Topic: The future of Model Boating .... (Read 25246 times)

Plastic - RIP · « **Reply #75 on:** July 04, 2018, 10:00:48 am »

Spot-on Terry

It was tough to keep up, but those that managed it did very well. I became a Chartered Engineer.

I got to do some amazing and exciting things through my career - satellites, nuclear medicine etc. and still try to encourage young people to choose engineering for their career.

Shipmate60 · « **Reply #76 on:** July 04, 2018, 10:05:46 am »

For mechanical engineering the marine industry still do apprenticeships which cover machine tools and hand tools.
If things are changing I would hope that the manufacturers will take this on board and make the kits more comprehensive or sales will become nonviable.

Bob

Stan · « **Reply #77 on:** July 04, 2018, 11:06:59 am »

I have built models for many years like most of us starting with Airfix kits then on to Kiel Kraft aircraft. I decided to start marine modelling in the late 1980 after constantly crashing model aircraft. We talk about skills being lost this is a fact of life these days. When I go into my local model shop what do you see, boats and planes all ready to run cars and tanks which also impacts on people's ability to build something, hence eroding basic skill levels and sadly this will not change. My background was in the building industry and my mentor ran a very tight ship but we learned lots of disciplines something that has remained with me and allowed me to use in my hobbies to this day. We could talk about our hobby dying for evermore but may be the way forward is to diversify. I know of one club that has taken this option and is doing really well. We have to face the facts and time will tell if marine modelling will disappear. Personally I will at club level and shows promote model ship building. Finally make new members both young and elderly welcome, first impressions last a lifetime and cost nothing they may be the future.

Stan.

Neil · « **Reply #78 on:** July 04, 2018, 11:31:18 am »

Quote from: TomHugill on July 03, 2018, 11:35:47 pm

One thing I will say to the likes of plastic who puts this down to some issue with the current generation, why is the rctank hobby booming as it is? Tanks in the main cost more.than RC boats, are just as complex mechanically and definitely more complex electronically, can have just as much detail etc and don't have the vast second hand RTR market model boats do. Also the average age of model tanker is probably 20-30 years less than the that of the model boater, same with model submariners. I think it's down to the way the hobbyking set up and the sometimes snobbishness (Mr plastic proclaiming to be one of the last proper engineers as an example) of the model boat fraternity.

As you have so much against us "old boys and our toys", ie boats, tom with your continual snipes over the months may I suggest that you stick to your tanks, go over to a tank forum where ever one is, and leave us mature model boaters to our outrageous and arrogant self proclaiming comments...…...it does our egos a power of good to be able to pontificate about what WE know best.

cheers, thanks and best wishes on your journey.

chas · « **Reply #79 on:** July 04, 2018, 11:33:38 am »

Some of our club members visited a regatta in Murcia a couple of months ago. They had a small area of the lake with 4 small simple boats for children to try out. Obviously it was very popular and in use all afternoon. I understand they have done this several times in recent years.
It's probably not a coincidence that they have a very broad age range of members, and that youngsters with ready to run boats aren't looked down on in any way, just encouraged to progress.
If we want to see model boating have a future we need to encourage active involvement, and put some effort into this. Sitting back and wishing things were different will achieve nothing.
Chas

steam up · « **Reply #80 on:** July 04, 2018, 11:50:36 am »

It's responses like that which give
The hobby a bad name 😒

Martin (Admin) · « **Reply #81 on:** July 04, 2018, 12:03:57 pm »

Quote from: steam up on July 04, 2018, 11:50:36 am

It's responses like that which give
The hobby a bad name 😒

???

steam up · « **Reply #82 on:** July 04, 2018, 12:07:01 pm »

Neil's comment 😒

Neil · « **Reply #83 on:** July 04, 2018, 12:11:45 pm »

Quote from: steam up on July 04, 2018, 11:50:36 am

It's responses like that which give
The hobby a bad name 😒

well, I said right at the start. "THIS OLD CHESNUT AGAIN" and then someone makes a derogatory personal remark about someone and someone then makes a response that someone else doesn't like...........and it just kicks off again.........please lock this thread Martin as it just goes round and round and never ever will be resolved.

the human race has been building models since before Christus and people will continue to build them...........we will not alter it, neither will the past......….only the future and we can do a b s o l u t e l y nothing about that.

tigertiger · « **Reply #84 on:** July 04, 2018, 12:33:05 pm »

It is GOGs that get the hobby a bad name

Many of us are old, and we can all be GGs at times.
No need to lock the thread, just time to launch our happy boats again.

steam up · « **Reply #85 on:** July 04, 2018, 12:34:23 pm »

Well said

Plastic - RIP · « **Reply #86 on:** July 04, 2018, 12:48:24 pm »

At no time have I ever said there was something 'wrong' with the current generation.

