The tools Makehuman and Blender make it possible and relatively easy to create figures you want. I was looking for a long time for figures for my J-Sailboat of the beginning of the 20th century, With those tools I can make them myself, dress them like the sailmen of those sailboats like the Endeavour and thanks to the skeleton funcion put the in the right position as needed.

It is great to see another one trying to add to the toolbox of the naval modeler the use of electronics. About more than a decade ago I had been disappointed by the poor implementation of a multi prop module from robbe. During just a weekend a friend, also a naval modeler and myself, build a small board using the avr mega8 controller and were able to display a numeric value of each of the 8 channels signal on an 80x4 display. From there it was just a small step to have these simple circuits offer full functional operation and control of 8 servos from a single signal, a single channel of an RC system. In those days this was a simple and cheap way to achieve this.
Today, with an Arduino UNO clone for less than 5 Euros from China and with a tremendously more powerful controller, the AT mega328P is the cheapest and easiest way to use electronics to implement the desired functionality, RC controlled, into your model. The Arduino IDE, the programming environment, additionally makes the programming and loading of programs on the controller. This will open a world of possibilities as a powerful tool for naval modelers. When you look on the circuit board of an Arduino UNO, is really not more than making available all pins of the controller on pins of the board.
In my days we programmed the atmega8 with a Basic compiler, BASCOM. The great think of this compiler ist that may of the instructions it offers are building blocks for naval modelers projects. Here you find the Basic compiler which can do programs the size most of the projects might require and it is for free. The purchased version, as I own it, in my opinion is worth it once you have projects exploding in your mind.

Hi. Mi private pilots license also does not include night flying. But interesting is to consider when they define what is included. When having a certain number of instructed night flights you are entitled to fly in the vicinity of an airport. Vicinity of an airport German definition is that you have to be able to see the traffic in the pattern of an airport.
When I did my flight from San Jose, CA to Phoenix SkyHarbour, I was able to see the traffic being about 1.5 hours from the airport. The night definition is that the night begins 30 minutes after sunset. So was entitled to do this night approaches as you can see the traffic in the pattern, on a large airport like Sky Harbour, and in the Southwest of the USA from very far.
But when doing these landing operations at a large international airport, shortly before touch-down you are flying into a black hole. Due to this on my first landing in Sky Harbour, I made an awful 3-point-landing making the plane jump 2 or 3 times. Fortunately, I was aware of how to react properly when this happens.
The second special experience is when you are taxiing on the runway to get to its exit and report "runway vacated" in a small plane like a Cessna Cutlass the lights lose their structure. So I went to search for the yellow line on the left side of the runway until it curved into the exit. But this yellow line and the blue runway lights are hugely distant from each other so I had to focus my efforts to stay to the right of the blue lights but still being able to see the yellow line. Once I crossed the lines that mark that you are leaving the runway I could report back to the tower "runway vacated".
My second-night landing was when I did try to fly to an airport next to the "Grand Canyon". As the report of the airport said expect gain or lose 40 knots of speed on final I decided not to land and flew back To Phoenix.
What a wonderful experience. The landscape was already impressive on my flight to the Grand Canyon, but it was topped when I flew by night. First I was in contact with one center in charge while being above a certain altitude. Then this center passes you to one in charge below that altitude. Makes you feel like a professional pilot. Finally, this center did pass me to the tower of Sky Harbor. I was approaching from the north. Then, what controllers of large airports like they make you cross the airport midfield what ensures you stay away from the other traffic of the airport. You cannot imagine what a sight it is when you approach a large city like Phoenix by night. After he gave me its clear to land I was remembering my awful night landing earlier. When I did have the feeling that I was about to touch-down I did control the airplane so that all you felt on touch-down was the vibration of the wheels turning. A Geman friend of mine that was on the plane with me was so impressed that he said he would fly again with me at any time.

One other fact I want to share is the importance to really dominate the phraseology of radio communication and what Americans call to know the system. On my first approach by night to Phoenix, I did confuse the last VOR with the ILS beacon.
So when switching to what I thought to be the last VOR the needle got full to the right and stayed there. So I did a report I was not able to tune in the VOR and so tower did give me instructions for the further approach. When you fly in from the west you fly over a mountain full of antennas and the red lights on top of it. I felt very good being routed by the tower. Those of you familiar with night-flight and how to find the location of the airport know the rule of the black spot within the lights of the city is where the airport is. Well, Sky Harbor has the terminal building between its 2 runways and so Sky Harbor does not look like a black spot. So when the tower asked me if I had field in sight I did respond negative a couple of times until he reported that I was on the 45 for the runway. Then I finally saw the airport. Here is something that is the consequence of good radio training. My instructor always said to report negative until you are really enabled to say affirm. So Tower knows when you are really able to report affirm. Do not be shy, it is your and others life!
The second time on that approach was when tower gave me the instruction: 3-60 to the right until further advice! My teacher played the role of the tower and one of the things he said to teach us the right behavior was to stay silent and fly as instructed until tower contacts you again. I do confess I had never done 3-60s neither by night nor during the day! So I put the plane into a standard curve, kept it there, watched my altitude and speed. Being so familiar with this instruction from the tower I felt "at home" and this being relaxed was very useful!

