After a long break from ship modeling, I’m finally back at the workbench.

In 2019, our son was born. In 2021, started a new job. In 2024, we moved for the first time in 16 years. My son is now 7, very much into ‘building things,’ and asked me if we could build a new ship. Absolutely!

My Fair American has been sitting 1/3 finished for years. I decided that jumping back into that build would be tough – not just trying to figure out where I was, but also that my skills are rusty and my workspace is only minimally set up.

I hit up Model Shipways’ website and went looking for a kit that would be a fairly quick build that wouldn’t require a bunch of research and planning. I ended up with the Midwest Muscongus Bay Lobster Smack. No particular reason – it just seemed like a pretty straight-forward small boat.

With this build, my focus isn’t on creating a perfect model, being historically accurate, or enhancing my skills. I’m just trying to do the following:

1. Get back into ship modeling with a ‘quick win’.
2. Practice the basics – it’s been a while.
3. Get all my tools unpacked and reset.

Before the move, I was on the 3rd or 4th generation of my workspace. Everything had a home, and was always right where I expected it to be. The closet in my workspace was a mini woodshop – all my power tools ready to go once the doors were opened.

In the new house, my son and I have a dedicated “builder’s room”. We have about 20 feet of workbench space, with tons of drawers for tool storage. Half is mine, half is his. But aside from doing some art/craft projects and building a lot of Legos, I haven’t really set up the space. I need to build a model as a ‘test run’ of the space so I can get things organized.

So here we go, the Midwest Muscongus Bay Lobster Smack in 1/24 scale.