Subject: SMML21/5/98VOL186 shipmodels@wr.com.au ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS INDEX 1: Living History 2: Materials about USS San Francisco 3: Yorktown Found! 4: Re: Hasegawa 1/72 F-18 Hornet Prototype Kit (Limited Edition) 5: Enterprise 6: Gneisenau 1945 7: Ballard's Midway site 8: Re: Warship Profiles 9: Titanic's lower colour 10: Re: Viking Kits 11: Re: MB/BWN Gambier Bay questions 12: Re: Revell's USS Olympia @ 1/240 13: Ever heard of CC LEE Models? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADERS & ANNOUNCEMENTS INDEX 1: Warship Update 2: Re: Shipbuilding Museum ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: "Ritchie_deutag, Colin" Subject: Living History I was talking to one of the engineers at work yesterday, (I work for a Oil industry engineering company), and the subject turned to ships. "Ah wait here he said" and disappeared into another office when I mentioned Hood, and others. He came back later with 4 notebooks, he'd found in an old desk drawer when working in John Browns many years before, "Have a look at these" he said ad gave me them to look at . These notebooks had been made up by the crews building and fitting out the engine rooms on various ships the yard worked on, and were for, Hood, Vanguard, Indefatigable and HMY Britannia! These books hold, in beautifully copper plate writing, details of the engines of these ships, schematics of boiler feed systems, details of the ancillary machinery fitted in the engine room, including pumps, condensers, and most of the valve gear. The Vanguard notebook also has the full trials plan included, with dates, and details of each days activity, marked as Secret!. The Britannia book has copies of the trial procedures to be folloed pasted in, and checklists of the activities to be done during each phase of the testing process. As I said its like holding a piece history in your hands, especially the Hood one, with its details of propeller shafts, engine designs etc. I'm not sure low long I have them for, but if anyone wants some pages copied out of them, let me know, what I can't duplicate is the smell. Colin Ritchie PS Vanguard 140,000 SHP at 230 RPM....., 152,000 @ 235RPM ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: Damian Pliszka Subject: Materials about USS San Francisco Hello. Can anyone help me to find details drawings, photos (close ups, general views)? I'm building competition model of this beauty ship (in 1944 version). Greetings Damian Pliszka ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From: "Percy, John" Subject: Yorktown Found! Was browsing the web, and found this web page: Apparently, someone from national geographic has found the sunken remains of the USS Yorktown of WW2 Fame! Check it out! http://www.nationalgeographic.com/society/ngo/events/releases/pr980519.html John Percy Software Engineer II ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) From: SHIP MDLR Subject: Re: Hasegawa 1/72 F-18 Hornet Prototype Kit (Limited Edition) >> I have a limited edition 1/72 Hasegawa kit (kit number E-18) of the F-18 Hornet prototype aircraft as configured during initial flight testing at the Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River. The kit dates I believe to the very early eighties, and comes with decals for birds numbers 1-3, which were finished in gloss white, with gold and blue trim. The bags have been opened, and about half a dozen parts have been neatly trimmed from their sprues, but the kit is complete, with all parts, instructions and decals. Would anyone have any idea how much I could reasonably ask for this kit, as I'm interested in selling it. << Call or write John Burns at Kit Collectors Clearinghouse. With the purchase price of his newsletter a free ad goes along with it. He also publishes his manual stating the worth of almost every kit ever made. He advertises in The IPMS(USA) Journal and FSM. Rusty White Flagship Models ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) From: BEN8800 Subject: Enterprise Can someone give me some suggestions for the Grey and under body red for the Enterprise? Please relate it to Floquil colors. Ben ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) From: "Stanley Stephen S. Suarez" Subject: Gneisenau 1945 I recall that sometime during WW-II the German battlecruiser Gneisenau was being refitted with 15" guns after being severely damaged in an air attack. We all know of course that the project was later scrapped due in part with Hitler's disillusionment with the Kriegsmarine and a change in priorities due to the setbacks in the land war as well. I had always wondered how the Gneisenau would have looked like if she had completed her refitting. Has anybody ever attempted this project? Aside from the change in the main guns, would there be any other changes required? I was thinking of starting on a Tamiya Scharnhorst in 1/700 and taking the main guns from the Matchbox 1/700 Bismarck. Any other suggestions on how I should go about this interesting project? Links to pictures and drawings would be most welcome. TIA Stanley ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) From: Torgeson Roger A Subject: Ballard's Midway site Just a heads up. If you haven't checked out Dr. Ballards Midway site on Warship home page you got to take a look at it. He found the USS Yorktown on the 19th. Read the dispatches, its good stuff. Hope he finds the four Japanese carriers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9) From: Pacific Front Hobbies Subject: Re: Warship Profiles The last of this softbound series was on DeRuyter...No. 40. No titles were ever released after this, to the best of my knowledge. There were 3 hardbound compilations, and a special book on HMS Belfast. Someone has said there a 4th compilation, but I have never seen it. Bill Gruner Pacific Front Hobbies http://www.pacificfront.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10) From: Tony Edwards Subject: Titanic's lower colour Hi all, I just recieved my Minicraft Titanic, after a six month wait at my local store, I eventually bit the bullet and bought it overseas from Northcoast (VERY good service, and the GMM detail sets are the cheapest I've seen... some parts of the order were up to 25% off the LIST price !), and haven't a clue what to use for her lower hull colour. I saw on the Titanic Scale Model page that the movie's modellers painted her with "Rustoleum Red Brown Primer"... I've checked my local hardware stores (Mitre 10, Bunnings and even WA Salvage), but it appears that Rustoleum must be a US (or other county's) brand... does anyone have any suggestions as to where I could find this spray, or something that would roughly equal it? Tamiya's "Hull Red" doesn't seem quite right somehow... Also, according to the above article, they used Floquil's "Reefer White", does anyone know if this white is close, or would I be better off with a different one ? (It seems very bright). Cya Tones. