2001 TRMA Meeting

Held at:

Park Inn of Burr Ridge
300 S. Frontage Road
Bur Ridge IL. 60521

They say luck rarely strikes twice in a short period of time. I say to heck with what they say. Trying to find the right words for this article about the 2001 TRMA meeting isn't very easy. There's too many good things to say about it and too many to list here. What the heck, I'll just list them all. Life is too short to worry about saving a bit of space for something the deserves its own shrine. Here we go...

We knew since May of 2000 that we would hold another meeting. We just didn't know which way it would go. Were we to expect double the turn out, or see the same faces as last year, or even less? So we started a sign up on our page. Forty bucks and you'r in. Sounds easy, huh? For the first few months, we only received about five paid reservations. To cut to the end, we had twenty-six paid reservations. That was more than double of 2000. Now we begin to put the meeting together. There's no need to bore you with the technical parts of how the meeting was put together, but I would like to say just one thing about that...

I, and all of the TRMA trustees would like to thank Bruce Beveridge for finding the time to put the meeting together. He did most, if not all, of the leg work in getting this thing together. It would have not been at its best if he had not taken the time to do what he does best (b**ch on the phone until he gets what he wants). Many thanks Bruce from the trustees and meeting attendees.

Before we delve into the meeting happenings, I would like to post a list of all who attended this years meeting...

Bruce Beveridge Todd Hughs Marty Meyer & wife Mark Darrah Scott Andrews Karen Andrews Roy Mengot Jerry Davidson Brian Disney Don Marton Benji Marton Michael Belfort Warren Samut Larry Jibson Mae Jibson John Graham Keith Brown Libby Brown Jim Harper Mike Christiano Sean Winterberg John Graham Doug May Todd Hughs Charles Marshall

Left to right: Mark Darrah, Jerry Davidson, Sean Winterberg, Scott Andrews(behind Sean), Bruce Beveridge, Roy Mengot and Mike Christiano

About half of us arrived Friday night. We spent this unofficial time sitting in the hotel lounge just shooting the breeze (about Titanic of course). This was a very relaxed sitting where we caught up on projects and exchanged information while downing a few drinks and eating peanuts. Oh how I miss that bottomless peanut bowl. Below are a few photos of this time...

Around the table in no particular order: Mark, Warren, Roy, Scott, Sean and Bruce.
We were joined later by Don Marton, Benji Marton and Michael Belfort

Friday night chat wrapped up at around 2am. Those of us that could drag ourselves out of bed at 7am the next morning met for breakfast. Again, Titanic talk (among other off topic conversations). After breakfast, we made arrangements to go to the Chicago museum of Science and Industry. Our main goal was to visit the U505 submarine(see photo). After being told that it would be an hour wait, we decided to break into two groups. Three of us decided to wait out the U-Boat line. The others went to the ship builders model section(see photos). After we met back together, we headed back to set up for the TRMA meeting...

Left photo: U-505 submerine / Right photo: Bruce, Jerry, Scott and Mike

THE MEETING...

The meeting started off with people creeping in slowly at first. It took us some time to hang all of the blueprints and posters. Some of the early birds helped finish the job. We were starting to run out of room for everything that we had to display. This included dozens of books and magazines (see photos). The tables were filling up quickly, but we had to leave room for a few very important things.. The featured models. First to arrive was Brian Disney with his Titanic Southamptom diorama with fiber optics. We were all waiting for this for months once we knew it would be there. Once on proper display, everyone stood in awe, speechless at the detail (see photos). After everyone had their chance to see it up close, we did the only next possible thing.. Turned the lights off and cranked up the fiber optic lights in the model.

Left photo: Bow of Brian's model/ Right photo: Boat deck of Brian's model

Left photo: Brian Disney / Right photo: Southhamptom model by Brian

Everyone getting a glimpes of Brian's model

Once we all had our chance to see the model, the second featured model arrived with Warren Samut. This was a 1/350 scale Titanic model built by his own shop (see photos). Heres the kicker, it's 100% brass from the hull up. Yes, every little piece on the deck. It weighs about 25 pounds all together. To give you the idea of the kind of quality put into his models,the Titanic model goes for about $2,500. You can read more about Warrens company here.

