2005 NRG Conference

This is a report on the Nautical Research Guild Conference that was held in Hampton Roads, Virginia the weekend of November 4 thru 6, 2005. Seven members of the SMA, all of who had a great time, attended it. For those who have never been to an NRG conference, the venue is similar to the Western Ship Model Conference and Exhibit. There is generally a tour on Friday during the day.

At this conference the tour was of the bay and the Newport News Navy Base. The tour boat speaker was very good and told a lot about the history of the area, the lighthouses and forts which protected the bay, and the battle between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia. The NRG members meeting followed the tour, which was chaired by Lloyd Warner, a member of the SMA.

The actual conference started Friday evening, with the reception. This took place at the Hampton Air and Space Museum, which was just across the street from the hotel. There is an excellent set of ship models in the Air and Space Museum. The food was excellent and all had a good time. The highlight of the reception, however, was the wonderful exhibit of ship models put on by the Hampton Roads Ship Model Society. All the ship models exhibited were of very high quality. Some of the models were based on kits, others were scratch built.

There were a large number of discussions taking place around the models by the builders of the ships, which added much interest and was, for some, a learning experience which is one of the main reasons why many members attend the conference in the first place.

The next highlight of the Conference, which is true of all the conferences, is the opening of the vendors area so that everyone can see the latest books, tools, and other gems that every ship modeler must have!
The vendors that were at the conference were: Preac Tools, Model Machines, Bluejacket Shipcrafters, Pier Books, and several others, including a Resin kit manufacturer. The vendors were located in the hotel, next to were the Saturday speakers were giving their talks, so the members of the NRG had easy access to the vendors. There was also an NRG table set up, as you do not have to be a member of the NRG to attend these conferences. As usual , Mickey Martelle conducted the sales at the NRG table and, in the process, made many friends to add to his already large collection of happy modelers.

The Saturday venue was standard, with speakers giving their presentations all day.

The first speaker was Jack Bobbitt, a long time HRSMS member and a master modeler who gave an excellent presentation on impressions made by using the correct techniques when building a ship model.

The second presenter was Pete Danks, from Great Britain, a retired RAF officer, who gave a talk on the Gun Boat H.M.S. Blazer, pictures of which are shown below. He talked about his first models, then showed how he had evolved to the present model, which is exceptional. Techniques of construction were discussed.

The third speaker of the morning was Don Preul, NRG secretary and a professional model builder. His talk was entitled “Detailing Steel Navy Models: It’s all in the Details – Read the Fine Print." There was then a break for lunch, which was supplied to those who purchased it as part of the conference package. Bob Crawford, from the San Diego Maritime Museum, then gave a presentation of the next NRG Conference, which will be held next year in San Diego at the museum.

Following the presentation by Bob, there were three more speakers to present in the afternoon. Jeff Johnson, the NOAA historian for the Monitor Sanctuary, discussed recent findings on the recovered Monitor artifacts that will permit builders to produce more realistic models of this historic ship. He was very knowledgeable concerning all aspects of the Monitor project.

Then Peter Danks, from Great Britain, again spoke, this time on the development of Scottish fishing vessels and the construction of a model of one type called a “Scaffie.” He brought a model of this Scaffie along with the model of the H.M.S. Blazer shown above. Both models were, again, exceptionally done.

The final speaker was Roger Cole, an HRSMS member from Canada. He is a past speaker at NRG conferences, has written excellent articles for the Nautical Research Journal and the Ships in Scale magazine, and a master modeler. He presented his talk on his scratch built British Naval Cutter “Alert” of 1779. This concluded the speaking sessions. In the evening there was the NRG banquet. The food was very good, the camaraderie was excellent, and the final speaker at the banquet was Richard Moore, the immediate past president of the American Society of Marine Artists and a modeler himself. He is remembered for his award winning miniature model of the cruiser USS OLYMPIA at The Mariners’ Museum Scale Ship Model Competition in 1995.

The Sunday morning was taken up with a round table discussion with the speakers of the day before followed by a tour of the Monitor at the Mariners’ Museum. In all, a very successful and eventful conference.