Built to LastThe Wisconsin Maritime Museum celebrates the longest-running

juried ship model competition in the nationBy Scottie Dayton

Triple Crown winner. The side-wheel passenger steamer SS Ticonderoga (1942) won Best Paint Finish, Modelers’ Choice,and Best of Show plaques for Alex Derry from Mono, Ontario. Images by Sam Parent

Something amazing happened at the WisconsinMaritime Museum in May. It became the only mari-time museum in the nation – if not the world – to hosta juried ship model contest for 40 consecutive years.

The significance of this accomplishment cannot beoverstated. From the 1970s to early 1990s, manymajor maritime museums in the USA and abroad heldprestigious ship model competitions. Although theystimulated high-quality craftsmanship and were wellsupported, the time museums expended on them anda flagging economy forced their demise.

“We faced the same dilemma,” says Wendy Lutzke,director of education at the museum and a co-chair ofthe event with Kurt Van Dahm. “When we discussedour situation with the modelers, they stepped forwardwith special award sponsorships via their clubs,much-needed manpower, and speakers for the techni-cal sessions. Their contributions have been substan-tial.”

Today, the annual Midwestern Model Ships &Boats Contest and Display is supported by the Nauti-cal Research and Model Ship Society of Chicago,Rocky Mountain Shipwrights, Midwest Model Ship-wrights, Wisconsin Scale Boating Association, NorthShore Deadeyes, Nautical Research Guild, RiverBluffs Maritime Museum, Badger Air Brush, and theF.K. Bemis family.

“We are very fortunate to have this symbioticrelationship with the museum,” says Van Dahm. “I’mconfident I speak for all attendees, but especiallythose from the Chicago area, when I say that we thinkof the museum and the contest as ours.”

A total of 64 modelers arrived from throughoutWisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan,Minnesota, New Jersey, and the province of Ontario.“We had 57 models entered in the regular contest and35 former gold medal winners in our first Best of theBest Masters competition,” says Lutzke.

Bob Filipowski, Ed Urbanczyk, and Dr. RichardWilliams, M.D. judged the regular competition usinga point system to evaluate the models based on theirindividual merits. Entries were separated into cate-gories for scratch built, kits, operational, dioramas,and nautical crafts. Modelers were ranked as junior,novice, intermediate, and advanced based on theirskill level.

The judges awarded gold, silver, and bronzeplaques plus eight special awards. The latter weredominated by Alex Derry from Mono, Ontario, andSteve Wheeler from Racine, Wisconsin. Derry’s SSTiconderoga (1942), a side-wheel passenger steamer in1/4 inch equals 1 foot (1:48) scale, won the Best PaintFinish, Modelers’ Choice, and Best of Show awards.Wheeler’s Vice (1947), a US One Design racing sloop

Vice (1947), a US One Designracing sloop, received the BestGreat Lakes and Best RacingClass Sailboat awards for SteveWheeler from Racine, Wisconsin.

in 1 inch equals 1 foot (1:12) scale, received the BestGreat Lakes and Best Racing Class Sailboat awards.Both models won a gold medal in the advancedscratch-built category.

Until 1953, Ticonderoga served ports on LakeChamplain from New York to Vermont. Besides trans-porting travelers and freight, the 220-foot-long boatcarried farm produce, livestock, and dry goods, andferried military personnel during both world wars. Tieven had a brief career as a floating casino. In 1955,she was moved two miles overland from the lake toVermont’s Shelburne Museum. The restored vessel isa National Historic Landmark and the last walkingbeam side-wheel passenger steamer in existence.

Derry spent four years creating his almost 5-foot-long model. Open windows, doors, and other accesspoints on the five decks reveal a detailed interior il-luminated by 120 LEDs. The walking-beam engine, afull replica made from aluminum, brass, and styrene,has more than 200 pinheads simulating dome rivetson each side of the A-frame support.

All exterior decks are covered with simulatedoverlapping panels of stretched canvas. Derry paneledstaterooms and the dining area with basswood toreplicate butternut and contrasting black cherry

wood. He

fashioned the articulated 10-bucket paddlewheelsfrom brass, plexiglass, and resin secured with morethan 250 nuts and bolts. Derry mounted a purchasedreplica of a 1942 Ford pickup truck in the forwardcargo space to emphasize that Ti occasionally carriedvehicles and to give the only clue as to the year themodel represents.

Vice was one of 30 US Ones built by the QuincyAdams Yacht Yard in Quincy, Massachusetts, be-tween 1947 and 1948. The design’s clean look pre-cluded self-bailing cockpits and lifelines, thus con-fining these sloops to racing around closed courses.

The 37-3/4-inch-long model stands 51 inches tallfrom the bottom of the base to the top of the mast. Tocreate the fiberglass hull, Wheeler carved wood portand starboard half hulls, then layered plaster-impreg-nated cheesecloth over them to form molds. “It’s thesame material doctors use for casts,” says Wheeler. Heclamped the plaster molds together, then built up thehull from three layers of fiberglass cloth and epoxyresin.

Wheeler chose applewood to plank the cockpit andbirch for the seats, floorboards, and other furnishings.The deck is a single layer of 3/32-inch-thick craftplywood with saw kerfs in the underside to make itflexible and conform to the deck’s camber (arch).

The battleship USS Arizona (1941) won the Best Miniature award for Chuck Bauer from North Oaks, Minnesota.

