Hi everyone,
I am joining this group after a couple of months of finding "modelshipworld" on my search engine while trying to do research for a model I am building. I've learned a few interesting things here, so I decided it would be better to participate rather than simply lurk in the background benefitting but not contributing.
I live in Yellowknife, the capital and only city in Canada's Northwest Territory. I have always been attracted to the sea and ships, and in the early 'oughts I built my own little wooden sailboat, which I still sail on Great Slave Lake in the summer. At work I am a "bush pilot" and I fly a DeHavilland Twin Otter. I have done work on open water and frozen sea in the Arctic archipelago, and this is how I developed a fascination with the lost Franklin expedition and its artifacts.
I'm currently building the OCCRE model of H.M.S. Terror. The way I came about this is a bit convoluted: one of my winter-time hobbies is steam engines. I love any steam-powered train, ship, tractor, donkey-engine; you name it. I have a few working steam models. One day I was poking around the internet and reading about early British railway locomotives and was surprised to learn that the engines on the Franklin expedition's HMS Erebus and HMS Terror were repurposed and obsolete railway locomotives! While digging for more information on this, I came across Matthew Betts' excellent blog about his work to build a model of HMS Terror in 1:48 scale. While I was reading this blog, which is good for several days of really fascinating reading and learning, I learned about the OCCRE model, which is completely based on Matthew's research and recreation of real shipwright's records from the Royal Navy, and I felt a very strong compulsion to try my hand at model ship-building. I live more or less in Franklin's back yard, so to speak, and I felt the urge to build this model of Terror very personally.
I'm new to model ship-building, but I have throughout my life built many working models of aeroplanes and steam trains, and I feel I have a decent grasp of miniature woodworking and reproduction of details. I decided to try this model and so I am a first-time model ship builder. As the model takes shape, I find I have a lot of questions about ships and shipbuilding practices, so I decided to sign up to share what I've done so far and hopefully get some advice about what's coming up.
Keith
