Felix Bustelo
Valley Stream, New York
The second steel ship ever built for the U.S. Navy was the “protected
cruiser” USS Boston. Felix built the 1/350
scale kit from Iron Shipwrights. He installed a Paper Lab white-metal compass
and pelorus on the flying bridge and scratchbuilt the masts from brass rod
using the kit’s resin parts as a template, along with the scale drawings in the
kit instructions. “I used wire for the amidships davits since the photoetched-metal
versions were a little too short,” he says. “For the rigging I used .004"
steel wire dipped in Blacken-it. The 6" and 3-pounder guns are cut from Minimeca
tubing. The bow shield and the ship's name and star on the transom are decals I
made myself.”