Greetings from a new member

[Aeneas]

Hello everyone!

 

I am a new member from land-locked Utah (presently, at least), but have lived on both coasts. As I mentioned in my profile post, I am a university professor and professional artist, and have extensive experience in construction, carpentry, and woodworking. I have been building models since I was very young, almost always modifying them and often scratch-building them.
Life in miniature is a constant source of fascination for me. Probably my most ambitious project was a scale model of the Verazzano-Narrows bridge I scratchbuilt as a 15-year-old out of wood, metal, and heavy thread—from plans I drew myself with the help of library books and long-distance snail-mail correspondence with some very kind and patient engineers. 

 

I started a wooden ship model (a Bluenose) years ago, but soon realized that I lacked the knowledge to build it well, and doing anything halfway is not in my nature. “If something is worth doing, it is worth doing to excess” is the dictum that rules my life, much to my family’s frustration at times. So, I returned to building scale airplanes until I could acquire the necessary skills for ship modeling. In the meantime, I learned to sail and have spent years reading books (and lately forums) on ships and model shipbuilding (and am thus familiar with some of your names from your plans, designs, and publications—and am grateful for the learning you have generously shared!). As I am now nearing retirement, I’ve been actively perusing this forum and model-building again for about 6 months (starting with the excellent Model Shipways shipwright kits,) and feel I am ready to start posting (assuming that I can learn to navigate the bewildering technicalities of an online forum).

 

I look forward to “meeting” you all, drawing on your experience, and hopefully contributing one or two things that might prove helpful to others. Thank you in advance for your friendship!

[ccoyle]

Welcome aboard, Aeneus (makes me think of Corydoras aeneus, the bronze corydoras)! I look forward to seeing your work.

[Knocklouder]

[CPDDET]

Welcome, while you will find all the help you need here, we are all looking forward with what you can share with us as well.

 

Dave

[mtaylor]

Welcome to MSW, Aeneus.   If you have any questions, feel free to just ask.  No such thing as a dumb question.  And do feel free to start a log as it's a great way to help and meet others.

[markjay]

[ERS Rich]

Hello and welcome to MSW always available to answer questions.  That bridge sounds like an amazing project.

 

Cheers!

[Jim Lad]

hello Aeneas, and a warm welcome to the forum from 'Down Under'.

 

John

[Oldsalt1950]

Welcome to the forum Aeneus. I'm sure you will find it rewarding in many ways, there is much to learn on your journey, but we all learn from the experience.

 

Jim

 

[Aeneas]

Thank you for all your kind remarks. I’ve been taking photos with my phone as I’ve been building, but because of deteriorating eyesight I have only visited this forum on my computer or ipad, so will have to figure out how to post from my phone, which may take a while since neither cell phone use nor social media are among my few strengths. But I’ll do my best. I have been following the work of many of you for months now, and already owe you all a considerable debt, so I’m very much looking forward to sharing with you! Thanks again for the welcome!

[Keith Black]

Aeneas, welcome to MSW. Glad to have you aboard. 

[Baker]

[allanyed]

Welcome aboard.   I have fond memories of some fantastic striped bass fishing in the narrows near the VN bridge.

Allan

[Glen McGuire]

Welcome to MSW, Aeneas.  You have found the best site on the whole interweb!

[GrandpaPhil]

Welcome!

[HardeeHarHar]

Ahoy mate, welcome on board.

[rcmdrvr]

Welcome.  I think you will find that the only way to obtain the skills for ship model building is to build.  Not all those builds will meet your "excellence" criteria but they will provide excellent learning experiences.  This from an average builder.