

WELCOME

Hello and welcome to my blog!

This is very much a blog of "firsts" featuring a nice internal consistency in that it is also my first attempt at blogging. While this is specifically going to be used as build log for a model of the HMS Surprise (more on that later!) my main intention in starting it was to try to capture the feel of the first stumbling steps into the exciting world of model ship building. I have essentially no experience of any aspect of the hobby; I have no experience or knowledge of ships or ship building, I have no experience of model ship building and I even have very little experience of wood work or modelling of any kind. To someone like me it can be a very daunting experience taking the plunge into modelling. Any idle web search brings up a wealth of endless kits, complex plans, countless tools not to mention the baffling converstions about caulking methods, rabbet joints, cant frames etc using a vocabularly so rich in unknown terms that entire sentences are rendered meaningless. What I hope that this blog will provide is a comfort to others in a similar position. I don't intend to hold anything back; no thought will be too naive, no question too stupid and no mistake ignored. It will truly be "warts and all."

What I hope to prove to myself as much as to anyone reading is that with enough enthusiasm, patience and time anyone can create something that they can be genuinelly proud of.

THE BEGINNINGS

I supppose I should say a little about myself just to set the scene. My name is Jonny and I live in the UK town of Bristol (home of Brunel's SS Great Britain.) I'm 25 years old and work in a secondary school as a data analyst. Besides modelling ships I have various other hobbies including playing the piano and oboe, playing rugby, juggling and computer gaming.

Right, with the formalities out of the way lets get onto how I began my journey into model ship building. Unfortunately I have no inspiring tale of a great ancestor sailing on the Victory or even inheriting an old model ship. It was very much a spur of the moment decision! My girlfriend Marie is a keen scrapbooker and I have always loved being around her while she works. One day an idea just popped into my head that it would be interesting to take up a hobby that would allow us to work across the table from each other and model ship building seemed like something that I would be interested in. It really was no more than that.

And so we come to the first questions. What do I do now? I know I want to have a go at model ship building but how do I even start doing that? I had a quick search online and found a local model shop and thought my best bet was to go in and just have a look around. They had a fair selection of plastic model ships and a handful of wooden kits from various manufacturers. I had no idea where to start. Should I get a plastic or wooden model? What difficulty level should I go for with no relative reference on acutally how difficult these kit were? For some reason I had the idea that plastic models were "easier" and wondered if I should do a plastic model first before moving on the wooden ships. Eventually I plucked up the courage to ask one of the shop assistants for some advice to a complete novice. Straight away he cleared up the plastic vs wood debate. He suggested that there was no link or "step up" from plastic to wood. If I wanted to model in wood I should get a wooden kit. He suggested a relatively cheap mamoli model of the HMS victory. I took his word as good and made the purchase with no knowledge of the contents of this kit. Of course I had no tools or equipment so asked him what basic things I would need to start. I left the shop with just the kit and a pot of white glue! Marie had a spare craft knife that I knew I could use so I was armed with a knife, some glue and a cardboard box with a picture of a the HMS Victory on it. Here we go!

I could go into detail on my first faltering steps building this model, but I think that might be for abother blog! Surfice to say I quickly realised that some new tools were in order so took a trip to a bigger hobby shop and came back with the following odds and ends:

New craft knife
Cutting mat
Steel Ruler
Small tap hammer
Small hand drill and a set of the tiniest drill bits I've ever seen!
Sanding block
Small pair of pliers
A selection of paints
A wooden keel clamp
Airfix plastic model of the Cutty Sark.

Yes, you read that last one right. After deciding to stick with wooden modelling I was overcome with and impultion to buy this kit as it was being offered at such a low price! I am currently still working on this kit and am not too far off completing it. It has been a very rewarding experience in that it is giving me a very basic knowledge of the various steps involved in building a full ship. Particularly I hope that it will be a good chance to get an early look at rigging on a model which I am not commiting a huge amount of my time to and hence don't mind making big mistakes on!

My early experience with both these ships confirmed my feeling that wooden ship modelling was something that I could see investing a lot myself into and so already I was looking around for a bigger challenge.

Surprise, Surprise!

That challenge showed itself a lot sooner than I had imagined it would. Another idle search brought up a website of a company offering model ships in installments. So a kit that would normally cost in the region of £500 could be purchased over 28 months. I was immediately attracted to the dramatic picture of the HMS Surprise on their front page made from a kit by Artesania Latina (AL). There were many thngs to consider first. Would the kit be too hard for me? Would I have the space for it (the finished model is over a metre/4 feet long)? In the end I decided that it was perfect opportunity for me. By getting the parts in installments I was giving myself the time to properly apply myself to each step, and gradually increase my skill and tool set as I built it. I placed my order and eagerly waited for my first parts to arrive.

And so this bring us up to date. I have the first parts of the Surprise and am almost ready to begin building. Future posts will concern themselves solely with the build of this model, but as this model is acting as my introduction to model building the posts will contain all my thoughts, mistake and developments that I go through. At this stage I decided to set myself some ground rules that I hope will make the building experience the best that it can be and hopefully allow me to produce the best work that I can. They are as follows:

1. I will never make any assumptions. If I have a doubt about anything I will research it first and ask lots of questions.

2. Before doing anything new I will practice it first away from the model including dry fitting parts to be glued.

3. I will try not to let myself think that something is "good enough" or that I can fix something later (without a clear plan of how to fix it later). I won't be afraid to strip something down and start again if I am not 100% happy.

4. I will never rush my work. I will not concern myself with a need to "finish." I will be happy to not touch the model for weeks on end if I am researching techniques or waiting to buy necessary tools.

and most importantly...

5. I will enjoy my work! If I feel like I am working for the sake of finishing something and not enjoying it I will take some time away and return when I feel ready.

For anyone who has read this far I applaud you for your longevity but I hope you may have got something out of it! I look forward to making future posts and most of all look forward to hearing others views and advice.

Useful Links

A bit of housekeeping, there are a couple of websites that I will most be likely be using quite a lot during this build that I thought I should provide the links here

Model Space - This is the site which I purchased the HMS Surprise kit who have been extremely helpful with my order and offer kits at very reasonable prices

Model Ship World Forum - A fantastic looking community of model ship builders who have already made an impression on my and inspired me to start this blog and build log. I will most likely start a mirror build log as a thread on this site in the near future.

HMS Surprise build log - a build log of the very same kit which was posted a while ago on the model ship world form. This acted as a real inspiration to buy the kit and it is a real shame that he never finished it. I may well steal an idea or two from his build log. He also has a very detailed photo log here

Happy modelling everyone!