All Aboard! – ModelCon 2024
‘USS New Jersey’ a special venue for ModelCon 2024
All four of the United States Navy’s Iowa-class battleships, built during the Second World War and last reactivated in the 1980s, have been maintained as floating museums that honor the Greatest Generation and the sea service. While each last fired their respective guns in anger decades ago, they continue to battle their greatest foe, namely time and the elements.
That is certainly true of USS New Jersey (BB-62), which since October 2001 has called the Camden, N.J. waterfront across from Philadelphia her home. The cold winters, hot summers, and time in the water have taken their toll on the “Big J”. Fortunately, restoration efforts began this past spring, when the retired battle wagon was towed to the Philadelphia Naval Yard – the same facility from where the vessel was launched on Dec. 7, 1942, just a year after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
USS New Jersey received a much-needed new coat of paint on her hull, and in June returned to Camden. As one of the Garden State’s top tourist attractions, great efforts have been made to ensure she’ll share the story of her role from the Second World War to the end of the Cold War.
Though BB-62 is one of eight battleship museums in the United States today, she is also a reminder that hundreds of other warships now only exist in memories and photos. The closest we can get to appreciate some of the retired vessels that either met their fate in battle or were ingloriously scraped is through models.
Fittingly, the Battleship New Jersey Museum & Memorial played host to an event dedicated to the art of model shipbuilding with the Philadelphia Ship Model Society’s ModelCon 2024. Hosting such an event on an actual warship is something that the club sees as something special.
“There’s something iconic in spending time on the battleship New Jersey as a ship modeler since you’re literally visiting a 1:1 version of a popular modeling topic in the first place,” said Joshua Fichmann, PSMS president. “Descriptions of the ships are full of superlatives like largest ever built, most decorated, and so on. Just about every modeler I’ve ever met has some passion towards history and the New Jersey has no shortage of notoriety to go along with its many impressive features.”
The annual convention on the retired battleship now regularly draws model enthusiasts from across the county.
“In terms of attracting modelers to participate in this event, it absolutely helps with getting people to volunteer because the New Jersey is usually somewhere on their bucket list,” Fichmann told Military Trader & Vehicles. “Add that the battleship is a tremendous host and allows volunteers to freely tour the ship along with allowing them to converse with other like-minded hobbyists is a win-win.
“While building a particular subject, I’m often visualizing being onboard on one of its missions which inspires learning more about its legacy. That generates a lot of excitement and awe for me to imagine the depth of character of some of the people who manned these great machines. You see this with dioramas and modelers really trying hard to bring you into the theater of a model’s story.”
This year’s ModelCon in August attracted around 250 visitors, and it benefited from its sister clubs, including the Ship Model Society of New Jersey and Hampton Roads Ship Model Society, which also participated and helped with the event.
“ModelCon also reaches out to people who are likely not affiliated with an organization,” said Fichmann. “A big selling point being free access to tour the ship, free parking, plus donuts and pizza.”
Over the past six years, the event has also helped put a spotlight on the hobby of model shipbuilding, as well as those interested in naval history.
“That is the crux of this event, to find the hobby new friends and let them know that our organization exists if they’d like to explore it further with some support,” said Fichmann. “We try to be as welcoming as we can for all skill levels. All we require is genuine interest in maritime topics.”
Peter Suciu is a freelance journalist and when he isn't writing about militaria you can find him covering topics such as cybersecurity, social media and streaming TV services for Forbes, TechNewsWorld and ClearanceJobs. He is the author of several books on military hats and helmets including the 2019 title, A Gallery of Military Headdress. Email him and he'd happily sell you a copy!