They have their own interests & hobbies but are not normally encouraged into engineering. The shame is that those who wish to learn are blocked at every turn by a lack of available training and proper apprenticeships. The opportunities that 'my generation' enjoyed simply don't exist. I was one of the very last.

I suspect that if the RC tank hobby is booming, then it's not going to be young kids coughing out thousands on the models. From what I've seen, it's us old farts at the controls.

Neil · « **Reply #87 on:** July 04, 2018, 12:51:24 pm »

well said, plastic...……..

by the way what are GG's and GOG's...……

Neil · « **Reply #88 on:** July 04, 2018, 12:59:57 pm »

GG's and GOG's...………..

ahh yes...……….

just worked it out...…….yes, but with being one, one has to have gained the privilege of also being wise and I confess to being both, and as such also having gained such age and experience I feel entitled to be a GOG, and also the privilege of being allowed to speak what I think as long as it is in answer to other GOG's, ie trade like for like, or complain about what someone else has said.
I prefer the latter and softer touch these days as it doesn't get me banned as often

Liverbudgie2 · « **Reply #89 on:** July 04, 2018, 01:03:54 pm »

Grumpy Gits & Grumpy 'ol Gits I imagine, just like you & me!

Why lock it down anyway? It's the only thing really worth reading and keeping up with - makes me laugh anyway.

Now orf to scan the lasted copy of MB.

LB

Charlie · « **Reply #90 on:** July 04, 2018, 01:11:48 pm »

I've just realised why Mayhem is much like any actual Model Boat Club. We have a bunch of GoG's who know it all, and get very uppity when a young newcomer arrives with their own ideas

Said newcomer will be ridiculed and shunned by the GoG's, who will continue on their merry way, totally oblivious

jaymac · « **Reply #91 on:** July 04, 2018, 01:20:51 pm »

Off topic regarding model boating and I'm not having a pop at plastic but at why the word Engineer Rubs. I left the army after 9 years did not have a choice about going in .Unskilled as far as civvy street was concerned multitude of jobs trying to get a decent wage Circa 1968.Eventually got a permanent shift work job as chemical process operator (Carbon Black)very high paid mainly due to conditions black as any miner and 24/7 system. Could now get a mortgage moved up to shift foreman the following year even more wages. as the years passed some 20 odd and working attitudes and management changed (American owned ) not to mention computers coming in we had constant battles with mainly the Electronic engineers who always came back after any incidents like a valve opening or not opening when it should with that cannot happen. Our Off gas was very high in hydrogen and we had our own gasholder which got blown once. There were far more times when They were wrong and it was the instrumentation at fault than the operators. At management meetings being constantly told for what we pay you foremen we could get Engineers with degrees to do your job . They eventually did and surprise they could not you cannot beat the old Fred the wheel tapper skills. Engineers yes wonderful but they are just another worker

TugCowboy · « **Reply #92 on:** July 04, 2018, 01:32:40 pm »

Yet another great example of Young people using model boating(ish) as an outlet for creativity and problem solving.
If you have some time watch all the videos in this short series - I'm sure anyone who has ever made a model will be able to identify with the processes he uses here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpqYlHTlXtA

As I've said before, it might not be stood around a pond on a Sunday Morning, or a totally scale replica but it's exactly everything about Model boating that draws many of us to it and it's still being practiced out there by plenty of young people.

Anyone who says it's not "Real engineering" either I would strongly disagree with.

grendel · « **Reply #93 on:** July 04, 2018, 01:38:40 pm »

I suppose I was one of the last proper draughtsmen, brought up on the drawing board, then learned to use this new fangled CAD, worked my way right up to drawing office manager in the electrical supply industry, now settled back into a less stressful role in the same industry, just sitting here as engineering support doing the drawings.
Now I know my skills are transferrable into the modern world of engineering, they still need designers to create the CAD models that the 3d printers and CNC machines roll out.
I bought a 3d printer, and have not had a single one of my designs fail to print correctly, but then I do use a full CAD package and have 30 odd years of CAD experience to draw upon.
I think nothing of when a colleague asks me to draw and print for example a planetary gear train, the drawing side will probably take me less than an hour.

