Narayan Maharana creates a warship model at his electronic repairing workshop. Picture by Gopal Krishna Reddy

Berhampur, Jan. 28: Show him a photograph of any warship and explain the mechanism of its various components and he can make a model of the ship. Meet Narayan Maharana, the 55-year-old mechanic, who with no formal training has prepared four such models and is working on another five for students of INS Chilika.

Narayan, who had been running a watch and electronics repair shop Maharana Electronics in the city for last 25 years, has switched over to making warship models from the last two months.

“I use various components of the mechanical manual camera, mechanical watch, VCR and VCP which are now outdated in these warship models,” said Narayan.

“My father Dayanidhi Maharana was an expert in repairing watch, sewing machine and almost all the machineries and even the harmonium. I learnt the techniques from my father ever since childhood,” said Narayan, who made a mechanical water clock during his school days.

“I made the water clock when I was a student of Class IX in Kabi Samrat Upendra Bhanja High School. Sixty drops of water per minute moved the wheel and made the watch function subsequently. It was exhibited at a science exhibition in those days,” said Narayan.

During 1960 his father Dayanidhi had made special arrangements in two wells with a swing to lift water. He had also made a betel-cutting machine during 1965-70, which he sold to a businessman of Puri later. His father had also made a statue of goddess Durga with movable head, eye and hand during Dusshera in 1960.

“One contractor has ordered nine applied science projects for INS Chilika. I have already completed four projects, including the gas turbine engine with a dummy engine to show how the components work,” said Narayan.

“At present, I am working with automatic fire-fighting system with fire alarm facility and water sprinkle arrangement, hosting mechanism of missiles with motorised movement of missile and loading in the gun and switch controlled firing, air treatment unit with dual motor to operate hot air and cool air when one side of the ship is made transparent to show red light for hot and green light for cool air,” he said.

The main raw material used by Narayan to build the model ships is PVC pipe of different sizes. “I cut the PVC pipe for the base of the ship model, heat it and mould it accordingly. The other components used are being derived from components of mechanical camera, VCR, VCP, remote controlled toys, hair drying machine and others,” the ship model maker said. “The total cost for every model excluding my labour is around Rs 3,000,” he said. However, Narayan is not satisfied with his job. “The return is low in comparison to the labour. It is the only reason for which I have not allowed my son Subhranshu to opt for the profession. My son has joined an engineering college at Burla this year,” he said.