SS Normandie Masterpiece: Building Timeless Elegance

Ken Friend and Alan Bussie became friends about 20 years ago through the hobby of building scale models. Ken built anything he thought was unique and Alan built, bought and sold kits through his company, Oldmodelkits.com. Both shared a common motivation; flawless, extreme detail.  Alan loved ocean liners from the ‘30’s and always wanted a good model of the SS Normandie. However, Normandie kits were non-existent. Ken was looking for something to do during retirement and used his knowledge of prototype fabrication and CAD/CAM to help Alan create his Normandie. After 10 years of research, design, and development combined with a generation of a fabrication methodology, the OMK 1/350 scale SS Normandie kit earned its place on the www.oldmodelkits.com website. 

The design of the kit began with the conversion of two-dimensional imagery into three dimensional virtual models. Originally, all the master parts for the Normandie kits were outsourced to 3D print vendors. Silicon molds of the 3D parts were created, then the kit parts were cast in resin. As 3D printing technology improved and became affordable, the kit parts were converted to in-house 3D desktop printing.

As a finishing touch, Ken and Alan wanted their kits to have realistic real wood decks. Ken created the artwork, then sent the artwork to commercial printers. The process was time consuming and expensive. Over time, the folks at Real Wood Paper helped bring the printing process in-house as a standard for OMK kits.

Ken and Alan still pursue that “perfect” model and have added the SS REX and SS Bremen kits to the OMK line. With the help of vendors like Real Wood Paper, Ken and Alan will continue to have lots to do during retirement…..