Gary Krempian (1951 – )

Gary Krempien has been building ship models for as long as he can remember. Reared on “Revell” plastic kits and building them each several times, Gary moved on to wooden kits only to find them too expensive and inferior in results, which lead him to start scratch building. He considers himself as being “serious” since the 1980’s. His current period of interest is the 18th and 19th centuries, both merchant and naval, with a preference towards the smaller vessels. He has concentrated on British ships, mostly because of the greater degree of documentation available, rather than an allegiance to any one country. His work has gravitated towards the admiralty style, or variations thereof, not because he feels that it is the proper way to build ship models, but rather because he has become used to the method, and over a number of years he has refined his skills and become more than proficient at this construction technique.A member of the Nautical Research Guild and the Nautical Research & Ship Model Society of Chicago, Mr. Krempien has consistently won awards at the Manitowoc Maritime Museum Model Contest since 1979. He has written several articles for the Nautical Research Journal and Model Ship Builder.