In 2001, Wayne Kusy's toothpick replica of the Queen Mary was exhibited at WINTER WONDERFEST at Chicago's Navy Pier. A 2 year work- in-progress, the ship is 25 feet long and made of 540,000 toothpicks and 11 gallons of wood glue -- so far. It is built in 6 sections and weighs approximately 200 pounds. With every show, something new is added. In approximately a year, Wayne estimates it will be complete.   

Because of the astounding success of the movie, many mistaken Wayne Kusy's model of the Lusitania for the Titanic. Both ships had four funnels (smokestacks) and they had the typical dreadnaught shape with flat prow common in early 20th century steamships. Though the real Lusitania did not break in half as did the Titanic, Wayne's model is built to separate to get in and out of his apartment. Lusitania was the ship sunk by a German torpedo at the onset of World War I in 1915. Three years after the sinking of the Titanic.

The Lusitania was completed in 1994 after two and a half years of tedious work. Wayne's technique of bending and breaking and cutting toothpicks into the form of a ship had reached another plateau. Not only did the Lusitania have portholes and stairs, it had copper porthole covers and stairwells. Not only did it have well decks and lifeboats, it also had open weather decks and lifeboat oars and seating. The skeleton frame infrastructure, which supports the integrity of the ship was reinforced with over 5 gallons of wood glue.

The Lusitania is built in two sections. Both pieces can store easily by standing on end straight up toward the ceiling. Joining these two sections is a toothpick interlocking deadbolt system. This is a system of two sets of toothpicks shafts. Each shaft is connected to each section of the ship. When the sections are closed to make the ship whole, the adjoining shafts meet at a common endpoint. A household curtain rod acts as the deadbolt to fasten the pieces and tighten them in place. So tight is it, that one has a hard time seeing the seam.

Lusitania is the ship that brought Wayne Kusy world attemtion for his amazing craft/artwork. Covered by CNN and the Chicago Tribune, he had made his beginnings as an outsider artist. Lusitania has been pictures in over 100 publications around the world. If you would like to see the ship, it's docked at Baltimore's AMERICAN VISIONARY ART MUSEUM.

It only took 3 months to construct.   The sails are made of Bounty paper towels. The decals are hand drawn.  Finished with rigging and furled sails.

The mini Cutty is 4 feet long at 12,000 toothpicks. It is completed, painted and fully rigged with furled sails. The mini Cutty is primarily a demonstration model.   

The Titanic was Wayne Kusy's first replica of an actual vessel. Up until this point, all of his previous works were products of his imagination inspired by vessels of sail of the 18th and 19th century. The Titanic would be the first ship that would re-invent Wayne's miniature engineering skills. It would be three times longer and over twenty times larger in cubic size than anything else he built before. Not only did he have to build a hull, but a fortress like superstructure. Not to mention hundreds of details from the smokestacks to the portholes. This project would take him over a year and a half to build.

Inspired by a 1982 attempt to locate the wreck of the Titanic, Wayne sought information from the local library to make his model as accurate as possible. This involved pouring through deck plans, copies of known blueprints, photos and a plastic model to make sure the job was done right. In order to shape the complex hull, Wayne first had to build an infrastructure or a skeleton, then clad it with toothpicks like bricks. The skeletal frame is built just like a real ship. He started out formulating a set of 20 vertical frames which would be spaced and connected into the form of a hull. The skeleton had to be strong enough to withstand over one hundred times it's own weight, if his ship were to last the test of time.