(From a 2007 article)
Heim, a woodworker for since age 10, makes exact replicas of popular earth moving vehicles — a Peterbilt 379 pulling a 26-ft. Hill dump trailer, a Cat D8R and a Rogers 60 ton dropside goose neck trailer with air suspension, fully functional hydraulics, a Cat 345CL excavator and a radio-controlled Cat 980H wheel loader.
Heim grew up in Maine, and at the age of 10, began making astonishing truck models out of wood and cardboard, and he began building 10-ft. Chris-Craft Boats from a kit.
“My father was the road commissioner of Lovell, Maine, and, at that time, I was more interested in designing and building models than I was with scholastics. I was able to look at something in a brochure and then build it. We didn’t have cameras back then.”
“I was always fascinated with wood. I knew, at a very young age, that I would always be working with wood,” he said.
By age 20, Heim was married and building a career in boats — 20-ft. cruisers, hydroplanes, world cup boats. “My last boat was a 38-footer with a V-bottom and a WWII PT boat engine—a 2500 cubic inch supercharged V12 putting out 1350 horsepower.
His father bought a boat yard in the early 1950s and he began a boat-building business in his own yard — canoes, rowboats, canvas-covered boats. He went to the Newton Trade School and built a boat there some 51 years ago at age 18, and, added proudly, “No one’s done it since.”
Along with 40 years of boat building, Heim had a hand in constructing more than 450 new homes. Fred retired in 2005 as president of Oakwood Construction, a builder of custom homes.
On retiring from his long careers in boat and home building, Fred was not content to sit still. He built a large, two story shop on his property and outfitted it with everything needed for building just about anything in wood up to 30-feet. And build he did! Treating his hobby building with the same passion he had for commercial building, Fred went to work every day building whatever he wanted -- from half-sized, fully operational models of heavy construction equipment, to full sized boats.
https://www.craftsmanshipmuseum.com/Heim.htm
https://www.constructionequipmentguide.com/magnificent-obsession-fred-heims-half-size-universe-creates-big-buzz/9409
