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This is the original USS Missouri. The site of surrender of the Japanese Empire in 1945, which ended the Second World War.
Inspired by the warship, a Lego-mad fisherman spent three years of his life building a gigantic model of the US ship. However, he was very disappointed he was beaten by inches by another American rival.
Jim McDonough from Redford, built a 24-feet scale model of the 890-feet USS Missouri using thousands of toy bricks. He started this idea three years ago in his garage because according to his research, it was going to be the biggest Lego ship on the planet.
In his garage, Jim placed his 1:40 scale model of the warship beside the ill-fated USS Arizona, which sunk at the Pearl Harbour, and the Japanese carrier filled with lines of Zero fighter planes.
In the photo above, Jim is seen along with his granddaughter Leigha and the USS Missouri model. He takes pride on himself as he didn’t use glue to put everything together, because he believed it was some form of cheating.
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Before he even started making the model, he broke down some of his first models to save space and bricks. But, it seems that he is already running out of space in his garage because his family begged him to keep the models.
“I think the biggest in the world is a few inches longer, but when I started building mine three years ago, it was probably the biggest,” he said. “I don’t use glue and everything can be taken apart. If you go to Legoland, it’s all glued together, which to me is cheating because anyone can glue stuff together”.
Currently, he is working on another project – the carrier ship USS Saratoga. His 51-year-old partner Mandy said that the family has supported his passion along the way.
Using thousands of toy bricks, Jim McDonough built a 24-feet model of the 890-feet warship USS Missouri. He placed it in his garage in Redford, near Arbroath in Angus, Scotland.
He has also built other military transport ships. As seen in the photos, the garage of the 51-year-old, is crammed with aircraft carriers, fishing vessels, battleships, planes, and landing craft.
Jim said that his garage is now running out of space and that they needed a much bigger house and garage to keep everything.
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At the end of the day, he was defeated by another American Lego-enthusiast, Dan Siskind of Minneapolis, whose work stretches 25.5-feet long.
Jim recalled, “When Lego was invented, I was about four or five and have kept buying since then. But, we’re running out of space and needed a bigger house and bigger garage to house it all”.
“The last thing you want to do is build that, take a picture and break them down again,” he added.
The ship below is a replica of the 45,000-ton Iowa class battleship, built by the New York Navy Yard for several months.
To build this ship called “Mo”, Jim spent a couple of months. And, he is hoping it will be completed within this month.
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When you look at it on the inside, Jim believes, “it’s the longest ship of any kind built out of Lego in the world”. But still, he admits he could be wrong.
Accompanied with plans, the Lego ship is still under construction. Although there are still lots of work to be done, it now has a measure of 25.5-feet.
To build his version of the USS Missouri, Jim said that he had been working at “30-hour marathon sessions”. The self-taught fisherman has spent several years, drawing subjects based on the requests of neighbors and friends. He explained, “I’ve got too many hobbies and not enough time to do them all”.
Because they were impressed by the details and the size of his creation, his version of the ship was displayed in the USS Missouri memorial museum in Hawaii. Jim told the American TV show, Beyond the Brick, “As far as I know, it’s the longest ship of any kind built out of Lego in the world. I could be wrong, someone correct me if I am. It’s built in ten different sections, 30 inches long each. It’s built to travel – this is a museum piece”.
Watch his story below:
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