DocRob

My name is Robert and I'm a new member here on MSW. I introduced myself here and thankfully got a very nice reception. Three month ago, I started to build the Duchess of Kingston from Vanguard Models, my first 'real' wooden ship build and wrote a build log on the more plastic orientated partner forum Large Scale Modeler. https://forum.largescalemodeller.com/topic/14865-duchess-of-kingston-beauty-of-the-seas-wooden-sailing-ship-164/ I will continue the build log in both forums and hope to receive some of your expertise and help, when needed. I completed the hull with all the deck assemblies lately and have to start the dreaded rigging, an area, where I have only experiences through putting the strings into large scale WWI era planes. I hope I will not bore you with the umpteenth log of a Duchess of Kingston build, but the kit itself is so well designed, that it motivated me around the sharpest cliffs, I had to manage to get to this point. The DoK is buildable by a relative beginner, with some experience and patience under the belt. BTW: thanks to @glennard2523, @rafine, @desalgu and @Rustyj, whose experiences with their builds I absorbed. I got many inspirations from other members here too, but followed your builds closely. I will start my log here by showing you where I actually am with the build. If you have questions about the former build stages, please follow the link above or ask here. The last thing I did was building up my second planked hull, in this case the 18ft cutter from Chris Watton, as I will try to integrate it onto the deck of the Duchess. I like a busy deck and if I can manage to get this fiddly boat done, it will be added. The Duchess of Kingston itself looks like on the following pictures. It's 99% kit build with only a few little variations. I added some basic rigging for the cannons and some brass outlets for the pumps. Some parts were refined a bit to fit better into the design. Except some areas of concern, the build was straightforward, trouble free and very rewarding. I had some problems with the stern fascia, which I bent damp into shape, only to learn that the size increases or decreases by more than 5mm depending on the humidity of the air. I finally glued the part in with some supports and lot of CA glue. The deck railing proved to be very brittle , but somehow, I finally fiddled them into place in one piece. The rest of the build was curse free and pure fun. Cheers Rob

Thank you Keith and Andrew, I will not leave plastic/resin modelling, but wooden ships will become more prominent in my modelling career. I enjoy jumping between subjects and scales. I'm easily bored by redundance and therefore willing to challenge myself a bit with my builds. Cheers Rob

Thank you Dave, Ben and Dave for your friendly reception. I hope this will be a win win situation, as I have plenty of knowledge to share with plastic kits and an engineering background and a curious wandering mind. Cheers Rob

A warm hello to all the members here and a big thank you to the Admins, to accept me in your midth. My name is Robert and I'm living on the Canary Islands, a dream to live near the sea, which I fulfilled some years ago. I was born in West Berlin (Germany) some decades ago. As I'm German, English is not my mothers tongue and I hope, I can make myself understood here. I speak some Spanish too, but this seems also not very helpful here. I build plastic model kits since I was a kid, with a long break, between the age from 25 to 45. After having a lot of stress at the latter age, I found plastic modelling was a perfect release for that nagging pressure and a great way to get balanced and relaxed again, besides different types of sports, so I started again. There were not a lot of ships build by me, with only a few exceptions, but the maritime sector always fascinated me. I read my Hornblower and others, when young, I'm an active surfer, bodyboarder and swimmer. Since some years, I'm a very active member in the partner forum Large Scale Modeler (under the same name), which is a modelling home for me and I show a lot of work in progress threads and discuss a lot with the members there. I always liked LSM, because it's open for every scale and subject, with an emphasis on larger scales naturally. I like to jump between subjects and build planes, armor, cars and motorbikes, sci-fi and steampunk and a few ships. What drives me here, is that I started to build my first wooden ship build recently. That's not entirely true, as I half build a wooden Kutter before and built a wooden RC raceboat in my twenties. Three month ago I started to build the Duchess of Kingston from Chris Watton and I wrote a build log on LSM, where I got a lot of help and response. Now, reaching the mysterious point of rigging in the build, I decided, it's a good time to surround me with the complete knowledge here and hope to receive some help, when needed. I always think of Forums as two way information. Naturally as a relative beginner to the subject, I' cant help with the special knowledge in wooden ship modelling to much, but I have a lot to give too, modelling wise. I know about airbrushing, working with photoetch and resin, plastic kits in all their aspects and not the least something about photographing, sometimes not so easy with model kits. In plastic modelling, one of the most interesting aspects to me, is depicting materials as best as possible, be it metal, wood, cloth, ..., in their various conditions over time and wear. When building the DoK, I found, that a modern designed kit needs more from my learned techniques, than was the case with the way older Kutter kit, That was a great relief for me, because I did not feel completely lost and was very eager to learn all I needed to build the DoK. I like to challenge myself and learn new things permanently and I have to say, that the Duchess of Kingston build was so enjoyable, that it definitely will not be my last wooden ship model. Again, thank you for letting me into MSW and feel free to discuss everything with me. Cheers Rob