by Janek
A short intro
I think I have been making copies of great airplanes and ships since I was a little boy. My parents keep telling me that I was a big fan of it when I was a toddler. You know a fan with rotating blades making wind, like a giant airplane turbine. I have spent many hours of my free time with lego blocks and on building sets for much older kids. Later I could make great shapes of wings or tails with a sheet of paper, scotch and glue. The only problem was the place, where could I store it - my room was very small.
Four years ago I joined a model building club called "Aeromodelclub" at Bemowskie Centrum Kultury where I could learn from much experienced model makers, who became my friends!
Not only aircrafts are in the world, ready box-sets are also fun!
I have recently got a long-awaited model of a sailing ship "Cutty Sark"! At first, when I opened the box, I was terrified by the number of parts and the manual was the size of a course book.
The hull itself was super light - it's good, you can change it on your own. When I glued it I went to launch it (in a bathtub and shhh don't tell my parents how much water I was using) to find out how many stones (yes, just real stones grabbed from our driveway) I should put in to balance it.
From the beginning, when I looked at the parts, I had the impression that something was wrong. After checking the manual, it turned out that there was one very important element missing - an anchor. I decided not to worry about it and carried on with assembling the model.
It took me one whole day to make a deck alone because of the large number of tiny elements. Imagine railings - all bars and posts had to be glued.
On the next day I took up the masts and rigging, which as it turned out, also took me more time than I thought. When I finished with threads, tiny chains and so on it was turn for electronics!
This is where the typical box model sets end and the real model-making starts! It was my own idea to fit the model with a radio controlled engine and a rudder. Here some problems also began, because the stones used too much space inside the hull to fit the engine.
I should have used lead instead of stones as a ballast, because it would be heavier and it would take less space. Anyway, I managed to fit all in and took the finished model to a lake where I could test it. What's a pity it had not the anchor, the real working one (maybe an idea for the next model).
Anyway the ship made its first trip - it is called a maiden trip. From a distance it looked like a real one, it looked majestic. Model-making is so much fun!
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