Collection: Tom Lauria

Tom was born in Bronx, NY in 1952 and started building ship models when he was seven years at which point he was "hopelessly hooked." When he was in his early twenties, he met William Quincy, master model builder at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. Immediately - and for the next two hours - Mr. Quincy patiently answered all of Tom's questions on a host of modeling topics. This changed the way Tom thought about the purpose ship models could serve and the way to build them.

In 1994, Tom and his family moved to Cape Cod, where they live today. He is still accepting commissions and is an active member of the USS Model Shipwright Guild. Being a Guild member was another pivot point in Tom's life. "At any Guild meeting, you are surrounded by about a 1,000 years of ship modeling experience. If you have questions, chances are the answer is sitting next to you. Not a bad resource to have."