Visiting Our Gracie S. Model in the Maritime Museum

Posted on by
Reply

We had a nice meeting of the Hyde Street Pier Model Shipwrights aboard the ferry boat Eureka yesterday. Good turnout, interesting talk, news from members, and all. We even made some decisions and got started on cleaning up and cataloging our library of ship plans, books and media. So, at the end of the productive day in workshop, heading back to our cars, Paul Reck and I decided to stop in at the Aquatic Part Bathhouse Building which is home of the Maritime Museum (or what remains of it), and visit the Gracie S.

The model was built by members of the club, including yours truly, though I had a relatively small part in it compared to Paul, Tom and Bruno.

IMG_1667

The Gracie S. model was built at a scale of 3/8″ to the foot or 1:32, and I can’t exactly recall how long it took to complete. Group builds can be slow, particularly when they are worked on primarily in our model shop.

IMG_1671

IMG_1670

The neat little shipyard diorama was mostly Paul Reck and Tom Shea’s work and it really adds life to the model. Paul commented that his neighbor also had a hand in it, contributing an old board from his fence which was used to build the sheds in the display.

IMG_1668

What’s particularly nice about this display is that the museum put together the information board, showing photos of club members working on the model and describing our group and how to find us. You can even see my hand and belly in the first photo…

IMG_1672

IMG_1673

It’s nice to see that the model has a good home, is viewable by the public, and that it reminds visitors that people still build ship models. Time to go home and build more…

– Clare Hess

 

 

Midwest Products Model Boat Kits Discontinued

Posted on by
2

For a long time, a great way to get introduced to wooden ship modeling for both young people and adults has been by building the simple modeling subjects produced by Midwest Products. In fact, many members at Hyde Street Pier Model Shipwrights have recommended these kits for their relatively easy construction, excellent plans and classic all-American subjects. So, it’s sad to announce that Midwest has discontinued production of its wooden boat kits.

971_medium

These kits are still available in stores and online, but they are increasingly difficult to find as they sell out and can’t be restocked. So, if you’ve been thinking about building one, you might want to go and and buy it if you can find it. Fortunately, these have been in production for a long time and there are many of the kits still widely available on Amazon.com and probably in many hobby stores.

With luck, kit production will be picked up by another manufacturer, but you never know. Certainly according to Midwest, they’re getting a lot of phone calls about the boat kits, so maybe they’ll change their minds. One can only hope. But, the best way to make sure these are back in production is to build them, buy them, ask for them at your local dealer, or contact Midwest at 800-348-3497 or info@midwestproducts.com.

 

Japanese Wooden Boatbuilding Book by Douglas Brooks

Posted on by
Reply

I just received my copy of this book today and decided to write up a little review.

Ship Modeler

Last week, I broke down and bought my copy of this new book directly from the author’s website. That’s a nice way to get it as more money goes directly to supporting Mr. Brooks’ efforts. The hardbound book, published by Floating World Editions, is 320-pages, all in English, in a roughly 9″ x 11″ format.

book_cover Photo courtesy of Douglas Brooks

My copy arrived today and, naturally, all my ship modeling efforts and other tasks have come to a complete standstill as I read through it. This is an absolutely beautiful book, full of information about the subject.

Chokki_rowing-1 Photo courtesy of Douglas Brooks

I was thumbing through it and had to stop and read through the section on the “ro“, which is the Japanese sculling oar. The author goes into a fair amount of detail on its construction and how it actually works in practice, based on his own…

View original post 429 more words

The Good News – Classic Yacht Model by Paul Reck

Posted on by
1

Long time Hyde Street Pier Model Shipwrights member and president Paul Reck shares a slideshow of a model he built in 2010 of the 60′ yawl-rigged yacht Good News. The original boat was designed by Sparkman and Stephens. The plank-on-bulkhead model was scratch built at a scale of 1/2″=1′ using white pine with sugar pine hull planking and deck planked with Alaskan yellow cedar.

IMG_1365

The model features wire rigging and many parts that had to be built from scratch. Paul put together a nice little slide show of his build, which you can access on his Dropbox account here:

Good News Slide Show Note that it’s not necessary to have or to create a Dropbox account. Just close the window that asks you to sign-in.

The model was built for the St. Francis Yacht Club, where it now resides. It is one of 70 models (many of which were built by Paul) featured in the recent publication, The Models of the St. Francis Yacht Club, which is available only through the yacht club. Ω

 

 

No August Meeting – Member Picnic Instead.

Posted on by
Reply

Anyone thinking about attending the next meeting of the Hyde Street Pier Model Shipwrights will have to wait for the September meeting. In lieu of our regular August meeting, members will be spending a lovely afternoon in the backyard of our hosts Paul and Nancy Reck in Mill Valley, enjoying an afternoon of good food and good company.

The barbecue is this Saturday, August 15th. I hope all of our members have been paying attention and will be attending. It’s a great chance to meet members and their significant others without talking entirely about ship modeling and related topics. Though we can’t help ourselves and there will be a lot of that too, I’m sure!

Our meeting schedule will be back to normal next month with our next ship model meeting aboard the Eureka being on Saturday, September 19th at our usual 9:30am start time.

New Book on Japanese Wooden Boatbuilding

Posted on by
Reply

Ship Modeler

book_cover

Boatbuilder Douglas Brooks has studied traditional Japanese boat building from Japanese masters since the mid-1990s. In an attempt to help preserve the art, Mr. Brooks worked through five apprenticeships with aging master boat builders, serving in most cases as their final and only apprentice. Part one of this 320 page hardcover book discussed the characteristics of Japanese traditional boatbuilding, including tools, materials, design, joinery, etc. Part two details his five apprenticeships.

I’ve seen some images of this book and some of the writing and it looks not only gorgeous, but filled with fascinating and valuable details regarding this rapidly disappearing art form. I expect to be ordering my copy almost immediately.

The book is $75 and you will certainly be able to order it from the usual online book sellers. But, I recommend ordering it direct from the author. The price is the same, plus $10 shipping, but the Mr. Brooks will…

View original post 27 more words