Hello from the San Francisco Bay Area

[catopower]

Hi all,

Just discovered this site and thought I'd post some of my stuff here. I found the site through Bob Wilson, aka Shipbuilder, with whom I'd lost contact with and finally located him on the Internet. He told me about this site, so I thought I'd drop in and do what I can to contribute.

Right now, I'm finish up a rigging project of the San Felipe (1/75 scale Mantua/Panart kit), which is just about done. So, I'm hoping to turn my attention back to my main project, a scratch build of the paddlewheel steamer USS Saginaw, 1859, which was the first ship built at the Mare Island Navy Yard, located on the North side of San Francisco Bay.

As soon as I can, I'm going to also start a build of the Japanese screw steamer Kanrin Maru, which escorted the first Japanese Embassy to the United States, arriving in San Francisco on March 17, 1860. This one will be based on a kit by the Japanese model manufacturer Woody Joe. This will be the first time I've built one of their kits and the build will serve a couple purposes including reviewing the Woody Joe kit. To do that, I'm thinking about building straight from the box, but it's SO hard for me to do that. So, we'll see what happens.

Anyway, glad to be aboard and hope to be seeing you all online here.

Clare

 

[GaryM]

Hello Clare:
Welcome. Would love to see a log of your San Felipe.
Kent and I are friends and he has actually been at my home. You are not that far from Ages of Sail and going to see Rogers place of business and all the kits he has on stock might prove interesting. You are closer than I am but I have been to his establishment a few times.
You will love this site and find that everyone here is friendly and I love the way Donnie has organized the site.
Enjoy.

 

[shipbuilder]

Hello Clare,
Welcome to SOS and good to hear from you again.
Bob

 

[catopower]

Thanks for the warm welcome Gary, Bob, Anja. It's good to see new friends, old friends and familiar friends

Anja, I'll mention now that I really appreciate your moderator style over on MSW. You have a warm, rational and respectful approach and it's appreciated.

Bob, I am going to be studying your miniature ship building techniques for a long time to come!

Gary, I LOVE visiting Ages of Sail. It's like walking into Santa's Workshop or something. I want this... oh, wait I want that... ooooo, that's cool... maybe I want that too. Of course, the downside is that it's hard to go there without spending more money than intended. Roger is a great guy and I appreciate his support for the hobby dealers and ship modeling. He just bought out Billing Boats USA, which I understand has been having problems.


Well, I just posted the first part of my USS Saginaw build log here and I hope to be a long term contributing member.

See you online!
Clare

 

[GaryM]

Glad I have so many kits in the backlog. Even then it is tempting to not by the Titanic or the big HMS Victory kit.
I understand that building just from the kit seems to be impossible. They simplify things and a little research shows up errors that are needing fixed. The little details make the ship look more real and leaving in something that is incorrect or can be improved easily just does not feel right. I have not found a kit that the rigging was correctly done yet. This is a place where using the correct size line is very easy to do and really noticeable. Since most kits only include very few sizes of line and most of that is oversize, you would think that they could save money by doing it right. But who am I to judge?
Hope you enjoy this sight and would like to see your San Felipe in logs.