Hi ;
Have any of you ever wondered how or why I got into Scratch-Building and or Conversions ? Maybe not .This is to assure any builders out there of anything that it can happen to them too .
I was about maybe ten or eleven . Revell dominated the hobby shops and five and dime stores . Do you remember five and dime stores ? I had acquired a few virgin ships from uncles at birthdays , but never the really eyecatching ones .
Yeah , I managed to collect All the " Victory at Sea " sets . I never realized there was supposed to be a Battleship with them . So I have Never built Revell’s Missouri .
My uncles were a little crafty .They would blindside me with " But , look there’s five ships in there " Etc. Being a young gentleman , I never said anything about most of them having Missouris on their Mantel-Pieces or desks ! Besides Dad would’ve warmed my Backside . ( fathers could do that back then )
One year ( I think I was thirteen ) .My Mom’s boyfriend gave me for my birthday , The Revell - N.S.Savannah and the " Moore - Mcormack - S.S. Brazil , and the M.V, Oriana and S.S. United States .
A year passes and I am in Florida with Dad . I come home from school and the Savannah and Brazil are on the dining table , Well away from the shelves where I kept them . We had an overzealous housekeeper when dusting with her big bunch of feathers were concerned .
Well I had already been adding to my fleet by doing " Model Salvage " from a service station’s fountain . ( I may have mentioned this elswhere .) I looked at both Mortally wounded ships and got so mad I threw My trumpet down and dented the bell . "I had to fix that first or Dad would kill me " I thought. I couldn’t use business cards or paper on these though .
Of course parts were just plain gone . But these were two of my Best model Building ( assembling ) jobs , Paint included . How could I save at least one ? Well The Brazil was sheared off just below the bridge and all forward .
The Savannah was broken right in half . Well , I took a profile guage .( I had one from Wood Shop ) And cut both hulls where there was an almost perfect match to the naked eye . I managed to glue them back together using sprue from a plane kit as internal braces .
When it was done and they matched okay I re-decked them and had one odd looking ship . I used the cargo gear from both and also switched the very stern on the Brazil for the Savannah’s . Odder still .But fairly proportioned . I called her the " M.V. Chimera ".
From an idea I got from Greek History Class . I had her for almost all the time I was in service but she didn’t make the final move home in one piece . But by then the die had been cast . I was a formal Scratch-Conversion Builder .
Can you share your story with us ? Tanker - Builder .