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Model ships of real vessels through the ages and later when introduced - submarines and their models too, are so misunderstood and underappreciated by the ignorant general public.
We all been to regattas and suffered the questions "is it a kit'? "Would you crash it? I want to see whit it will do" by that rabid 10-year-old kid of mindless parents that allows the brat to choose which restaurant.
At one time, because paper was so rare and valuable a commodity, it was cheaper and easier the build precise super accurate wood models of the actual ship, then the ship wrights commonly took precisive measurements off the model and scaled up to build the actual ship!
These 'builders' models' today are priceless in Museums. they are Rosetta stones of recording building practices in naval architecture. In their times, ships like HMS Victory were the most advanced 'machines' in the world and expressions of their nation's genius and technology. The later ships still are!
Model boat building is both a dying and evolving art. Submarine models (our trade) have the added challenge of making the model work perfectly in a hostile environment - the implacable sea in the form of a hopefully close by duck pond. In a Park run hopefully by a park service that remember us modelers who must put up with the usual ignorance and WOK disease.
We aren't racing hydroboats! We aren't discharging Lipo batteries on fire buzzing around the pond. The koi fish actually love our subs! We have to do more to educate. Bob Martin's youtubes are one example of the view in, and the ingenuity this hobby demands. I think those that take on the challenge will be pleasantly surprised what's there to learn. .
I feel what's best is taking along the best of the old , and with the best of the new.
Will models be in our future? Hell yes! Whether by hand, or by keyboard, made of whale bone in a bottle, or fiberglass layups, castings, or 3d printing, or in the future someday, even transporter replicators? lol.
The world maybe ****ed, but we aren't!
Photo courtesy of Memory Alpha.com
Last edited by Albacore 569; 10-25-2025, 03:57 PM.
Yup, it will be interesting what the future will bring, i hope more people take the jump into modelmaking, as for last of the breed, i'm still alive and kicking, experience can't be taken from me, let's see who will stand up to succeed us.
Printing parts is the future, wether we like it or not, remember that V60 i've completed, non the less the craft to builld such things will not be lost, it still takes some effort to make this happen.
As long as i can make the parts by hand, that will be my way of working, i personally accept the printing chapter, but i refuse to yield to printing alone.
Manfred.
We're the last of the breed, Manfred. After us, the Craft is all but lost to the world. When the electricity is lost to us, who will make the wheels?
I thin k printing makes certain aspects easier but on the other hand that also raises the bar quite a bit, as there is now no excuse to not include proper detailing. And printing is not of any worth if you're not able to design. Otherwise you can only replicate things others did before you.
Printing parts is the future, wether we like it or not, remember that V60 i've completed, non the less the craft to builld such things will not be lost, it still takes some effort to make this happen.
As long as i can make the parts by hand, that will be my way of working, i personally accept the printing chapter, but i refuse to yield to printing alone.
You over the top you, even the UZO console, i presume the gunturrets will get the same modification.
Manfred
I can't take any credit for the incredible details -- from the Torpedo Director to the radar antenna -- all that super-fine detail work, at such a small size, is the work of the infernal 3D printer robots. I'm merely the idiot assembler of those perfectly rendered items.
Proof positive that the era of my kind is at an end. No significant number of under-studies; shop is no longer taught in our public school; and the general populace has lost any sense of purpose or reward from anything that required a deferment of results and application of discipline.
The 3D stuff is done better, cheaper, and quicker than me. Time to surrender the field to the robots.
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