Late Father-In-Laws WW2 Model Ships

[Brucebubs]

94 year old father-in-law passed away peacefully in his sleep earlier this year.
He served in the Australian Army from 1939 to war end in 1945.

My wife and her 3 sisters have been going through his estate and found 100's of these WW2 model ships he made.

Balsa wood - from scratch -from spec drawings.

British - German - USA and Japan.



To give you some 'perspective' here's some old bridge pins.

[nacluth]

Coolest thing I’ve seen in a while. Thanks for sharing!

My great uncle served on a ship in the war that sailed all around Indonesia and stopped several times in N. Australia. While that tropical tour was not for the faint of heart, he always appreciated the port calls in Oz.

[Brucebubs]

Here's a few more.


Above Top; HMS Formidable - built 1940 scrapped 1953
Above Middle; Yamato - Japanese battleship sunk 1945
Above Bottom; 2 German U-Boats


Above; Bismarck - German battleship commissioned August 1940 - scuttled May 1941
2 German U-Boats

Looking at that scale again against Yamato and those 2 U-Boats.

[Mr. Paul]

Wow what a great find, that must have been a very special moment when you discovered those.

[Scootch]

Those a phenomenal. He was talented man. I’ll bet he was a great guy.

[Brucebubs]

Guys there are literally hundreds of them, sadly he tried repainting some of them later in his life and wasn't as skilled as he used to be.
I went through boxes of them and picked out the best 50 or so - I'm modifying some pictures frames, adding enough depth to mount them inside.
We also found dozens of beautiful, detailed spec drawings he sent away for - they would look great when framed too.

He was a truly lovely man and we're all so grateful that his life ended so peacefully.

[fitness1]

Here in the States we call them "The Greatest Generation" - this is a testament to why!

[Ozzy the dog]

These are wonderful. It would be nice if these could be placed on display somewhere with a background of the man behind them.

[Bob Womack]

Beautiful. It's another class of modeling entirely.


Bob

[Brucebubs]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Beautiful. It's another class of modeling entirely.


Bob

He didn't use a PC so spec drawings came by mail.
He didn't use a calculator to work out scale.

He left a trunk full of family history research.
An incredible reference library of WW1/2 naval vessels.
5 trunks of coin collection.
Same in stamps.
Around 70 plastic model kits - (many of the ships he'd already made) all unopened.
A trunk full of balsa wood strips.

Amazing man.

[patchmcg]

Absolutely amazing! Talk about an heirloom collection!

[Kerbie]

Awesome!

[Brucebubs]

At one point of his war service he returned to Australia from New Guinea for special training.
During this period in 1942 a fellow soldier in camp drew his portrait.
He was aged just 19 at the time.
That drawing was framed and sent to his mother and eventually inherited by my wife.



The artist was Paul Fitzgerald who went on to become a world renowned portrait painter.
His portraits include the Pope, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Phillip and the Australian Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies.

[Earl49]

Very cool, Brucebubs. This collection maybe belongs in a history museum, where it can also be appreciated by others. Great family history too.

[Dru Edwards]

Those are amazing! A great piece of family and history. There are hundreds? Wow.