Wheeler used epoxy to attach the deck to 1/4-inch-square pine deck beams. He made the cabin sides andcockpit coaming from pear wood to mimic the origi-nal’s mahogany, but used fiberglass for the coach roof(cabin top).

Wheeler initially coated the hull and cabin bulk-head with Rust-Oleum sandable white primer, thensprayed the bulkhead with Badger acrylic paint. “Areaction occurred and the acrylic remained sticky,while the primer softened until I could scrape it offwith my fingernails,” he says. Experimentation taughtWheeler that he could wall in the Rust-Oleum primerwith other brands of primer on which the acrylicpaint had no effect.

Most of Vice’s scratch-built fittings are brass elec-troplated with gold or nickel. Wheeler fabricated thetwo ventilators by heavily plating a low-temperaturemetal mandrel with copper, then removing themandrel by melting the metal in boiling water. Lastly,he electroplated the copper vent shell in gold.

Chuck Bauer took the Best Miniature award hometo North Oaks, Minnesota. His 1/16 inch equals 1 foot

(1:200) scale USS Arizona (1941) also won a goldmedal in the intermediate plastic kit models of anyscale category. During the Japanese sneak attack onPearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 7 December 1941, the bat-tleship became the tomb for 1,177 naval personnelwhen a 1,000-pound armor-piercing bomb penetratedseveral decks and exploded in an area containing avi-ation fuel, black powder, ammunition, and paint. TheUSS Arizona Memorial is built over the sunkenwreckage.

Although the 38-inch-long model began as a Trum-peter kit, Bauer added 845 scratch-built or aftermarketphoto-etched fittings for a total of 1,845 parts. BB-39took 2,437 hours to complete over 19 months.

Some extra details on the hull include oil canning(stress wrinkling) simulated by paintwork and defin-ing underwater hull plates with an artist’s pen. Bauerduplicated the natural teak decks by airbrushing fourconsecutive planks each a different shade of tan, thenapplying a dark pinwash to replicate caulking be-tween the planks. He secured rigging of fly fishingline and stainless steel wire to the fighting tops and

mainmast platforms with 1:350scale eyebolts, and formed copperwire into coiled and belayed ropes.He even made translucent lenses forthe navigation lights.

The Best Novice Builder awardwent to Steve Rogers from Lewes,Delaware, for his Chesapeake Bayoyster boat wreck. Jeff Moses pur-chased this unusual entry in an an-tique store in Catskills, New York.“Steve had photographed the actualwreck more than 30 years ago, thenbuilt the model,” says Moses. “The

The Best Novice Builder went to the oyster boat wreck owned by Jeff Moses.

The three Masters: Bob Filipowski (left), Bob Steinbrunn,and Joe Simon.

The People’s Choice award went to Greg Rice fromRochester, Michigan, and his runabout Lockpat II (1931).

Smuggler (1877), a scale Gloucester schooner built by BobSteinbrunn, won the gold Masters plaque.

boat belonged to the Cobb Island Oyster Farm fleet.”Rogers constructed the plank-on-frame hull from pineand basswood, and painted it to reflect the craft dur-ing the work season.

Greg Rice from Rochester, Michigan, won thePeople’s Choice award with Lockpat II (1931), a 40-foot runabout at 1 inch equals 8 inches (1:8) scale.Dick Locke, who lived on the north end of Lake St.Claire, commuted to his Detroit office in the originalboat, capable of speeds exceeding 60 mph.

Rice developed the model’s hull lines based onCurlew, another torpedo-stern streamliner designedby John Hacker. Using photos for reference, Riceduplicated the mahogany deck planking, including13,000 exposed brass screws. Rice finished the hullwith five coats of epoxy covered with 18 coats ofMarine Spar urethane sanded down to 2000 grit, thenpolished with 3M Finesse-It compound.

Judging the Masters competition fell to Alex Derryand Steve Wheeler. The men used a 90-point check-list to separate the 35 entries into contenders, possiblesecond choices, and non-contenders. To narrow thecontender field, they looked for dusty cases, minus-cule bits of fuzz on lines, and very minor gloss vari-ations in paintwork. “We also considered how wellthe overall construction was done, the model’s overallappeal, and its presentation,” says Wheeler.

“Because we’re keen observers, nitpicking was theeasier process,” says Derry. “Assessing impressions,which were largely subjective, was the more nebulousand difficult task.”

The three future award winners were nearly equalin quality. To rank them, the men separately wrotethe model’s name and placement on bits of paper.“Our results were identical, proving that we hadfound the correct order of awards,” says Derry. Thegold plaque went to Smuggler, built by Bob Stein-brunn from Stillwater, Minnesota. IJN Myoko took thesilver for Joe Simon from Jackson, Wisconsin. Bob

The 2016 special award winners from left to right: Chuck Bauer, Jeff Moses, Alex Derry, Steve Wheeler, and Greg Rice.Derry and Wheeler also judged the Masters competition.

Judges Bob Filipowski (left) and Ed Urbanczyk (right) holda brief conference.

Richard “Doc” Williams judges USS Arizona in the KitModel plastic of any scale category.

Filipowski from Mount Prospect, Illinois, received thebronze for Pink.

The model contest’s unbroken tradition continues

when it returns on May 19-21, 2017. Follow the eventat www.wisconsinmaritime.org or on Facebook.