Starting the Archive — Grimsby Orbital Works

This is the beginning.

I’ve been meaning to do this for a while — actually write things down, in one place, in some kind of order. The GOW research has been accumulating in notebooks and data pads and scattered files for longer than I’d care to admit, and the model building has been happening on my workbench whether I document it or not. Putting the two together on a site seemed obvious, in retrospect.

What This Site Is

An enthusiast’s archive. I’m documenting GOW — its history, its ships, its people, its culture — as best I can from the admittedly patchy records available to anyone who isn’t on the company payroll. I’m also building scale models of their ships, because apparently reading about them wasn’t enough.

Each ship I build will get an entry here: the vessel’s story, its specifications, and a log of the build process. The story comes from the archives and from conversations with people who were there. The build log comes from my workbench, mistakes and all.

What Comes Next

The first ship is on the workbench now. The Second Chance — a Longshoreman-class vessel that GOW refitted at Yard 7. It’s a good place to start: the hull shape is forgiving, the story is interesting, and the aesthetic allows for the kind of weathering that hides beginner mistakes.