Rick the modeler and his prize model

Sometime back around 1987, while browsing through the magazine section, the front cover of a magazine called; “Scale Ship Modeler” caught my eye. Pictured on the cover was a man standing beside the biggest aircraft carrier model that I had ever seen (except maybe something I might have seen in the Museum of Science and Industry). Scale models, especially military models and military dioramas were very popular around the 80s. I always had an interest in miniature modeling and had even tried my hand at a few models over the years. In large bold letters the caption on the magazine read; “Giant R/C USS Nimitz” and the sub caption went on to announce; “One of the largest and finest radio controlled scale model ships ever built by a single individual is the work of Rick Quinlan, a modeler with skills that are equal to his ambitions”.

I proceeded to delve into the article about this amazing modeling feat. The more I read and the more pictures I saw of this fantastic model, the more piqued my curiosity became. Unbelievable – a model......a actual, working, radio controlled model, scaled to one seventy-second of an inch to every foot of the monstrous USS Nimitz aircraft carrier! This was mind-blowing! This had to be the work of a master modeler and also someone with a lot of time on their hands! The model was exact in every detail – every nuance of the mighty USS Nimitz. In addition to being an exquisite model, here was one that almost every moving feature was controlled to move, turn, revolve, raise and lower by radio frequency. Amazing!

I had just settled in the Chicago area. When I noticed that the modeler lived in Decatur, Illinois, only about two hour drive from Chicago, I was determined to see this modeling masterpiece in person. To make a long story short, I managed to contact Rick Quinlan and he very cordially invited me to come down. In fact, he indicated that he would probably be taking his ship out to a local pond that very weekend. Rick graciously welcomed me to accompany him. So I grabbed my recently purchased 35mm camera, a completely manual Nikon FE-2 and off I went. Why, I am not sure, but I loaded my camera with Ektachrome slide film – 64 ASA. Wish I would have known then what I know now (which, come to think of it, isn’t much!) Anyway, it was a real thrill to have seen this fabulous radio controlled model Nimitz and even a greater thrill to have been involved in the “launching” of this beauty. Oh yeah, I was snapping off pictures but, unfortunately, not that good of photos, I must confess.

More about the model. As a couple of my pictures show, Rick reinforced the interior of the ship’s hull with plenty of wooden structure. Weight was not a problem, Rick stated, because the finished model needed 285 lbs. to put it down in the water line. The total displacement turned out to be 585 lbs. and it required four good crew members to launch the monster. She only weighs 200 lbs empty and is powered by two automotive 12 volt heater fan motors that drive 3-1 gearboxes turning all 4 drive shafts. The ship is built in three water tight sections bolted together at the joining bulkheads with five 5/16” and two ¼” bolts. To keep the 72nd Nimitz watertight all joints are sealed with silicone sealer each time the ship is assembled. Rick used one 12v full size marine type battery for power to the two heater motors. The whole ship is controlled a Futaba 7 channel radio controller.
How many hours did Rick put into constructing the Nimitz – probably almost as much time as had the Newport News Ship Building and Dry Dock company in construction of the original USS Nimitz – over 3,000 hours!

While looking through my outdated slides a few week ago, I came across my slides of Rick’s model and wished that I had these pictures available in digital format – (I also wished that I had taken better pictures but I knew there was not much I could do about that.) I found a local business that advertised that among their many photo services, they offered high-res scans of 35mm slide film and would convert transparencies into digital images and burn them on a CD ROM. I gathered up these weary old pictures along with some very special slides that I had taken of my younger brother several years ago. Regrettably, after my brother died of kidney cancer at the young age of 42, I was left with only one photo of him. My sister-in-law and Steve’s family took all the pictures I had and used them at my brother’s funeral. Here were some very precious pictures that were just laying in a slide container. This was the opportunity to have some visual memories of my dear brother, Steve. Considering the quality of many of these slides, I think the photo business did a fine job of converting these transparencies to digital. I did a little “fine tuning” using Photoshop.

Unfortunately, over time I lost touch with Rick so I never knew what happened to or where Rick’s master piece R/C model, Nimitz ended up. To my thinking it should have been placed in a maritime museum but in searching the internet, I have not found any evidence of this. What I did find, however, was a rather “suspicious” 1/72 scale model of the aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise, CVN-65, one of the sister ships of the Nimitz. Reportedly the modeler of this ship is a man by the name of Gabriel Suranyl. There are many excellent photos of this model and even a QuickTime video available at Mr. Suranyl’s web site. No where does it mention that this model ship (if, in fact it is not Rick’s ship) is radio controlled but if anyone wants to view some much better pictures of the ship (identical to the ship built by Rick Quinlan), here is the web link.
www.carrierbuilders.net/gallery/20070318_USS_Enterprise_1...

Also as a point of interest, here is a link to the only site that makes reference to the scale model Nimitz built by Richard Quinlan of Decatur, Illinois. - www.finescale.com/fsm/default.aspx?id=6&c=i

Hope some people with an interest of scale modeling find a little pleasure in viewing my photos, albeit not the best quality. I am pleased to be able to share these with the community.

Taken on: April 5, 2008

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Sets appears in: • USS Nimitz - 1/72 scale, radio controlled model

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