Hello All,Thanks for accepting me here in this group, in return I will introduce miself.
I've been attracted to the modelbuilding / RC world ever since I was a child.
I started building static plastic aeroplane models when I was about 8 years old, and when I was about 11 years old (1973) I first got interested in flying / navigating / driving models
I ended up having planes, cars and boats and never any money...
Boats / ships I built back then were the Graupner Carina, the DMI Samson, the Robbe Rembertitum and a small speedboat
So for budgetary reasons I decided it was probably best not to do everything at the same time and since my biggest passion was RC Gliders I abandoned the rest and have been a very passionate RC Glider pilot ever since (I also manage a dedicated group on Facebook called RC Glider Universe with 4500 members and growing).
But two years ago HobbyKing had a RC Yacht on offer (The Phantom, it was one of those offers one can't resist...) so I purchased it and presto, I was back with my feet in the water...
It was a nice excuse to deviate from gliders, Yachts are to ships what Gliders are to aircrafts
But I also wanted to have something to build, and since Tugs are my real interest with ships, I decided I also wanted to build a Tug
I thought about re-building my DMI Samson, perhaps in a larger scale, also because I liked the idea of building a wooden hull, but since the drawing does not have any ribs detailed I decided to put that idea on hold for now (even though I received a copy from the plan from another kind and generous modeller) and start out with building a kit instead.
So... I've been doing a lot of searching and discovered there were hardly any kits with wooden hulls (that I like as well…) on the market anymore...
To make a long story short, after a lot of searching I found a very reasonably priced kit for a Smit Nederland and despite for it having a plastic hull I ordered it, knowing Billing Boats has a very good name and kits.
To do some homework before starting the kit I searched the net a bit for builds and that's how I ended up here.
That's in a nutshell where I come from, where I've been and where I'm at, I’m hoping to learn some things here and share the passion.
For what it's worth, I'm a Dutch guy living in France
Cheers,
Marco
