Edmund Fitzgerald 1/180 unknown manufacturer

[Tim Mixon]

I want to start by saying that I am not the builder of this kit. I only restored, repainted, and improved upon some details.  My brother in law bought this built model at an estate sale in Harbor Beach, Michigan.  It was in terrible condition:



The overall model is made from balsa. I cleaned all the dust and excrement off and repainted it entirely.  Scratch built the radar and antenna masts, added lots of other details. Decals are Woodland Scenics dry transfers. Waterline decals are 1/200 scale unknown Chinese manufacturer.  EZ line rigging and homemade flags.


The model is over four feet long!






Since my family is native to Michigan we have a keen interest in the Great Lakes. My beautiful wife’s grandfather, Dennis White, was a helmsman on the Wilfred Sykes.



He was sailing the lakes on November 10, 1975 during the same storm that claimed the Fitzgerald.  The Wilfred Sykes participated in the search effort the following days. We are fortunate enough to have his personal journals. Here’s what he wrote about that fateful period:









The reference to T.B. is Thunder Bay

Thank you for following along this far. I’ll leave you with a link to the famous Gordon Lightfoot song ( The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald)

https://pandora.app.link/OfSPG7Qabxb

Thanks for looking in!
Tim

[lone modeller]

That is a monster of a model!! A very interesting eye witness account of the aftermath of the sinking disaster and a timely reminder to those of us who do not live in the US of how large and dangerous the Great Lakes can be.

Stephen.

[RichieW]

Restoring that model must have been a long but massively rewarding job. It certainly looks in fine shape after your fine work.
Reading through the journal was really interesting, it must be a highly treasured family possession. Thanks for posting this Tim.

Richie

[RAGIII]

Awesome work and History!
RAGIII

[pepperman42]

I missed this! Fabulous work - Gitchie Gumee even.

Steve

[Dutch522]

Just reading through this thread, beautiful restoration job, Tim. That's going to be a real conversation piece... and the size gives a great idea of just how big those ore ships are.

I was fortunate enough to see Gordon Lightfoot a number of times before he went West, the last time in Albany NY, back in 2018. Before he sang the "Wreck" he gave a little preamble where he said he'd changed the lyric "a main hatchway caved in" due to marine archaeologists' findings on the wreck site. Still a great song though.

Dave V.