My scratch built fleet of Canadian great lakes ships past and present.

[TJCampbell]

On my post for my latest build, @Ragnar asked to see my other builds, so I will post pics in this thread of what I have built and any future builds.

My ultimate goal is to build at least 1 ship (boat as we call them on the great lakes) from all Canadian great lakes shipping companies (of which there are only 3 now - Algoma Central, Canada Steamship Lines (CSL), Mc Keil Marine), as well as ships from fleets that have either been bought up by other companies, or have gone out of business. I hope to be able to display these in a room in my house that will be mostly a great lakes marine themed room with these models, books, artifacts, flags, etc. That being said.....if anyone on here has or knows who might be able to help with acquiring anything great lakes related, let me know. I am especially looking for liferings and company flags - prefer Canadian.

It's going to be quite the task, and I will eventually branch out to Canadian owned ocean going ship operators (Groupes Desganges, CanForNav, etc.).

I will include date of build, scale, and any other worthy information, but feel free to ask me any questions on any of these.

Jamie
Windsor, Ontario

 

[TJCampbell]

First true to scale build. I undertook this one, and completed in 2022 I believe.

1/200 scale - solid basswood hull. Built off engineering drawings which I lucky to acquire. I built the display case for this.

Algoma Strongfield

 

[TJCampbell]

Laker #2 completed in 2023.

1/192 scale - hollowed out basswood hull. Built off engineering drawings from St. John Shipyard (now defunct). This model I built the superstructure out of card stock, as well as the hatches. On this one I wanted to try some led lighting and it was added after the fact - I tried to make the wiring look like the lines they use to tie up.

Tim S Dool

This ship is currently in long term layup in Goderich, ON awaiting her future - she experience significant damage to her bottom grounding in the St. Lawrence River in the fall of 2024. Generally in the grain business.

I was able to bring my model down to the Detroit River and catch the ship downbound to get a nice pic. This was eventually in the Algoma Central corporate newsletter. Thanks to the 1st mate at the time for a lot of detail pics and timing information for the pic! I realize these are not the 100% complete pics.

 

[TJCampbell]

Laker #3 completed in 2024.

1/192 scale - basswood bottom and bow/stern - balsa sides. Built off engineering drawings from Port Weller Dry Docks (St. Catharines, ON). This model I built the superstructure out of card stock, while most of the other large parts are styrene. LED lighting was planned from the start. This one was a challenge as I was under a time crunch to enter in our local scale model contest, so there are quite a few touch ups I need to do on this one one day. The unloading is completely scratch built using styrene strips/angles. Let me tell you - that boom was challenge in itself but I very happy how it turned out for my first attempt! Obviously the cables are going to have to be redone when I get around to it too.

I am not super happy with this one only because I was rushed to get it entered in the show. I was up until midnight almost every night including until about 1AM the day of the show to finish. So...my apologies as this is not up to my standard at all. Lots of "re-do" to be done on this one. The back half is fine...... the bow not so much!

This is by far the most unique ship on the great lakes - it was a one off design and considering it was built in 1967 and just started back sailing after a required dry dock inspection this summer.

Canadian Century

 

[TJCampbell]

Laker #4 completed in 2025.

1/200 scale - hollowed out basswood hull. Built off engineering drawings from the chinese Shipyard where it was built. This model I built the superstructure out of styrene, as well as the hatches. The unloading boom is scratch built - I hand cut every piece using styrene rod of varying sizes. Again, wanted to do the LED lighting and I was lucky that someone I knew through work happened to have their brother-in-law be the captain of this ship at the time. The next captain happened to be from my city and between both I was able to get a lot of detail pictures and get answers to a lot of questions!

This ship was famously stuck in ice off of Buffalo, NY in January of 2025 for 3 days.

I am most proud of this build. Definitely my best to date!

Manitoulin

 

[Ragnar]

Hello TJ, What a collection of Great Lakes Ships you have built. I really enjoyed the photo of your model with the real ship behind it. I think you have inspired me to try my hand at some local ships here in the Northwest.

Nice work and thanks for the inspiration.

Ragnar