Last week, I had the exciting opportunity to meet with Dr. Logan Holtgrewe, a highly experienced model builder. Most notably, Dr. Holtgrewe has assembled every single aircraft used in both world wars, forming a collection currently on display at the Boeing Museum of Flight in Seattle, linked here: https://www.museumofflight.org/Exhibits/holtgrewe. I was able to go over to his house after school and discuss his model collection, modeling process, and receive some advice on how to effectively assemble my kit of the San Francisco. Dr. Holtgrewe had recently finished constructing a flagship from the ill-fated Spanish Armada and a model of the U.S.S. Constitution, and I enjoyed talking about ships in the Age of Sail with him. Most relevant to the project, Dr. Holtgrewe has built a highly detailed model of the U.S.S. Albany, a heavy cruiser launched roughly in the same era as the San Francisco. While his version of the Albany sports a different paint scheme and features many modernizations not present on the San Francisco in 1942, it will still serve as an invaluable source of information about the layout of WWII-era heavy cruisers. Dr. Holtgrewe was able to answer many of my questions about the color and layout of other small details on ships. For example, after struggling to identify which color the Carley life rafts on the San Francisco were painted, Dr. Holtgrewe informed me that they were left unpainted on aircraft carriers, but were painted to match the color of the hull paint on cruisers like the San Francisco. Dr. Holtgrewe shared several general modeling tips with me such as a unique combination of superglue and contact cement to attach small metal details, and to assemble the ship's superstructure in layers to make it easier to paint the teak decks. It was a true pleasure to speak with someone as experienced as Dr. Holtgrewe, and I hope to learn even more from his immense experience and skill set as my model progresses. In the near future, I hope to visit his modeling club, the Severna Park Model Railroad Club, to meet other experienced builders and learn about model railways, a genre I have yet to explore. Details from Dr. Holtgrewe's models of the Heavy Cruiser U.S.S. Albany and Battleship U.S.S. Arizona. Being able to see models in color rather than black-and-white is immensely helpful in deciding how to paint the small details.
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Throughout the past few weeks, I have found a few new and exciting sources of information. My mentor, Mr. Salinas, connected me with historians from the Navy's History and Heritage Command, who gave me access to the NHHC's database of primary and secondary sources. The NHHC has access to many sources invaluable for both research and model-building, such as the blueprints for a New Orleans-class ship like the San Francisco, linked here: https://maritime.org/doc/plans/ca34.pdf. The damage report filed directly after the Battle of Guadalcanal contains a wealth of information about the battle and photographs of the battle-damaged San Francisco, especially invaluable to the project. I also found an old bin of documents s from the 1920s in the Severn archives building, and I plan to explore and document it more thoroughly as soon as I get the opportunity. With the end of the sailing season, I have been working more on the construction of the model itself, focusing on attaching photo-etch parts to the ship's hull. After my meeting with Dr. Holtgrewe, scheduled for early this week, was delayed, I look forward to meeting with him next Friday. Having never met with an experienced model builder before, I eagerly await learning from his experiences and hopefully finding answers to questions I've had since I first started modeling. A photograph of San Francisco's battle-damaged bridge. The many holes in the bridge, created by shell fragments, illustrate the devastating effect of the Japanese barrage.
The past couple weeks have been a time of much progress for the project. I reached out to one of my friends, a former president of the Naval War College, to see what information he possessed that could benefit the project. He was very knowledgeable about both Schonland and McCandless, and had been present for the dedication of Schonland Hall in Newport, RI. Through him, I was able to obtain access to a few books about the Battle of Guadalcanal, which I will link to on this website. Most importantly, through his connections to the Naval Institute, I was able to obtain McCandless' after-action report of the Battle of Guadalcanal, entitled "The San Francisco Story." I have pasted this document in its entirety on this website, as I believe it is the single most valuable source of information about the battle itself and McCandless' role in it. My second breakthrough was by meeting with volunteer archivists from the Severn Alumni Association. They had compiled a plethora of primary sources, documents, and artifacts from Schonland and McCandless' lives. While the age of both men means that there wasn't a lot of information about their time at Severn, I was still fascinated by the information I was provided with. While I haven't been able to revisit archives, I plan to spend time summarizing every primary source, photographing every artifact, and compiling all this information into this website to create a definitive archive of information about Schonland and McCandless. After speaking with Mr. Sitzmann, head of the Severn Historical Society, of which I am a member, I will also link this website to the Historical Society website, so that Severn students interested in history can explore this story for themselves as much as they want to. I followed up with Mr. Lagarde about meeting with Dr. Holtgrewe, and was informed that he had recently undergone surgery, and that I will have to wait until November to schedule a meeting with him. After spending a few hours researching the model kits of most major U.S. suppliers, I also identified the kit I believe will best fit a school model-building event. Academy's #1657 1/72 F4U-1 Corsair kit contains few pieces, two simple paint schemes, can be easily purchased from Amazon, and only costs around $11.50, a very competitive price for a model aircraft kit of similar size and quality. This kit would be easy to buy in a large number, and only necessitate the purchase of around five colors of paint, making it perfect for a project such as this. I look forward to working more on my kit of the San Francisco, ideally after meeting with Dr. Holtgrewe, and I am excited to dive back into the Severn archives to further explore all the sources it has to offer.
