Occident/Sirius and more

[David S Miller]

Hi everyone. I've been lurking, wishing and drooling for many months
now and can no longer restrain my comments.

First, Thanks Dave (in San Diego - a neighbor!) for that wonderful
link to the "engineers" site. All you enthusiasts in "the
homeland ... across the globe" have done a magnificent job
of "hobbying" with steam! We have one group in the Los Angeles area
which is doing this kind of work with locomotives, and I haven't
visited them in too many years. That complete paddle system is truly
a museum piece. (covet, covet...)

For what it's worth: I built that Heller "Occident" in the early 80s
and gave it to an attorney-friend in appreciation for some film
contract work he did for me. I have looked for another copy of it
ever since. It was like seeing an old friend when it popped up here.
My pressing was a very precise and clean copy of the
Heller "Occident" and with my Humbrol paints it made a very beautiful
display.

Dave Miller
Southern California

[Paulrjordan]

woohoo, Dave...you emerged at last...good to hear from you again
(BTW, folks, Dave is a GE fan..umm that's "Great Eastern"..not
General Electric)!


> For what it's worth: I built that Heller "Occident" <SNIP>

> My pressing was a very precise and clean copy of the
> Heller "Occident" and with my Humbrol paints it made a very
> beautiful display.

This, according to Jamie also, is a very pretty (and very rare)little
styrene kit and he's has done lots of valuable work tracking
the "mystery" down as to it's prototype origin. The last
Heller "Occident" came up in April on Ebay and sold for US$81.00 and
the last last Minicraft "Oriental Star" (almost the same model)came
up last October and sold for US$41.00. It's not the m,ost expensive
styrene paddler kit around but stuill one of the most difficult to
find. Actually the Revell "Great Eastern" (original multi colored
version)is still way up there in price.

[David S Miller]

Hi Paul and Group ... Funny you should mention the Revell "Great
Eastern" (original multi colored version). I still have a pristine
copy of that as well as my built copy. I'm not very proud of the
built copy as I completed it MANY YEARS AGO. It's still in good
contition and I may choose to restore/rebuild that one rather than
build the new one. I'll try to get some pictures of both for you all.

Thanks again for all the great exchanges and deep knowledge. I'm
really enjoying the hobby so much more knowing that there are
other "crazy's" just like me out there!
TTFN
Dave

[woodburner]

Well, then, Dave's all right with us, no doubt about it. Anyone who likes the GE cant be at all bad.

By the way, I recently saw an 1860s painting showing passengers on the GE's decks in a book entitled "Lost Liners." A nice atmospheric scene with the ship's masts and funnels towering above the ladies and gentlemen promonading aft of the paddleboxes. The obvious date would be about 1859-63, but I'm informed by a knowlagable expert that the ladies dresses are of about 1865-67, when the GE was in cable service (I think). Apparently ladies' fashion was both socially important and ever changing; high style clothing can be dated to within three years for ladies, five to eight for gentlemen in the Victorian era. I'll trust the source, who once dated a nude statue to 1823 by the ashionable position of the breasts, and was told by an astonished curator that it was sculpted in 1822.

Marble mammiaries aside, does anyone know about his painting and its history?

Jim