Hello - for this first posting I'm just going to write a few things about my modelling background, my interests and the Woodspring Model Sailing Club, for which I am the secretary.
I made my first model boat a long time ago - my first 'proper' one was built from a Model Boats magazine plan when I was about 15 - the 'Molendinar Pilot Boat'. Many years went by before I got back into the hobby properly, but since settling in the West Country I have built myself a Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter called 'Eliza Rose' - photo attached. She is built from a Waverley Models fibreglass hull at one inch to the foot. I wanted to make a model of a sailing pilot cutter as you would see it today, converted for cruising, so I have included a skylight in the deck where the original would have had a flat working deck area. The hull is also painted green as I have seen on one or two examples, not the matt black of the originals.
I'm also interested in Steam models and I'm a member of the Cheddar Steam Club. I have built a couple of small steam engines and hope to put one of them in a small steam-powered model boat this summer.
My main modelling interest is in ships and boats from around the late 1800s and early 1900s - both sailing and steam. I think ships from this period had reached a very high level of capability and seaworthiness but still looked beautiful, being still designed by eye rather than optimised by a computer. I like tramp steamers and I plan to build (eventually) a model of a Great Lakes steamer from this period - hence my User Name 'Laker'.
Thank you if you have read this far and your attention hasn't wandered off! I would like to finish with a mention of my club, the Woodspring Model Sailing Club which is for model boaters in the North Somerset area. We sail on a beautiful lake at the Portishead lake grounds and you can find more details of our club at
www.woodspringmsc.webeden.co.uk.
Best Wishes,
Laker.