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New scratch project

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  • Member since
    November 2009
  • From: Twin Cities of Minnesota
New scratch project
Posted by Don Stauffer on Monday, January 9, 2017 8:45 AM

I have started a new scratch project that I posted first in the Ships forum, but think I may continue it here, or at least make comments here. The thread is titled New project, WW1 Torpedo Boat.

I am glad to see that in my advancing age I can still carve wood.  Although there is some styrene on it already, the majority of the hull, and much of the superstructure is wood.  Even though I find deterioration of eyesight (though reading glasses help considerably) and manual skills like fine tweezer work, that wood carving seems to have stayed with me.  It is one of those things that is muscle/nerve automatic work- my mind just wanders while the brainstem and spinal column just seem to take over the work.  Love doing wood carving.  Non-flying scale airplane kits, and ship kits, when I was a kid, were just blocks of wood you had to carve to shape.

 

Don Stauffer in Minnesota

  • Member since
    June 2014
  • From: New Braunfels , Texas
Posted by Tanker - Builder on Monday, January 9, 2017 9:48 AM

Don ;

  You just learning that ? After my accident years ago in a plant recieving office I thought I would never carve again .Well , twenty years ago I carved and placed in a juried show in Mission texas .Shocked me .I still marvel at how the hands and fingers know where that Hummingbird is in the wood .That makes scratch in plastic or wood much easier for sure .

 I sometimes wish the younger generation could've had the chances we had . Remember the Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild ? And some of the wood car kits out there ? The ships were easy for me because of my close ties to my Fisherman family .

 Catchya later -T.B.

  • Member since
    November 2009
  • From: Twin Cities of Minnesota
Posted by Don Stauffer on Tuesday, January 10, 2017 6:30 AM

Tanker - Builder

Don ;

 

 I sometimes wish the younger generation could've had the chances we had . Remember the Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild ? And some of the wood car kits out there ? The ships were easy for me because of my close ties to my Fisherman family .

 Catchya later -T.B.

 

Sure I remember it.  Against the helpful hints for entrants, I built mine from balsa, since I had so much experience in mine.  Finishing took 60 coats of model airplane dope.  Even built myself a primitive airbrush to paint it- powered by lungs & mouth. Got an HM but no bucks.

I regret the loss of the model- it had been stored in inlaw's attic and they had a house fire that destroyed it- not even charred embers left :-(

 

Don Stauffer in Minnesota

  • Member since
    June 2014
  • From: New Braunfels , Texas
Posted by Tanker - Builder on Thursday, August 31, 2017 8:01 AM

Don ;

 Geez , I apologise . I had so much going on health and accident wise I didn't respond then . My brain doesn't always filter the things I should be paying attention to .

 I finished my Station Wagon ( Van ) in basswood . I did get a scholarship . By the time I got out of the service the Guild was gone . Between the Veteran's Scholarship grants and G.M , I was able to go to the college of my choice and  do a post - in Automotive design and marketing .

 I still wound up an Engineer and Nuclear Power geek . But because of the bad press for anything Nuke , I got another course at A&M and learned how to build Bridges and Hospitals instead .

 Then I went to Maritime school and got my Ticket . Had to get away for a while .There was no internet in those days . T.B. 

  • Member since
    November 2009
  • From: Twin Cities of Minnesota
Posted by Don Stauffer on Thursday, August 31, 2017 8:41 AM

Tanker - Builder

Don ;

 Geez , I apologise . I had so much going on health and accident wise I didn't respond then . My brain doesn't always filter the things I should be paying attention to .

 I finished my Station Wagon ( Van ) in basswood . I did get a scholarship . By the time I got out of the service the Guild was gone . Between the Veteran's Scholarship grants and G.M , I was able to go to the college of my choice and  do a post - in Automotive design and marketing .

 I still wound up an Engineer and Nuclear Power geek . But because of the bad press for anything Nuke , I got another course at A&M and learned how to build Bridges and Hospitals instead .

 Then I went to Maritime school and got my Ticket . Had to get away for a while .There was no internet in those days . T.B. 

 

Interesting!

My model only got an honorable mention- no money.  Still, I was able to get through to my BS in physics.  Then, after stint in AF, college set me up with a teaching assistanceship to get my MS.  A career in the aerospace industry was a very satisfying career, my dream job.  My interest in ships was an early one.  When I got my first library card (grade school age) I celebrated by reading all the Hornblower books!

 

Don Stauffer in Minnesota

  • Member since
    June 2014
  • From: New Braunfels , Texas
Posted by Tanker - Builder on Friday, September 1, 2017 11:03 AM

OHMYGAWD ! Hornblower ? Me too !

 But while I was doing a brush up on Environmental Technologies at UGH ! Berkeley I latched on to Patrick O'brian's series . I now have them all in recovered ( antique style ) from the first to the last .

 They have been re-read a couple of times now . I need them to calm the old heart when thinking  of my ladies . They both loved the sea and anything to do with it .

 The Environmental stuff was necessary under the laws at the time , as I had started doing oil spill cleanup operations at sea . Not from shore .

  • Member since
    November 2009
  • From: Twin Cities of Minnesota
Posted by Don Stauffer on Saturday, September 2, 2017 9:59 AM

Tanker - Builder

OHMYGAWD ! Hornblower ? Me too !

 But while I was doing a brush up on Environmental Technologies at UGH ! Berkeley I latched on to Patrick O'brian's series . I now have them all in recovered ( antique style ) from the first to the last .

 They have been re-read a couple of times now . I need them to calm the old heart when thinking  of my ladies . They both loved the sea and anything to do with it .

 The Environmental stuff was necessary under the laws at the time , as I had started doing oil spill cleanup operations at sea . Not from shore .

 

Read all the O'Brian novels too.  Loved Forester's  The Gun, also.  Easily explains why gunboats and other shallow draft naval ships could dominate battlefields near navigatable waters.  Easy to move a couple tons of ordnance by water, very hard to drag it over land, in days before railroads and tracked powered vehicles.

 

Don Stauffer in Minnesota

  • Member since
    June 2014
  • From: New Braunfels , Texas
Posted by Tanker - Builder on Sunday, September 3, 2017 9:51 AM

Yeah Don !

 Forester did good on that ! . I think I know why folks think I,ve gone over the edge though . I will make a ship out of anything ! I even did one one time out of sheet plastic and an Ice Cube Tray !

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