After meeting with my advisor, Mr. Salinas, I have decided to focus the project away from the student/veteran modelmaking event and towards the research and construction element. Too much is out of my control, because of other students, pandemic protocol, and dealing with other organizations for the success of the project to hinge upon such an event.. Therefore, I plan to greatly simplify my plan by having every student build the same model and distributing them to veterans directly, through delivery with a note rather than through a formal event. In doing so, I will continue to execute the project's original goals of giving thanks to veterans and giving students an opportunity to learn modelmaking, but eliminate many unnecessary variables. Not having a formal event will reduce the pressure for students to finish their models by a certain time, make it easier for veterans to receive their models (as they will not have to make time to attend an event), and eliminate any unnecessary spending caused by such an event. I plan to expand my documented research beyond creating a simple caption for model and towards creating a comprehensive set of documents on Schonland, McCandless, and the San Francisco as a whole to allow Severn students and alumni alike to fully explore their stories. To effect this, I plan to reach out to the Naval Academy Museum and Naval History and Heritage Foundation, and attempt to connect with the San Francisco Association once more. I am meeting with the Severn Alumni Association next Tuesday to explore their collection of primary and secondary sources on Schonland and McCandless, a unique opportunity to capture otherwise inaccessible documents on the lives of both men. After meeting with Dr. Holtegrewe, I will begin proper construction of the San Francisco beyond photographic analysis and planning. Overall, this restructuring of the project should bring a greater emphasis on its elements that I directly control and reduce cost and risk for failure while staying true to the original goals of the project. I look forward to my meeting with the Alumni Association, and to exploring the stories of Schonland, McCandless, and the San Francisco in greater depth.
Most excitingly, after an odyssey of almost three months, my kit of the San Francisco has arrived in the mail, as have all of its necessary paint and upgrade parts. Upon reviewing the kit, I definitely think that the photo-etch upgrades were worth it...the kit is beginning to show its age in certain areas, but I'm confident that I will be able to turn it into a far more detailed and accurate recreation of the San Francisco. I have spoken to Mr. Lagarde about a meeting with Dr. Holtgrewe, and I eagerly await any development on that front. Any advice or insight he has to give will be invaluable in the construction of the kit. I have also spoken to Dr. Grimes about the research element of my project. With the help of Severn's historical association, I will be able to use the Alumni Association's database of documents to take my research beyond what I was able to find on the internet. Sadly, the San Francisco Association has yet to respond to my email after a month, so I will have to write them off as a source of information, barring an unforeseen development. I have been very busy with back-to-school and college work over the past few days, but I plan to focus heavily on developing my website and presentation this weekend, to ensure it is ready for when I eventually present the project. Overall, the arrival of the kit and my meeting with Dr. Grimes has set up the project for further progress in the fall. I'm very excited to get my hands dirty constructing the San Francisco in the upcoming weeks, and I look forward to presenting my progress thus far.
While I wait for the full kit to arrive in the mail, I've been working on primary and secondary source analysis to allow me to accurately modify the stock kit. Model instructions often have many inaccuracies, and photo-etch kits, designed to work for any ship of a given class, do not come with comprehensive instructions. Thus, the job falls to the modeler to determine which parts or colors to use and how to use them. I have been using photographs of the San Francisco from NavSource, a database for photographs of ships, to get a sense of how the San Francisco was laid out and to what modifications needed to be made. However, the obvious drawback to using photographs from the Second World War is that the photographs are in black and white, so the modeler has no idea what color to paint certain elements, especially given the extremely vague painting guides found in most model kits. One solution to this problem is to use the eyewitness accounts of men who served on the San Francisco, but I often prefer to go off the work of other modelers instead. Highly experienced model-builders often document their work and include many photographs of the finished project, so analyzing their work is often the simplest and most effective method. I have acquired whatever necessary paint I didn't already have, so all that's left to do is wait for the actual kit to arrive. I plan to reach out to both Ms. Grimes and Mr. Lagarde tomorrow to see about arranging a meeting with Ms. Grimes to discuss Severn's database on Schonland and McCandless as well as draft a preliminary list of Severn alumni that could benefit from the project, and a connection from Mr. Lagarde to a model-building Severn alumnus, hopefully meeting with him once the kit arrives in the mail. The photo-etch sheet for the San Francisco's catapults and aircraft cranes comes with a myriad of parts. However, by analyzing photos of the ship such as this one, I was able to determine that, in 1942, the ship had two New-Orleans class aircraft cranes, and two standard-configuration aircraft catapults (the catapults on the New Orleans were slightly wider). Photographic analysis allows the modeler to recreate a ship as accurately as possible. Because I had no experience using laser-cut metal parts before, I decided to construct this metal model of an AT-99 Scorpion gunship to practice with the material before assembling the metal parts of the San Francisco. Practicing cutting out, bending, and gluing metal sheets will hopefully lower the risk of any costly mistakes with the San Francisco's photo-etch parts, and I gained valuable experience with the properties of this unique material.
