Ahoy Shipmates

Which modeller ship or otherwize has most influenced you?

General modelling for me has been Shep Paine, Francois Verlinden and Tony Greenland (all the big names)

Ship modelling: All the crew at this forum never cease to inspire me especially Rui, Gunny, Kenny, Ripster, Halfyank, Joe P, Blade48

Personally; Lance Whitford a local NZ modeller a great guy who some how puts up with me LOL Hopefully someone I can call a friend.

Andrew Barclay another NZ modeller one who I met via this website who is only 18 but man can he make models and one top guy.

Who has influenced you the most?

Regards

Sean

When I was 15 I got a crush on Shep Paine and instantly disliked Verlinden. After this I stopped looking much at what other modellers were doing until last may actually
The main inspiration for my next PT boat diorama is Caspar David Friedrich, he is no modeller

Definetly a very interesting question!

Although I have built Airplanes, AFV and space craft, my main focus was always ship related...
I think I had a few Idols - and so here's the list with a little history to go along...

Phase 1 - Discovery
When I was 6, the Father of my best friend, who used to live next door, had the Living room full of cabinets with built ship models. Warships, Merchant Ships, Sail Ships, from Revell, Airfix, Frog, some brands unknown (Renwal, Pyro??) and he had also some big japanese ship models with motors that my friend robbed for our dynamic ship experiments (those were the 1/200 Yamato and Musashi). I tried to copy the quality of his models using what the money could buy and also, what was available here at that time, meaning: Heller Cadet and Airfix Blisters. I still have my first ship model: Airfix Blister (series 1) Cutty Sark, that I took one month to acquire all the designated tinlets by Humbrol!! (I already was slow at that time )*
We also spend endless hours looking at the Catalogs and saying Wow!! Those are so beautifull!
So, Paulo's Father, Mr Candeias and the Catalog brand model builders were my Lighthouses!

Phase 2 - Evolution
Before the advent of Internet, (no, I'm not an Alien - just was born in the '60 decade of the XX century!) information was very sparse, regarding scale modeling around this corner of Europe. A few magazines, catalogs and the trials of some highly regarded portuguese modelers (from my point of view, they were real heros (and stubburn!!), trying to make a Modeling Magazine in Portugal - and they tried three times... you'll guess: without success!) was all we could get. Luis Bacharel ** and Jorge Soares are a couple of those that made me follow their steps. Luis with his teachings on how to master the basics, Jorge with his amazing convertion of Portuguese Air Force aeroplanes (without all the AM that there's available today!)
And also, at the time, a modeler was "supposed" to be very well hidden in his house and never to show or tell what was his hobby - unless someone visited you!! - you would be considered a Kid...
We met ocasionaly at (the few) hobby shops and then one of those shops decided to have a model contest, quarterly - you had to expose your models and accept all the criticism! So I did and for my surprise, in all the contests I entered, I was on the top 3. The fact that the themes varied (Tanks, Planes, ships, Portuguese military forces, Sci-Fi, etc) helped me using some techniques from one area into an area where that technique was not used, and make different effect that we were used to see - and also we had workshops by local modelers that helped that bunch turn into better modelers and also to learn to share the information you got. Pedro Figueira , Carlos Filipe and a couple more made good use of these "rules".
Of course, in the late 80's, early 90's the name François Verlinden was a must (in '87, I discovered Verlinden in Belgium, in my Navy days, when visiting Seebrugge and Östende and finding built models with a complete different approach of what I had seen so far - amazing stuff!)

Phase 3 - The world is my Oister!
Without too many delays:
Jim Baumann, Felix Bustello, Guido Hopp, Peter Van Buren, Filipe Ramires, Martin J Quinn, Frank Portella, Graham Townsend, Joe Passasseo and a lot more friends, who happen to be also, masters in making ship models, always amaze me with their works and I will try to at least as good as they do.
Internet and the fact that most of us are willing to part/share/teach the knowledge makes this area of modeling one of the most promissing and interesting areas to be discoverd and explored.

I can say that I am continuosly being influenced and keep on learning - so, the list is not closed, and it will never be!

*As a curiosity, my first model ever was a Airfix Westland Lysander that, as you may guess, it resulted in a very poor representation of an Airplane, less a Westland Lysander!

** I am very pleased to say that 11 years ago, on our first club expo, I met Luis Bacharel and you can imagine the thrill that was for me to knew "in bone and flesh" on eof those modelers that I admire; Now I can only say that we are very good friends!


I really hope that you are still reading this
Cheers,
Skipper

Well Sean, Shep Paine inspired me. But as far as influence goes, it would have to be friends like Dick Montgomery and Lee Forbes from San Antonio and Gunny, Rui and the rest of the salty dawgs here that taught me how to relax and have fun building and that not every modeler is a rivet counter.

Kenny
By the way...Sean, do you sit up at night thinking up these questions? Man, they make you think. Keep 'em coming.

Hi Kenny

Funny you should say that because I do work nightshift and often ponder these questions as I sit alone in the office peering out into the dark ,cold night from my desk. The old mind works away.

I hope everyone appreciates my questions and also that they like my Great White Fleet series all aimed at promoting thought and discussion.

Regards

Sean

Sean i must say that i really think your questions put the soul in MSW these 3 last months
Rui, Kenny and Sean I must say i really kinda envy this kind of "collaborative influence" thing and "friendship" in your modeller biography. I just couldn't have this because there was no modelling community in the town where i was raised -and when that changed around the time of university, when i tried to get in clubs, I was told in one "yeah, but you won't be interested because we model few and we drink a lot", as for my local shop it was some kind of backcover for people doing modelling as a mean to make some not so great politics. Just bad luck I guess.
So i stayed alone, my influences I take from music mostly, painters and movies a little. Generally speaking I strongly believe that if modeller inspire or influence themselves one another, the whole hobby can't get very far. This is why i always try whenever I am doing something (not a lot, a maximum rate of 2 dioramas per year), to do something i never see elsewhere, and sure, the best mean to achieve this is to have a look and see what others are doing!

I'll second this motion, mates!
Sean, are you sure that you're not a Philosophy Professor?! :-)
But seriously, great questions, and quite thought provoking, for sure. . .

I would have to say that my greatest and really only inspiration honors for this hobby I will hang around my Dad's neck, as he was the one who introduced me to the love of gluing bits of plastic together, by watching him build his models. . .kind of carrying on the tradition, so to speak, as I watch my son finish the face of one of his latest SEAL figures. . .

There are so many talented modelers out there whose work that I admire (alot right here at MSW!) that listing would be quite lengthy at this point!

Keep Modeling!
~Gunny