“When your hobbies get in the way of your work – that’s ok; but when your hobbies get in the way of themselves… well…” - Steve MartinA general consensus appears to be that when you retire you do not fall into a state of relaxation and spend all your time doing what you thought you would while you were busy working.
Rather it seems that instead of relaxing by the pool with a good drink and something good to read, retirement is spent indulging in a hobby. Such hobbies can create more work than a full time job.
One such hobby enthusiast is Michael Butcher who has spent many years building and researching his favourite pastime – the creating of model ships.
Michael is a Master Mariner FG who left the sea in 1961 to pursue a career ashore, eventually retiring from his position as a company executive in 1992. He formed his own consultancy business but, in 1999, Michael needed a practical way of occupying his spare time and he decided he couldn’t spend his retirement doing nothing.
“After you spend so much time being busy it is hard to just stop completely,” Michael said. As a young boy during WWII Michael crafted balsa wood models, mainly of aircraft. It was an obvious option for him to put the skills he had learned in his youth to use in retirement. With a hobby like model ship building there is always room to improve and refine the skills required to create these magnificent master pieces.
Every modeller has a preference to the type of ships they create. Whether the ships belong to a certain period, have special purposes, or a certain style - a modeller will try to make as many of their favourites as possible.
Michael is no exception to the modelling rule - he has a collection of fifteen static model ships and is currently working on his sixteenth, the Amerigo Vespucci. The models which Michael initially constructed were eighteenth and nineteenth century sailing vessels with their intricate details on deck and interesting decorative gilding. Now he has a leaning toward clipper ships “I particularly like the sleek lines of the hulls of these vessels.” Michael said.
Of course he finds the task of choosing a favourite difficult - after all there are many to choose from. However Michael after careful consideration comes to the conclusion that his favourite model would have to be the Roger. B. Taney. But wait, no, maybe it is the Thermopylae; after all it is a good looking model - Michael reconsiders. No, no maybe it would have to be the older model of the very neat Bomb Ketch.
Perhaps that wasn’t a fair question for a man with so many models.
Then again another of Michael’s favourites would have to be the Victory. He speaks of this model with fondness, perhaps it is because this particular model has a very interesting story. Michael won this model in a competition on the gardening program Burke’s Backyard- following Don Burke’s visit to the ship in Portsmouth in 2004.
“What an excellent way to commemorate the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar in 2005,” Michael recalls.
Michael received the Victory kit and built the model, donating the completed ship to Retina Australia. The Victory was auctioned for $5500 – raising quite a bit of money indeed!
Michael’s advice to fellow modellers would be the importance of research. Through researching the particular model you are building gives the modeller the history, the story and more understanding of the ship. The more research the better the finished model will be. Michael said that he always begins with the colours of the ships.
“I research colours and how they were painted. What the ships were used for, anything I can find out makes the finished product that much better,” Michael said.
When one takes up a hobby like model ship building, there are plenty of things to learn and a vast amount of information to aid the process. Model ship building is a well known and highly regarded pastime. Michael believes that is it important to take up a hobby that is interesting and enjoyable.
“It doesn’t matter what hobby you embark on as long as you find something you can enjoy,” Michael said.
When you find a hobby you take pleasure in, immersing yourself in every facet of that hobby makes it more enjoyable. Model ship building is a great hobby because in the end you have a beautiful model which you built with your own hands.
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