After some difficulties acquiring a kit of the San Francisco, I have placed my own order, which should hopefully allow me to start on that aspect of the project, as I have already acquired the kit's photo etch. I return to Maryland on August 10, after which I plan to immediately begin construction of the kit while seeking out advice from a Severn model-builder I will contact within the next week or two. While I had planned to already be working on the model, a few solid weeks of effort in August should put me in a good place to complete it fairly early in the school year. In terms of research, I have contacted the U.S.S. San Francisco Association seeking information about Schonland and McCandless, and plan to publish any information I am able to obtain from them. My meeting with Ms. Grimes will allow me to begin planning of the model-building event, as well as hopefully obtaining more information. Overall, the month of August is shaping up to be very productive, as I will be able to start construction of the San Francisco and begin the planning phase of the model-building events, two key milestones that I have yet to meet.
Unfortunately, personal illness and having to pick up extra shifts at my job have caused the past two weeks to not be as productive as I had planned. The photo-etch kit for the San Francisco arrived in the mail, but I have yet to receive the kit itself, and have thus been unable to start that stage of the project as I had originally intended. I plan to reach out to the San Francisco association soon to ask them for information on Schonland and McCandless, and am working on organizing the research I have already amassed, planning to add it to the website soon. My main goal at this stage in the project is to begin construction of the San Francisco as soon as the kit arrives, in order to complete most of it over the summer. If I can accomplish that, my meeting with Mrs. Grimes at the end of the summer will leave me in a good place to wrap up the kit in the fall and focus entirely on organizing the model-building event over the fall and winter.
StartingOver the past two weeks, I first focused on acquiring a model kit of the U.S.S. San Francisco. After researching all available sources to find the most cost-efficient and reliable vendor, I completed the paperwork to officially requisition the kit. I also decided to upgrade the kit with aftermarket photo-etch parts, which I acquired independently and applied for reimbursement on. I've had a hard time finding the right paint for it, as specialized model paint is very difficult to acquire in the United States, but if I can't find what I need, I should be able to mix my own from readily available colors at the cost of a degree of realism. My preliminary research on Schonland and McCandless has been similarly frustrating, so I hope to visit my local library to find information there, as well as reach out to the San Francisco Association, as I couldn't find any information on their web site. The Severn Alumni association will most likely end up being my most valuable source of information, as both men were Severn alumni and Alumni of the Year. I reached out to the Association to that end, but also to broach the topic of identifying Severn alumni to receive models. Until I can meet with Mrs. Grimes at some point later in the summer to discuss the topic further, the student and veteran side of the project will have to sit on the back burner. My immediate next steps are to finish designing my Fellows web site, reach out to the San Francisco Association, and begin construction of the San Francisco once it arrives in the mail. After finally doing some modelling after taking a break during the academic year, I am very excited to take on the San Francisco project this summer. Setting up my new workspace and working on my airbrush skills in preparation for the San Francisco project As a side project in my free time, I modified this kit of the U.S.S. Oliver Hazard Perry to turn it into the U.S.S. McClusky (the white paint will be masked to become the McClusky's flight deck and hull numbers), and will eventually give it to Vice Admiral (ret.) John Christenson, who commanded the McClusky.
After the 2021 Leadership Lab, in which I set up my website and wrote a description of the project, I divided the project into four separate parts: the construction of a 1/350 model of the U.S.S. San Francisco, research into the lives and actions of Severn alumni Bruce McCandless and Herbert Schonland, coordination with a veterans' group to identify veterans to receive the models, and coordination with a student organization to identify students to build models. After some consideration, I made the strategic decision to simplify the project by having Severn students build models for Severn alumni who served, allowing for better coordination between the two sectors. While I will be away from my computer (and airbrush) for the next week to spend time with my family, I plan to immediately begin the process of acquiring a kit of the San Francisco when I get back. My short-term goals are to further improve my Fellows website and continue the preliminary research process, using government and library databases to paint a picture of Schonland and McCandless' lives. In the coming months, I plan to reach out to organizations like the U.S.S. San Francisco Memorial Foundation and Naval Institute to improve upon my research, speak with individuals at Severn to begin preliminary planning of a model-building event for Severn students, and begin construction of the San Francisco model, which I hope to finish by the end of the summer.
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Alex BreniaMy name is Alex Brenia, and I am a senior at Severn School. I am passionate about military history and service to veterans, as I come from a military family. I see this project as a unique opportunity to combine both of these interests, within the scope of the Severn community as a whole. Archives
September 2021
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