As a couple of posts have mentioned, a few of us in the UK have been working over the past few months to bring together a new Special Interest Group (SIG) of the IPMS based in the UK and to be called Fine Waterline. The idea behind this is to promote the best of waterline ship modelling between 1:350 and 1:700 scales. Although UK based we will be looking for a worldwide membership, it is not necessary to be an IPMS member to join.

One of our ways of showcasing ship modelling will be to have an increased presence at the main UK shows, and we will be having a stand at the UK Nationals at Telford this year, in fact this year will have a number of ship modelling SIGs together in one part of the hall.

The main focus though will be a new website www.finewaterline.com which will be launched, all being well, next Saturday 18th October. This will be a gallery based website (no forum!) with a tips and tricks section. Details of how to join our group will be available then along with a contact email.

Five of us have formed the group to get it up and running, myself (group leader, not sure how that happened), Jim Baumann, Roy Allen, Rob Kernaghan and Peter Fulgoney, though others have already expressed an interest in joining.

In all of this we aim to complement websites such as Modelshipwrights.com not to replicate or in any way to try and replace them, we all intend to remain as regular contributors as before. Many thanks are due to Mark and the rest of the crew for allowing me to post this message here, they have done a superb job over the last couple of years in bringing this site to a point where it is one of the top two ship modelling websites in my opinion, you only get to that point with a lot of time and effort.

I'm sure this will be an idea that will interest many of you and I hope to speak to many of you about it again soon

Mike McCabe

Mr. McCabe, my friend, thanks for the kind words, mate, they do mean alot coming from a gentleman modeler of your calibre...

You have my utmost hopes of success and undying support on this endeavor, my friend, anytime that I can help you in any way possible, you know where to find me, you're gonna have your hands full!...

I'm really looking forward to this collaboration between the masters, a gathering of such talent can only bring forth such a wealth of talent and knowledge, Mike, in an area of the hobby that will attract much attention...and I want to extend a personal thanks to you, and all of your "chairmen of the board" for adding your works and talents to our pages here at MSW, you all will always have full access and hearty welcomes over here in our waters, mates, good luck, and good modeling!

Keep us posted!!

Sincerely,
~Mark

Hi Mike!

A fine gathering of modelers can only produce excellent results!
I am sure that finewaterline will be a major boost to this area of ship modeling, and as you so well say, it's not colliding at all with other websites like MSW and MW... it's a question of having the scale range refined, if I can say so and having specific tutorials, gallery and tips concentrated and easy to find.

I wish you all the best
Till Telford


Rui

Mike, Good luck with your new endeavor.

That sounds awesome Mike. I look forward to seeing the tips and tricks from such fine modelers.


Kenny