Hello everyone. I recently registered on the site but have been so enthralled while exploring it, that I just couldn't stop to say hello until now. My name is Randy and I'm from SoCal, Sylmar to be exact.
I've been building models since I was very young, mostly planes and cars. About 30 years ago I got into building boats/ships. After building just about every plastic kit available, I decided to build one from scratch. My first project was an R/C version of the U.S.S. Iowa (BB4) of 1892 in 1/48th scale, giving me a ship 7-1/2' long. I got her to the point of running but marriage, lack of space and a place to run her led to an early demise. My next project was the U.S.S. Monitor in 1/48th scale and she proved to be quite successful. I eventually sold her to someone in Japan through Ebay.
My first scratchbuilt R/C paddlewheeler was the U.S.S. Carondelet, a Mississippi River gunboat of civil war vintage. It was destroyed during the Northridge earthquake when it fell off of it's shelf and was smashed beyond repair. My next paddlewheeler project was the Mount Washington of Lake Winnipesaukee, N.H.. Once again I got her to the point of running but after several moves and lack of space (and interest) had left her damaged, I scrapped her.
After 10 years of abstinance from building scale boats/ships, I'm back at it. My current project is a 1/48th scale R/C Charles W. Wetmore, a Great Lakes whaleback built in 1891. It should be ready for the lake by late winter/early spring, 2008.
I stumbled upon this site while researching a suitable project to follow up the Wetmore. I had found the Pingouin of 1884 thanks to the French military opening up their archives. Unfortunately, I don't speak French nor metric. I have been able to figure out the conversions regarding scale and dimensions, but I'm not quite sure which figures to use for overall size of the vessel. The drawings that are available have tremendous detail but also contain a lot of charts with numerous dimensions. So doing a Google on the Pingouin, I ran across this site.
All of you have inspired me to consider, once again, a paddlewheeler for my next project. For the longest time I had wanted to build the Yukon River sternwheeler Whitehorse but lack of any plans or dimensions contributed to my absence from building. Recently, I've gotten the itch to build one of the earlier Detroit River railroad transfer steamers, i.e. Transfer II, Transport or Michigan Central. Once again, availability of plans will be a key factor for deciding on the next project. Obviously I'll need to do more research before I settle on any one vessel.
Well, there you have my life story (at least as far as model building is concerned). Thanks for allowing me to be a part of your world, Randy.
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