Left and right photo: Warren Samut's model

Right photo: Jerry Davidson is amazed by Warrens 1/350 scale brass model

Once all of the pieces for the meeting arrived and everyone had a chance to look at them in detail, the meeting took on a quieter mood. Everyone began to talk to each other, gathering any kind of modeling and ship details they could get. It was like a room full of good friends catching up on old times. After a few hours of Titanic talk, we were served dinner by the nice folks at the hotel. Bruce was able to get a hold of a very nice piece of Titanic wreck video that he played during dinner. Everyone enjoyed watching this while eating and discussing the imagery within it.

At this time, we took a moment of silence for the memory of the people lost on Titanic.

Dinner time

After dinner, we were able to get Warren up to the lectern to talk about his model building company and how they built the twenty footer used in the Titanic exhibition around the country. Although Warren has to protect his secrets to building the most accurate models in the world, he was able to tell us how the planning of the 20 foot model went together. As he explained, it all started with the most important thing you can do when building a model.. research. He began by going to Harland & Wolff in Belfast. Like many people who go there to find what they are looking for, he ran into many brick walls. Warren told us that he is a very determined person when he needs to get what he wants. He didn't let a few sour grapes get in his way. He knocked on doors and made many phone calls. Due to his persistence, we was able to get want he needed. Now armed with the right research material, he headed back to his shop in Florida.

Although Warren's office is in Florida, his shop is located in Asia. During the building of the model, he had to make trips there to oversee the construction. He said that they had to build the ship in a building with an open roof so they could remove the final product. Although the ship separates into sections, it was still too large to take out the front door. Warren was very careful not to give us any of his model building techniques as it is a trade secret. Couldn't blame him one bit. Once the model was finished, which he only had about nine months to complete, it was headed for Memphis, Tenn. From there, it traveled with the Titanic Exhibition around the country. If you would like more information on Warren or his company, please visit this site.

Right photo: Marty talking about hull building / Left photo: A model built by Marty

Next up to the lectern was Marty Meyer. Marty's talk involved the basic techniques of determining the hull shape for scratchbuilt model ships. The main portion of his talk centered on how to use the body plan - or station lines - of the hull lines drawing to develop bulkheads or frames for use in plank-on-bulkhead or plank-on-frame hulls, and how to use the water planes to create hulls of the "lift", or "bread-and-butter" type. Marty also explained how to create new body, water, and buttock lines in addition to those already on the lines plan, by creation of a new curve through a set of points determined by the intersection of any two of the aforementioned curve sets with a plane, the location of which is determined by the modeler, parallel to the remaining third curve set. Using the techniques Marty described allows a scratchbuilder to determine the shape of any section of the hull taken at any point, using the existing lines plan.

After Marty's insightful talk, things began to wind down a bit and it was getting a bit late for some. It was safe to say that the meeting was coming to an end. We couldn't avoid this, so we said our good byes to those who had to leave. A few of us hung around a bit longer to do some late night Titanic talk.

We finished the night off talking about next years meeting. Yes, that's right, we are starting to plan for next year. We will be looking for more guest speakers and look forward to having twice as many attendees. One major thing we will work on is having a few live demonstrations of modeling techniques. We can't say for sure what it will consist of, but our goal is to make a little more fun and hands-on. If there's anything you would like to see at the meeting, please feel free to let us know. We will take anything into consideration. Until then, see ya on the TRMA Board

One last item to discuss. The brass masts by Mark Darrah. Please be aware that these masts are not yet finished and he is not taking any orders for them yet. Below is a photo of one masts. Its hard to see from the photo, but it has every detail it should have. Mark is currently trying to find a shop to mass produce them. It would take too long to make the sets himself for mass production. Several ways these may be produced is turned brass or using the lost wax method and casting them from that. The best method has yet to be determined. Once the masts are ready, we will notify you via the board or main page.

I'll leave you with a photo of Bruce at the lectern. Smile Bruce, you'r on TitanicTV

Just a few various photos from the meeting