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11) From: SantMin Subject: Re: Viking Kits A few days ago someone on this list was complaining about parts support from Viking Models, I think it had to do with their Texas model. I bought their ALVIN deep sea submergable and it was missing a few parts. I noticed that there was an email address so I used that means to let them know. Within one day I had a very nice email reply and in three days I had the missing parts. That's hard to beat !! Bob Santos Harrisburg, PA USA ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12) From: Candy Forster & Rob Robinson Subject: Re: MB/BWN Gambier Bay questions I have the kit (barely opened, but eventually...). It comes with 8 FM-2 Wildcat fighters & 8 TBF Avengers. It's constructed of typical beige resin, with a two-piece hull split at the waterline. The detail looks quite fine. Other parts are white metal or photo-etched (PE) brass - the PE includes aircraft landing gear & props (the FM-2 landing gear looks particularly detailed for 1/350!). All railings, ladders, arresting gear & radars are PE. Instructions are a bit skimpy - I secured copies of Al Ross's Anatomy of the Ship - U.S.S. Gambier Bay & a set of drawings from the Floating Drydock. The instructions have some grey-scaled diagrams that aren't much use - they're too hard to see. If anybody has more questions about the kit, feel free to contact me at: mailto:robster1@ix.netcom.com Rob Robinson Skillman, NJ U.S.A. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13) From: RCClem Subject: Re: Revell's USS Olympia @ 1/240 I have built this kit, with some minor modifications, as she appeared in WWI. The most apparent changes I had to make were; *The removal of the twin 8" turrets and their replacement with single 5" Rapid Fire Guns on platforms. *The midship 5" guns on the main deck were removed. *The 6 pounders in the berth deck sponsons were removed. *I added a radio shack per some photos I had. *Also she was painted gray. i'm sure it was the correct shade but on the model it looks way too dark. *Except for the midship 5" guns and the radio shack, all of the above have been replaced with real items or facsimiles. At my model club meeting, a guy had an extra copy of the kit that he tried to sell for $10. No takers. He sold it to a 12 year old kid for $4. I could have bought it but our club needs more ship builders. Mine is on display at a local hobby shop (my first!). When I visited the Olympia last year, she REALLY needed a paint job. I took about 8 rolls of film for my scrap book. How does she look now? Its a fun kit in a great scale. I wish Revell had re-released it for the centennial. Good luck in your search. Roger Clemens Hinsdale, Illinois ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From : Greg Lee (Listmaster - SMML) Subject : Ever heard of CC LEE models? I just came home from the local hobby store this evening with a 1/400 USS Enterprise in Domed Island configuration ($45 :-)))) My first thought was "The old Revell Mold", but after cracking open the box, I was VERY pleasantly surprised. Its quiet nicely detailed, much better than the old Revell offering. The box art/styling is very similar to something from the ARII factory, but it is made by "CC LEE", any body ever hear of this organisation? The aircraft are a lot nicer (Almost to the quality of Tamiya's 1/350's), The decalsheet looks a bit "bin-worthy" but I love the island, the radar's on the dome are moulded in, not decalised, and for $45, you can't go wrong! It has a motor and all R/C workings which will probly also make there way to the bin, but with all of that removed, there is a beautiful opportunity for a hangar bay. And if my memory serves me correctly, there's a GMM 1/400 railing kit available isnt there? Greg (Listmaster - SMML) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADERS & ANNOUNCEMENTS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: "Rob Mackie" Subject: Warship Update This week's Warship (http://warship.simplenet.com) update includes the following items: Alberto Rada's photo tour of HMS Belfast Ten new models in the 1250 scale photo gallery Review of Classic Warship's Warship Pictorial #2 USS Minneapolis Review of Regia Marina 1/700 Italian Light Cruiser Attilio Regolo David Fraser's buildup and review of Fujimi's 1/700 IJN Destroyer Escort Sakura Rob Mackie Warship http://warship.simplenet.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: CA139JOHNF Subject: Re: Shipbuilding Museum David Krakow wrote- >> perhaps you could tell us a bit about your museum, and what you do there. It sounds interesting! << I am sure there are some others out there who wonder what or who we are. The USS Salem Model Dept. was originally originally part of the U.S. Naval and Shipbuilding Museum. It was very difficult for us to pursue our goals of a first class model ship exhibition program because everything had to be done with the approval of the museum administration. The Salem already has a formal Volunteer Association, so we created the Model Dept. as a division of the the Association which keeps it separate but still in the Museum. This allows us to do all our own fund raising and all we have to do is apply to the Museum Administration for space allocation aboard the ship. Which we have successfully done. We prepared a large berthing space for exhibits and we are now constructing a workshop adjacent to it. My function is to promote the sale of the the USS Salem model which is due out this summer and acquire models for the exhibit and prepare them for display. Proceeds from the Salem Model sale will go directly to the restoration and preservation of the ship. A full description of the model sale is on the Museum website: http://www.uss-salem.org Our collection is growing slowly with the addition of models from ship model builders accross the country, either as donations or loans as well as several on loan from the US Navy. There is no set requirment on scale or subject but we encourage builders to build models of ships or classes that were constructed at the Fore River Shipyard, Quincy MA, where the Salem was built and where she resides today. I hope that I have sparked some interest with the SMML readers to perhaps include us in your travel plans this summer. I would be pleased to answer any questions, off list, that anyone may have just send an e-mail. Best Regards to all. John Frohock (ca139johnf@aol.com) Curator/Model Collection USNSM ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of Volume