Greg Harrington
My passion for ships began around age 5, when my parents would take me to a park at the base of the Blue Water Bridge, where Lake Huron empties into the St. Clair River. There, we would watch the big freighters pass by. For no reason I can name, “Cleveland Cliffs” was a sentimental favorite. Seeing these massive machines up close was clearly impactful.
As for models, I’ve been fascinated with anything miniaturized for as long as I can remember. I favor boats, but I enjoy anything shrunk down into another world – planes, trains, doll house furniture, and dioramas of all sorts. Like many modelers, I began building in plastic. I believe the first was a Revell snap-together F-4 Phantom. I was approximately 7 years old, and I recall working at our kitchen table with my parents close at hand.
Trains are also of particular interest, but as a child I lacked the funds to do a first-class job to the extent my heart desired. So, I switched to small scenes with 1:285 pewter military figures by GHQ Models. I still have a few of the figures stored away. The nascence of my interest in scratch modeling was a visit to a neighbor who had constructed a high-quality lake freighter nearly the length of his garage. I did no scratch building at this time, and modeling then took a long hiatus due to teenage distractions and college.
In 1990, I started my career at National Steel and Shipbuilding Company in San Diego, CA – a pleasant change of scenery after 21 cold winters. A couple of years later, knowing of my lingering interest in ship models, my parents bought me the “Midwest” Muscongus Bay Lobster Smack kit. I made a few enhancements to improve the realism on this intermediate-level kit. Knowing what I’ve learned since, I could have made many more – but this, of course, is the nature of learning.
Modeling was put aside again when I took a job at Newport News Shipbuilding in 1994. I joined the Hampton Roads Ship Model Society shortly thereafter, and later became the club’s first (and thus far only) webmaster. A new marriage, job, and house, followed by an unreasonable stubbornness to build from scratch, kept me from starting another project. It would be 12 years before I started a new project, while I collected the funds, tools, knowledge (and nerve) to get started. It would have been better to do a few kits along the way, but that is water under the Blue Water Bridge.
Sail and early steam working boats became my primary interests. My second wooden model, and first scratch-built effort, was a culé – a Portuguese riverine cargo boat. I don’t know why I would pick such a subject, as Portuguese working boats are a riot of color, and to me painting is easily the most tedious part of modeling. My current project is a Danish åledrivkvase, or eel drifter. I chose it for its interesting rig. A steam tug and some decorative half hull models are on the short list for my next project. Many thanks to all the HRSMS members for sharing their knowledge and friendship. I hope I am part of this association for many more years.