Here is my
Irving Olds at 48" long by 4" wide by 3.5" ht. 95% balsa wood hull
and deck parts there are some Shipcrafters anchors, cowls and radio
and rails included, toll come to about $50.00. It took me about 36
hrs to complete her.
My name
is Russ Mamere I am a beginning modeler with great lakes steam
ships. My interest in great lakes steamships began shortly after I
retired. I remember when I was 10 yrs old (1957) I got to stand on
the bow of a new bulk-freighter just before launch, it was called
the ERNEST T WEIR. owned by National Steel Co. and it was built in
Lorain Ohio in 1957. After 46 years I wanted to get a photo of that
ship as it had significant meaning for me especially in my now adult
yrs. I found the photo on the internet and I framed it and put it in
my den. But then I decided that I would like to have a model of it
or a similar great lakes freighter. I went to several museums in the
area. The Wakefield museum in Vermilion Ohio had several models and
the Sandusky, Ohio great lakes museum had some but none were for
sale and the
museums said they didn't know where to find any for sale....So I
decided to try and build my own version of a freighter
myself........That is how my modeling hobby began. I also searched
the internet and began finding several models and or suppliers of
freighter models. My best source was Bearco Marine. Esther bought
out Joe Vosaski business and she really started marketing some
helpful stuff.
I see some
of the ships you built and some of the other modelers and that have
so much detail and scale they challenge me to keep on getting more
knowledge and keep getting better. My biggest challenge is to
perfect the exact scale and for the hulls of the freighters to be
able to calculate then cut and shape the hulls with that designed
bow or curvature the the original ships have. My models are basic
flat water line and I think the curved (slightly concave) sweep is
something I need to perfect.
Well
that's the insight to my beginning experience, as you and your more
professional modelers can see I am a long way from their level of
expertise but by offering my experience at a beginning crude level
maybe I can encourage other beginners to attempt to create a model
of the great lakes ships of their own that maybe won't be in the
center stage of a museum but might be the pride and joy of his or
her own living room or den and offer a conversational piece that
might promote another person to share in making something in model
form that helps keep the great lakes ships the exciting memory that
I recaptured after 50 yrs of missing childhood.
Launch date on November 10,2000
This
site designed by and maintained by: Jeffrey W. Churill
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property of Great Lakes Model Association
