Hello Folks
One year ago a friend and I started a mammoth project of designing and building the famous Mare Island Navy Yard as in 1944.
The scale : 1:700 (this was to "host" our numerous USN ships of the period, as we're both long time USN fans)
The model : we planned to use nearly
100% custom made photo etching
My friend Jean carefully designed and drew more than 12 sheets (25cm x 10cm) with hundreds of parts.
He used the huge NavSource collection of period pictures... and today's Google space views to get correct dimensions for the piers.
The whole set includes the three West side "finger piers" (piers + related buildings and equipment), four big cranes, a dozen barges (workshop, power, litter, dredge, LCVP), various equipment (floating scaffoldings, etc.) and a bunch of vehicles, from a tiny Harley to caterpillars and rail road stuff. Not to forget some working figures.
I helped him in designing the masters (from my own experience in photo etching), then I did the entire etching in .2mm brass and .1mm steel. Jean started to assemble the prototype in late October.
Below are some pics of the "prototype", i.e. the first assembly and painting
The piers (relief photo etched in brass : later models will be cast in resin from those masters to keep costs down)

A "finger pier" after painting with some equipment in place

To build the piers we were helped by a "micro" caterpillar

Here's a view of an almost finished pier with a Niko Model San Francisco hull

Now the four big cranes. 100% photo etching :


Then some buildings on each pier :


Now the rail road equipment :

One of the four tiny Harleys (3mm long, note the relief etching of the engine)

More equipment (Look Dad : no hands !):

Here an LCVP :

And there comes our master piece : the dredge USS Endicott




At last (for the moment)... sorry... we couldn't resist


More pics are to come, as Jean is completing the other sub assemblies.
Enjoy.
We wish you an Happy New Year
Jean (Toulouse, France)
Bruno (Bordeaux, France)