W. Paul Hitchcock (1951 – 2006)

Son of the noted ship model builder William Hitchcock, Paul, began building models at his father’s side at a very young age. William Hitchcock helped to instill in Paul his love of the sea through many family cruises of the Atlantic seaboard, the Caribbean and the South Pacific, thus, giving Paul the extensive knowledge needed to carry into his ship modeling.While serving in the U.S. Army, Paul was involved with designing and constructing working models for training purposes. After his service, Paul first built models to help his father, then part time to supplement his income for his growing family while working in Louisiana as a Mercedes-Benz technician. He left Louisiana for New York, where he worked as an auto technician by day and built models under his father’s tutelage at night. Although Paul no longer works under his father, they are often found collaborating on models and dioramas as the noted “Arthur Clark”. Through this collaboration, Paul and his father have developed many new and innovative modeling techniques.

Paul was diagnosed with MS in 1986. The disease has slowed him to the point where he can’t make models as fast as he used to, but has no plans to quit his art unless his skills become affected. His wife, Bettina, has become an accomplished detailer and helps him paint and finish some of his models. Besides his building models from scratch and doing a good deal of restoration work, Paul has been recently become involved in developing “kits” of various models for a noted kit company.

His models can be found in historical societies, corporate offices, and private collections. The collaborated work of “Arthur Clark” can be found in the Forbes Collection, the Peabody Essex Museum and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.