What: I build wooden model ships. Who: Damian Valentine, 81, of Chandler, is a retired service manager and electronics business owner from Illinois. How the collection began: I started building them ...

James Drake of McMurray holds his latest project, a model of the sailing ship Berlin. A tool and die maker by trade, he applies the precision he used in his work to the models he builds in his ...

Jayne Smith's grandson, Preston, is 5 years old and seeing the Great Lakes and lake freighters for the first time. He's from Mesa, Arizona, and there's not much water there. "With the big ships, his ...