Charlie · « **Reply #94 on:** July 04, 2018, 01:43:30 pm »

3D printing certainly seems to be the future. I would love to be able to print out a boat and all the associated parts.

KitS · « **Reply #95 on:** July 04, 2018, 01:56:40 pm »

My grandfather, a power station commissioning engineer, taught me the trick of listening to a machine's bearings and other internal bits and pieces with the aid of a long screwdriver held between my teeth. This when I was around 10 or 11 mind you.

During my motor industry apprenticeship in the early 60s this was an amazingly useful technique, and relatively few of my instructors and workmates knew of it. All through my life I've used it, much to the utter amazement of some people, especially in America. I boggled the minds of some engineer officers at the US Army's Aberdeen Proving Grounds by setting up one of their gun testing rig's control valves by using 'The Screwdriver'. So much so that they had me teach it to their guys too!

It's information like that that's needed to be passed down as it's just not taught in colleges or other places of learning these days, even if they know of it of course......

roycv · « **Reply #96 on:** July 04, 2018, 02:30:09 pm »

I am also a great believer in the long screwdriver, I have my trusty Stanley eighteen incher to this day from checking the bearings on a dodgy car alternator to setting up the twin carbs on my Triumph 1300 TC, (of yester year) much easier than the proscribed method. Personally I can't take it between the teeth I stick it in my ear, I have a spare ear on the other side in case of accidents.

I remember showing an installation 'engineer' that if you want to shorten a machine screw thread first screw on a nut, cut it, then file of the swarf and then the nut comes off and cleans up the thread. He was most surprised!
Judging from the previous posts the model boaters are fighting fit!
regards Roy

Neil · « **Reply #97 on:** July 04, 2018, 02:45:56 pm »

Quote from: Charlie on July 04, 2018, 01:11:48 pm

I've just realised why Mayhem is much like any actual Model Boat Club. We have a bunch of GoG's who know it all, and get very uppity when a young newcomer arrives with their own ideas Said newcomer will be ridiculed and shunned by the GoG's, who will continue on their merry way, totally oblivious

no Charlie...….us GG'S were once MYG's who thought they knew better than experienced gg's but didn't, but learned the hard way and now try to tell those MYG's of our own experience, and just like us at their age...…..they don't listen, and think the whole world is against them...…...just like my two daughters at home...……..its all part of growing up and old and becoming wiser.

me3 · « **Reply #98 on:** July 04, 2018, 03:06:55 pm »

I feel like my point has been well demonstrated! These engineering apprenticeships do still exist! I have just finished one , I have learnt to weld, mill, turn on both metal and wood lathes, we made boxes, screw drivers, drill gauges and a tap wrench. We have rebuilt an engine and I'm not even a mechanic. I do electronics, these hand skills apprenticeship do exist, my local college has an engineering department that has all the old style manual lathes as well as CNC machines!

Bob K · « **Reply #99 on:** July 04, 2018, 04:36:53 pm »

I hate to disagree on Engineering training. I served a five year apprenticeship, qualifying as a toolmaker.
Whilst I remained in that field I had access to all the tools and machinery to express my skills.

However, by the time I took up building model boats I no could longer pop into the machine shop to use a six inch BSA lathe, shaper, welding gear, or most of the tools I learned to use in my trade.
Need something chromed? Drop by the plating shop.

I had to learn again, this time improvising with hand tools and what I could create out of something else. It was a whole new ball game in which although I knew "engineering" this was completely different and had to be learned largely from scratch.

Nowadays I tend to use a lot of wood and plastic. We never had that in my engineering days, when even Bakelite was the first plastic used in equipment. Brass and aluminium, in small thicknesses and diameters is the only metal needed for a ship.

Life is a long learning curve with many changes of direction. Having done my engineering apprenticeship helped, sure, but not with the techniques I now use in my small workshop at home.

Oh for a six inch BSA Lathe now

News:

Author Topic: The future of Model Boating .... (Read 25246 times)