Hello, My name is Simon and I am flabbergasted by the amount of information available. The reason for me to join this forum might sound familiar to some of you.
I was in the Army serving my National service in Holland (I am Dutch and live in UK) in 1978. To keep myself busy in the evenings I bought a model boat kit and joined the modellers group in the barracks. The kit was the Smit Rotterdam from Billings. Whilst in the service I laid the keel on a homemade jig and got as far as a bit of planking. When leaving the Army the boat was packed in a special made box still in the jig. I have since moved from Holland to Borneo (Brunei), back to Holland, Aberdeen (3 House moves), England (3 housemoves), Oman, back to England and the boat went everywhere with me. Now 2 house moves later I have finally decided to continue with the build. At one stage in Aberdeen I had done some more work, planking etc. this must have been in 1992.
Being a bit older and wiser I thought to better look for some information and that is how I found this forum. Now , my problem is that I looked at the pictures and the level of building excellence on here, I feel intimidated and am afraid that my efforts would be so below par it would be embarrassing to show up at any club. Are all the models at clubs to this high standard and fully working with lights and working fire hydrants, sounds and smoke?? For me I would be happy if the thing floats and goes relatively in the direction I want it to go.
Anyway that is my story and probably have loads of questions when I start building again.