Brian Hanington

I so appreciate all the kind words of welcome to this creative society. There is great warmth here. 

Greetings to all, and thank you for inviting me to join your spirited community.

I was born in Emsworth, Hants Co., England into a Canadian naval family in 1951, joined Canada’s navy myself at age 16 as an ordinary seaman, exiting a decade later in Halifax as a Lieutenant (N) to run Canada’s naval newspaper, the Trident.

I’m grateful to my dad, Rear Admiral Daniel Hanington, for encouraging my abiding interests in maritime history and seafaring in all its glorious forms. My professional life for the last 40 years has been as a writer of history, almost always from a Canadian perspective. Now, as I approach retirement at age 70, the prospect of uniting my lifelong interests in model shipbuilding is a true delight.

Many years ago, our fellow member Rick Sousha went to extraordinary lengths to drive halfway to Ottawa from Montreal to put a Jotika kit of bomb vessel HMS Grenada into my hands at an incredibly fair price (thank you, Rick), but I have yet to fix a single bulkhead to a keel. I’ve known all along that I lack the knowledge to undertake a competent build. All that is about to change.

In the past few weeks, with the kind the guidance of the members here, I have studied the craft, ordered the Guild’s planking project (thank you, Mary), and am about to order the three kits from New Shipwright’s Series by Model Shipways to cut my teeth. I am also cheerily awaiting my ropewalk and serving machine from Syren (thank you Chuck).

Also, encouraged by members Allen (Allenyed) and Mark Taylor, I’ve been promoting and will continue to publicize Adam Preston’s Traflagar project to all my Canadian military contacts. I promise to pester them vigorously.

Delighted to be aboard. Time to get back into the rigging.

Brian

Please take a few seconds to add your signature to a worldwide petition to produce an epic television series on Nelson and the battle of Trafalgar. The script is already written and much admired. All we have to do is show our unified interest. Head to http://trafalgar.tv. Thank you!

Dear Clearway, I’m new to MSW and hugely inspired by your work here on Terror. I hope to follow in your footsteps, yet have many metric tonnes of learning to do. Your marvellous photos and explanations will help immensely. Thank you!

Msgt Ray, as a true beginner (despite my advanced years), I really appreciate how daunting this hobby can seem. The books mentioned above are wonderful, yet I’ve found them to be very expensive and hard to get here in Canada (I’m also in Ottawa). I have truly benefitted from Frank Mastini’s “Ship Modeling Simplified.” Photo of cover and one illustration included. I hope I’m not transgressing any copyright issues by showing an example, but I do want you to see how simple the drawings are to understand. They help me immensely in just learning what everything is called, and I’m ex-Navy! I've just checked on amazon.ca and they can have one to you on Wednesday for about $28.00.  Consider it.  Happy building! 

Ship Modelling Simplified.pdf Mastini illustration example.pdf

Greetings and a warm welcome, Marcus. I’m very much at the same stage as you, and my Christmas gift (here on Ottawa, Ontario) was HMS Terror, also by OcCre. I’ve spent many hours combing this site to figure out how to do things, and I’m now just knowledgeable enough to open the box without cutting myself. After that, it’s a mystery. 🙂 Enjoy! 

You have such a fine touch. I truly love your work. Thank you for sharing! 

Chris, thank you so much for your candid cautionary tale, which I found truly helpful. As a newbie myself, I am astounded daily by the depth of my ignorance in this field, and yet assured by all the support and wisdom found here on MSW. Everything, of course, is learnable. I was given two beautiful kits for Christmas (Endeavour and Terror, both by OcCre) and I know now that my prudent course of action is to hold off on those and grab one of the half-hull planking project kits from the NRG shop… and figure out what the heck stealers and drop planks are. 🙂 I shall take your advice to heart. Merci bien!

Wonderful! Thanks Paul. I’ll watch and learn. 

I’ll pass on your kind thanks, Allen.

I’m in and delighted at the prospect of such a series. Adam’s podcasts are great fun and truly eye-opening, and I have no doubt his script is superb. I’ll get all my friends onboard. Thanks everyone for supporting this great project. 

By God, a capital idea! I shall work up to it. I wonder if the Paisley Museum might have a good set of photos.  I’ll ask!

What a marvel! Thanks so much for posting this. I was 16 when I first went though the Panama Canal in 1968 as an ordinary seaman in the Canadian navy, and I vividly recall hearing stories from the officers about the enormity of the dredging task in the canal’s creation (not to mention the toll of malaria). She’s a beautiful vessel, and wouldn’t I love to build a model of her! Here’s hoping some kitmaker is similarly inspired. 🙂