Hello!
When I was seven, my father gifted me with my first "big boy" book: Moby Dick (picture that). Yes, I read it all; and multiple times, in fact. This had two consequences: I became a voracious reader for life, and I fell in love with the sea. At some point I even sought to become a naval aviator. However, after some introspection I found that what I craved was the fallacious experience of adventure onboard a tall ship, not really the life of a modern sailor. So I became an engineer, and still had lots of fun with airplanes—but the sea was forgotten.
Fast forward three decades and now I have rediscovered one of my passions. Each year I spend the winter months in Veracruz, Mexico, and this has brought me back my memories and the sea. Before the pandemic the missus surprised me with an unusual birthday present: a wooden model ship. It was one of those that are delivered piecemeal, by subscription. She probably thought that would make the task less overwhelming.
I had worked with plastic models in my youth, mostly warbirds, several F-14's and even an aircraft carrier, but those days were long gone. I thought it would be a nice challenge, since I had never built anything with wood. I bought several books on the topic—Mastini's, Roth's, etc.—watched some tutorials and put hands to work. Soon I noticed it would not be an easy project, and I decided to buy a small, cheap, entry-level model that I could mess with and learn the ropes without destroying something important. So I bought the Artesanía Latina 1:25 Providence Whaleboat and started with that instead, putting the big ship on the back burner.
This was the result:
I have the whole process documented in pictures, and if anybody is interested I could post it somewhere or make a gallery.
I had so much fun building it, and felt I was ready for more complexity. It turned out to be challenging indeed, but not as difficult as I had previously believed. As you can see from the pictures, I did not follow the instructions to the letter: the out-of-the-box model is not exactly historically accurate (I know my stuff about whaling) so I decided to augment and customize. I did what I could with the materials at hand, and even scratch-built some additional pieces, like the lance, the lion's tongue, new harpoon tips, cleat notch and kicking strap for the harpooneer's position, steering oar strap and brace, peaking cleats for the oars and reefers for the main sail. All nautical knots and hitches are purpose-accurate.
I know it's not perfect, and errors might be evident, but please remember that this was my very first project.
After Providence, I feel I'm ready for the next one. I am looking forward to learning from all of you!
