Model builder recreates his own WWII ship

CEDAR RAPIDS - Creating models of tall-masted clipper ships and large-scale battleships is fine for some hobbyists, but Bernard "Scotty" Scott prefers to keep his ship building close to his heart. He builds replicas of LCI 343, the 158-foot-long landing craft he called home for 22 months around New Guinea during World War II.

"We were what you called McArthur's Navy," says Scotty, 86, with a laugh. "And they didn't like McArthur much."

You read very little about these little workhorses and their sisters, the LCT and LST. But the LCI, just 23 feet wide and drafting only six feet of water when full, had a 75-ton capacity allowing it to transport 182 enlisted men and six officers in addition to a crew of 24.

"Down hill, with a tail wind, we could make about 18 knots," jokes Scotty, a teenage machinist who watched over the eight 6-cylinder 225-horsepower engines originally built for buses.

As a retired painter from Quaker Oats and, previously, an automobile body shop, Scotty began building his models a decade ago in his wood shop. He prefers to call his hobby "cobbling."

On a pair of shelves in his garage sit four of the more than a dozen wooden models he's made from scratch - one 48-inches long, one 36-inches and two 30-inches.

"They didn't come out as good as I wanted so I just stuck them out in the garage," Scotty says. "By the time I get done, I'll probably have the other side of the garage lined with them."

The detail work includes the guns, sliding unloading ramps and ropes troops held onto, all painted warship gray. An American Flag flies from the control tower of each.

As a veteran, Scotty remains humble. "It's just something that happened," he says. "It's something we did. That's the way it was."

Born when his parents lived on I Avenue NW, a few blocks from the H Avenue home he's shared with his wife, Wanda, the last 31 years, Scotty was sworn into the Navy in 1942, less than three weeks after he turned 17.

"I went because I wanted to. No one pushed me, that's for sure."

Maybe it was for the money. As an apprentice painter, his father, Henry, made a nickel an hour for 60 hours a week.

"When I joined the Navy," Scotty says, "I had seven bucks in my billfold. That was the most money I'd had in my life."

In the Navy, he was in "hog heaven" with three meals a day, a free room and $50 a month.

Only once did he have a close call - a mortar shell hit the ship, killing some Australian troops. Otherwise, the war was uneventful. "We had awful good protection from the Fifth Air Force. We only saw Japanese planes four times all together."

Scotty fought a different battle in 2008 when the June flood wiped out his house. But with help from friends and his own hard work, he and Wanda returned 10 weeks later. And it wasn't long before he was back making his ships and giving the best away, even though he lost his plans in the flood.

"I still make the same mistakes I made before," Scotty laughs. "But I can't watch television all day.

"I'll probably make at least another one," he adds. "I want to make a good one."