Thanks Patty. I could not find the images.

Tony, I can only see small pictures. Did you make both of those from scratch? Is the ship on the left a square rigged schooner? Is the one on the right a brig? I cant really see gun ports, so I assume niether is a man of war. Is there any way to get bigger pictures?

 

Sorry, my kids have already laid claim to all my tools, my riding mower, weed whackers, etc.. And I may need those kids to take care of me someday.

 

Bill, try clicking on these links, which should bring up a larger image.

http://m.flickr.com/...903775/sizes/l/

http://m.flickr.com/...978106/sizes/l/

 

Bill,
The square rigger is the Perigrine Galley, a British man of war for 45 years. It was converted to the royal yacht Caroline after decommission. This was a kit. I worked on it over a 25 year period.

The other boat is a scratch built Polish rigged Xebec called Mystique. This was a French boat used as a merchant ship. It was heavily armed to protect cargo and was able to be rowed with long oars through the gun ports during calms. It is called Polish rigged because of the lateen and square sail mix. Xebecs traditionally only used triangular sails.

I find these ships beautiful and intriguing. The people who build museum models often start with a ships original drawings and make everything from scratch. They are extraordinary craftsmen in the extreme.

 

STUNNING!!!!

Dean- I was going to mention trains/slot cars. While the kits get you started, there are plenty of outlets for additional parts to build whatever you want it to look like.

As for models building, there's always the opportunity to take whats in the box, do some modifying or combining sets into dioramas of anything that peaks your interest.

 

Trains are way cool. You need a lot of space if you want them set up to run though.

 

Depends on the scale you go with. I think that's usually a tradeoff between detail, space and cost. I used to do slot cars, and had about a 6x10 ft table. I was able to squeeze about 62 ft of track on it without anything usual. the longest straightaway was just under 10 ft (but with 2 banked corners, about 25 feet effectively).

Because HO scale was much cheaper, I was able to accumulate all kinds of parts and track pieces to move things around without being locked into something. If I wanted to recreate a track for an upcoming race, I could. If I wanted to design my own, I could.

If I went with a larger scale, I'd need a ton more space and a lot more money. However, I could get detail that wasn't remotely offered in the HO stuff. For me, HO was the only choice.

 

No one has mentioned scrape booking. Clean, requires only small space and few tools. Highly creative, small physical requirement. Some risk of paper cuts. Just don't run with scissors.

 

A 6x10' table with walking space around it! My wife would love to have that, as she is fascinated by model trains. Before our current two-story we used to live in ranch style homes with huge basements and a table like that would fit. No longer. True she has a table that big already down there but it's a cutting and layout table for sewing related activities… that's in addition to her sectioned off sewing room. Too many hobbies, so little space. Heck her horse saddles take up a lot of room to. Then there's the zillion boxes for Xmas. No trains for us.

 

Nope. Wants me to sign in. Thanks for trying.