Such a pleasure to see the walk-in customers, most of whom are not wearing masks because they are vaccinated. It seems like more people than normal are coming in, I think because of pent-up desire to finally go out and about.

Our puppy Finn is now up to 35 pounds, and eagerly greets everyone with a wag and a sniff.

Model Ship World is an on-line forum of over 39,000 ship modelers. Topics range from kits to scratch builds, in-process continuing stories, tips, manufacturer information, technical topics. Too many to list here. Go take a look!

Amidships - In the center of a vessel, or on her centerline. The word came from both German and Dutch - it is not known which came first. The latter was midscheeps, of this meaning.

Buttocks - Are components in the design of any hull, lines of vertical longitudinal planes passing through the hull. The term appears to have come from buttocks lines, the lines of a craft's after-body.

Greave (also Grave) - A term for burning off foul matter from a ship's bottom. Earlier it was to apply greave, a mixture of tallow and train oil, as a preservative and for anti-fouling (that ageless problem). The word comes from earlier English, apparently originating with the Anglo-Saxon greofa, of the same general meaning.

Snake Line - A line rove through grommets on the topmast shrouds of a square-rigger, for the same purpose as catharpins. It was seen mostly on the later tea clippers.

Information is from the book "Origins of Sea Terms" by John G. Rogers

 My name is Rick R. I am in my late 70's and until two years ago, I have never attempted to build any kind of model boat from a kit, let alone scratch built.

  Motivated by a consecutive dream, five nights in a row, I wanted to at least try to construct the boat I saw in my dream. I did some research on the web to see what Tugboats looked like, and types of equipment that would be found on the deck of a 1940's era Tugboat before attempting this project. I thought, I have an art background so, how difficult could it be? If it turned out to be a successful project, worthy of being shown off, I would want it in our living room, so a 1/2" to 1' scale would be a desirable size for the space available. Based on the types of tugs I saw, the river tug was the best choice. The model would be 25" L X 11 1/2" W X 28" H.

  Without any printed plans or drawings I built the boat over a period of four months, every day, for a total of 840 hours. It Was an Extremely Hard Project to Complete. It is a static model, and it sits in a museum quality case for people to see.

Your booklet has beautiful models showing extreme detail, if I decide to challenge myself to another boat, I will pick one and build it the same way.

THIS MODEL WAS BUILT WITH 95% OF PARTS AND PIECES FROM PEOPLE'S TRASH.

 Thank you for the compliment, and thank you for the heads up about the newsletter, please put me on your monthly newsletter mailing list.

   I would like to give you some background on The Tugboat

"NAUTi BOY" I had some old weathered cedar boards in the garage. I ripped 1/8th thick planks to use as the hull boards, since cedar is a soft wood I mistakenly thought they could be bent and twisted, into place, with ease. Since that didn't work, I built a miniature steamer using an old aluminum ice cube tray, a piece of metal screening and a wooden box lid, lined with aluminum foil, to trap the heat, it worked. I found a piece of luan plywood that I cut the ribs from. Once the hull was built, I built the stand it would sit on. The anchor chain was made from costume jewelry, the ropes are from curtain rods that were in the trash. The fire extinguishers were made from pencils and the hoses are pcs. of 18 gauge black wire, the winches front and back, are comercial thread spools, the cable guides are discarded cabinet pulls, the propellers are made from the portion of the egg carton that held the egg, and they are correct (one pushes one pulls.) the netting on the nose of the boat is a discarded bag that onions came in, painted to look like weathered fishnetting. My intention is to have it in my will, to go to a museum or somewhere that the public can see it. It's amazing what one can do when they put their mind to something.

Rick R

Nic,

I've been enjoying the workbench photo series. Here's my small-scale budget workshop if you want. It's a 2x3 plastic table fit into a wooden frame that fits behind the couch in my small living room (there's a large bookshelf behind it, just to the right). It's small but hosts just about everything I need, and I prefer working in my living space rather than being isolated in a separate shop. The current project is a scratchbuilt 1:64 Missouri River steamboat from 1856, the Arabia, which sank near Kansas City and has a downtown museum there. You can follow the build thread here:

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/17090-steamboat-arabia-1856-by-cathead-scale-164-sidewheel-riverboat-from-the-missouri-river-usa/

I appreciate your newsletters and your passion for this great hobby. - Eric R. of MO

Nic's bench - I am continuing the Lobster boat for a customer. The deck has been sprayed Dark Tan, and I am in the middle of masking off to paint the hull white.

Al's bench - This month Al finished a replacement lobster boat because we sold one off the showroom floor.

This comes from Mike C. of TX:

It seems that we have gone "over the hump" regarding COVID 19.Almost 60% of Maine is fully vaccinated, and new cases have dramatically dropped. I don't think we have the goal of "herd immunity" reached yet, but it certainly is on the horizon. The trend towards normalcy is encouraging.

Sincerely,

BlueJacket Shipcrafters, Inc.