Kevin Kenny

Thanks 

Making these films make the model take twice as long, but in the end its worth it.

I thought that Paul Fontenoy's explanation about ship models in museums needing to tell a story was very interesting.  I was commissioned to build a model for the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc, WI.  Manitowoc has a long history of ship building dating back to the 1800's.  Including Gato class submarines during WWII - they have the USS Cobia floating right outside the museum.  Burger boats is still building boats in Manitowoc and they support the museum.  My model and two others were the first three models in The Burger Collection.  They will be telling the story of a wooden boat builder that has survived till today by meeting the needs of the changing world of boats who now builds world class yachts and working boats.  They have an extensive model collection - many are used to tell a story.  They commissioned me to build a 1/72 scale Gato class sub that they originally used in the area where the visitors gather to take the sub tours.  When it was raining they would point out points of interest on the exterior of the sub using the model rather than skip this part of the tour.  They now have it near the replica of the sub diving/surfacing and steering controls where kids can control the sub - with video enhancement.  The sub is shown as being attacked by hologram depth charges with sound and vibration.  They have toned down the vibration as it was causing damage to the model but it a very effective story teller. 

They also have a very nice model room that they have no intention of changing over to touchy freely stuff for the kids.  When they expanded the museum several years ago they put in a special area for that kind of stuff.

The museum also has a model display and contest each year that I have been the contest director of for 20 years now.  We had to cancel the 2020 event entirely but we did the 2021 event with a virtual contest.  We will be back to face to face this year.

Take care