Ron, I will not go into too much detail on Jim. He is retired, in his early 70's, and has building models since before I met him about 12 years ago. He doesn't bother with computers too much but enjoys his Canon digital cameras.

The story of building the model of the "Whaleback" seems to stem from where is lived many years ago up in the great lakes area of the U.S.

Jim is a laid-back person and deeply interested in building his models. Most of them are 1/48 scale, but in recent years he took a turn and started going after some complicated kits, some out of production for many years, like Sterling kits he found on Ebay. Other recent builds include some WWII battleships, plastic models that are motorized for RC.

One unique thing about Jim is all (I believe) of his models involve gear reduction between the motor(s) and shaft(s). He hand makes small parts where many people will avoid the small details. Here is a video of one of his other models, the City Of Buffalo:

There are a lot of photos of his work on our website... http://ssmbc-fl.org

Lew

In Polish magazine "Modelarstwo Okretowe", there is a plan available for such a whaleback design (http://www.modelarstwookretowe.pl/index.php?p=19&s=numer_opis&id_n=38 ).
Maybe it could be of help...

Zdenek