USCGC Cape Strait CG-95308

"MSW Crew-mate T. Garth Connelly shares this conversion build of the USCG 95 Foot Cape Class Cutter, Cape Strait (CG-95308), in this "On Display" feature!"

The Cape Strait

Using The LINDBERG 1:80 Scale Kit To Make A 1960s era USCG 95 Foot Cape Class Cutter

This is the third model of the USCGC Cape Strait (CG-95308) that I have had built. The first, built by John Halloran (from the outset) was destined as a gift for Captain Ernst Cummings, USCG (Ret.), an old friend who was the Captain of USCGC Barque Eagle, back in the early 1980s when I spent a day aboard her one September to watch a race in the 1983 America’s Cup off of Newport, Rhode Island. He was, for a time, Director of Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts.

The second was built by my Uncle, Al Mayce, and was given to my brother-in-law, who was in the Coast Guard.

However, this third one was built by Stan Pienkowski. This one will remain mine. It is also the most detailed and historically accurate of the three. For the most part, it was an out-of-the-box build except for the use of a 1:72 scale twin 20mm Oerlikon gun and .50-caliber machine guns from Nautilus Models and radar which Stan fashioned from some 1:96 PE screening. Stan also ‘detailed’ and painted the interior of the wheelhouse as well.

It was painted with White Ensign Models’ Colourcoats paints and the decals were created by me on my computer and printed out on my Kodak ESP-3 printer onto clear decal paper. The four lettered radio-callsign on the roof of the wheelhouse was the result of researching with the assistance of William Collette of the Coast Guard Heritage Museum in Barnstable, Massachusetts on Cape Cod.