Always keep researching and finding plenty of useful information. Additionally, I try to share information so not all disappears because of forums closing. Besides, trying to explain and to present was I am doing is a good way to massage my knowledge and my projects to get new perspectives.

This are photos of the biggest and very well made model of the Endeavour, a sailboat from the beginning of the 20th century. the First photo is of the gentleman that build this fantastic model! I was allowed to publish photos you can see here. I myself feel obliged to stand-out and show the gentleman responsible for this work of art!

I am surprised and not surprised at the same time. Surprised to see how many have jumped onto the wagon. Flying is something special, that is why I am also not surprised.
For those of you from Munich, Germany. I did the instruction at the Jesenwang airport, WNW of Munich. As I was very often in the USA from very early during my instruction I did fly Cessnas 172. For some time at the Jesenwang airport, a Piper Arrow could be chartered. This "real plane", has its wing below the cabin, the Cessnas have them above, was a great plane to fly. I chartered a Cessna Cutlass in San Jose, CA, for 3 weeks shortly after getting my so-called PPA pilot license. My longest non-stop flight was from the San Jose airport to Sky Harbor, Phoenix Arizona. I remember the landing in Sky Harbor. it was night and it was my first solo night landing. in those days landing did take place at the main runway. So tower had to find a slot between all those jets on approach. But I can tell you, sitting as the pilot in command by night and landing at a great international airport is an experience you remember for the rest of your life.

That is correct ChrisF.

I used to have a current single-engine flight license. The video shows the flying with my good friend John from Emilia Reed airport south from San Jose, CA to North Las Vegas north of Las Vegas, NV. On this flight leg we had clear skies. On the second leg we fly back to san Jase, CA. It was a rainy day and the clouds and sequences of the view do still fascinate me.

This time I want to show the process after removing the now sanded hull. You get a first view of having me removing the frames and starting to fill lead into the wooden hull. in the last photo, you can appreciate the benefits of removing all frames from within the hull. The surface inside the hull is ready for further processing.

I am continuing to try to learn the way this forum is properly used. I want to publish here my photos of the construction of my sailboat Carina from scratch that I am publishing here. I will limit myself to photos that are useful to get a general view of the topics I am publishing

Trying to learn to use this forum properly I am publishing a video that shows an experiment I did to find out how fast the stepper motor could turn. I am using in my model of the sailboat Carina 2 stepper motors like the one shown in the video to work as a winch to control the position of the sails in a system solution where I am realizing this my own way to implement the sheets as shown on the original sailboat Endeavour. This requires my sheet control system to control the length of the sheet of the mainsail i.e. over a range of 8.3 meters. This requires the drum which is turned by the stepper motor to make 21 full turns. Details will be published in my report from scratch of building my Carina.

Part 4:

Part 3:

Thanks to RNinMunich help at least I am able to continue! I publish part 2 again as I can find it on my thread!

@RNinMunich: Danke.

I might be foolish, but I am not able to open the pdf files I have attached myself. What do I have to do so that I do not get to see just the image indicating it is a pdf file I have attached, but the pdf file itself?

Second question:
What I would like to do is that what is in the pdf file would appear online on the screen and I would be adding photos to the text I the way my attached pdf file does contain?

When hitting the button on top "Post New Build Update" all I found out what I can do is to write text as I do here and attache a pdf file as I have done previously.

Part 2:

Sorry, I have not yet understood how to publish my report from scratch in this forum. I have attached a pdf archive with what would be my first contribution. This does not look for me to be the right way of publishing here.

I have started the building from a plan I did purchase. So building from scratch is probably the right term.
I am 61 years old and I have spent about a decade working on it.
I use to build sailplanes as a kid and I did purchase my last sailplane shortly before leaving the university and there it is. Still, not even started working on it. In 2000 I lost my last job employed and reaching the age of 45 I was told I was already too old. So after a number of years, I did realize that I would not get hired for a job anymore and that reactivating my old hobby was a good thing to do. Being financially limited I decided to switch to a sailboat. Those do not crash as planes do and so building a sailboat from scratch looked to be a real option.
I need to comment that I use to be a so-called Field Application Engineer for one of the large US semiconductor companies. Then, the career makes you develop into managerial positions. Disappointed by how salespeople worked and I shifted to sales when moving to another US semiconductor company. My active professional employed life did get me to be a Business Developer Director with one of the largest US telecommunication companies.
Due to this history at a certain point of my project of building a sailboat from scratch started to have electronics and informatics becoming the dominant activity.
Another topic that influenced about what I am doing on this project was due to now limited financial resources. So I decided to work on improving my workshop and to organize the many items I had been accumulating over the many years. It used to be easier for me to buy something I knew I had somewhere in my workshop. So this also influenced my activities on my workshop.
Finally the heavyweight of electronics and informatic aspects of my project I started to build an electronics workbench.

Sadly I do have a lot of health problems, 4 strokes, heart-stopping to beat due to side effects of medicine I was taking since I was 19 years old I got a pacemaker. Lately, I am slowed down due to being tired for many hours of the day and by suffering from a reduced concentration capability.

As being positive, as having a well organized day and fascination to force that organ between my ears to work so that it can reorganize itself, I am happy working on the diverse subprojects. So the work for my project has become my focus and objective and not finishing the project.