Subject: SMML7/6/98VOL203 shipmodels@wr.com.au ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS INDEX 1: Re: Ship painting 2: Re: SMML6/6/98Vol202 3: Re: Smuggling Even More Kits Into Your Already Vast Inventory... 4: White Ensign Models 5: Heller KGV (and other kits) 6: Re: Nichimo Kits 7: Re: list members 8: Re: list members 9: USS.Hornet 10: Re: Smuggling kits in without the little woman knowing: 11: 1:72 Scale Matchbox Flower class Corvette 12: RE: Nichimo kits 13: Re: Smuggling even more kits into your already vast inventory of unbuilt kits without the little woman(love of your life etc) suspecting any sinful wrongdoing ! ! ! 14: Re: Bismarck & Tirpitz Details ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: Paolo Pizzi Subject: Re: Ship painting Douglas Bauer wrote: >> I'm in the latter stages of my Revell Mission Capistrano conversion..almost ready to go to the paint shop. There's a complete re-work of the main deck detail,additional detail work, all presenting a painting challenge...I want to paint it in WW2 colors (haze gray vertical, deck gray horizontal surfaces), but the complexity of the job has me perplexed. If I paint the vertical surfaces first, can I brush the horizontals, or will I have a problem with brush marks, uneven coverage, etc.? I guess my question is: what method would give me the best results? Is there a paint which leaves few if any brush marks? Any help anyone can give me on this will be greatly appreciated. Thanks. << Airbrush the lighter color (i.e. the vertical surfaces) first. Then you have two choices, the first one achieves much better results but it requires some practice: mask the superstructure using tape and a liquid mask for the small bits on the deck and airbrush the deck color. The pull out the tape and peel off the liquid mask and retouch. Practice on junk hulls if you've never done that. The second option is to handbrush the horizontal surfaces. In this case I strongly advise you to use Polly Scale which is by far the paint that handbrushes best and leaves less brush marks. It's more forgiving but it's not magic: you'll still have to do a nice handbrushing job to get a good finish. Paolo Pizzi http://navismagazine.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: DKrakow105@aol.com Subject: Re: Bismarck & Tirpitz Details >> As I am planning to build Tamiya 1/350 Bismarck and Tirpitz , I am looking for every available detail ever published. << Zeljko I am likewise building a detailed1:350 Bismarck. An extraordinary set of plans in 1:100 scale (certain details in 1:50) recently appeared on the market here in Germany. The are printed on seven huge sheets, are extremely detailed and, apparently, very accurate. The price is steep, DM 286, about $160 bucks, but you get a truly MASSIVE amount of information. You can order a set from: Harhaus Schiffsmodellbau Postfach 120308 42873 Remscheid Tel 02191 50665 Fax 50662 As for books, there are several with decent photo coverage. I recommend "Schlachtschifff Bismarck, eine Technikgeschichtliche Dokumentation" by Breyer and Koop, its packed with detail photos and cheap, too, at DM 20. You can get a copy from: Neckar Verlag Postfach 1820 78008 Villingen-Schwenningen Tel 077 21 89 87 0 Fax 077 21 89 87 50 This book may also be available in English in the US, but I am not certain. Ballard's book "Discovery of the Bismarck" also has quite a few good photos in it. (Just be careful with the overhead and side views, the artist has made a few errors.) You can probably get a copy at a local bookstore. It's been published in German, too! By all means, get Gold Medal's 1:350 etched set for the Bismarck. It is double etched, very comprehensive and the parts fit well. The instruction sheet will show you where to add the portholes on the deckhouses, etc. If I may add, I prefer the Tamiya kit, but I opted for the Academy version. Its cheaper and basically identical, only the molding is just not as crisp. Since I am rebuilding all the spintershields and fine details, it wasn't worth the extra $20. The twin 3.7mm AA guns in both kits are miserable. Be careful about the decks. The big problem with both kits is the three piece main deck-- the seams are very hard to hide without obliterating the plank lines. Also watch the upper decks, they are molded to appear as steel decks, when in fact, the majority of them were planked. There should be minor detail differences in the turrets, too. Check the references. As for painting, the KM used a light-medium grey. Funnel top of the Bismarck was a dull metallic silver. The hulls of KM ships were just slightly darker than the superstructure, a tradition from the Kaiser's navy. You can't always spot the difference in the photos, but if you look at enough of them, you see it's there. Hull under the waterline was a brown-red, more brown than red. Ships boats under the waterline were black... (I think!) Last, there is some notion going around that the Bismarck's turret tops were, at some point, painted Yellow or Red.... Has anyone got any solid reference material to back that up??? I believe the tops were grey. David Krakow Frankfurt, Germany ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From: John Snyder Subject: Re: Smuggling Even More Kits Into Your Already Vast Inventory... Bill Gruner, Caroline and Dave, et al, are you taking note of this? Think camouflage.... John ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) From: Graham Holmes Subject: White Ensign Models During a recent visit to the UK I had the good fortune to be visiting Herefordshire (no longer H & W), and was able to stop in and visit WEM. Finding them was in itself quite an adventure, as the last part of the directions describe: "go down the paved road till it becomes a dirt track, pass the parked green Land Rover, turn right at the yellow trailer, and we're the brick cottage on the right". The last part was the easiest, because it was the only house in the valley. Alas I only had a short time to visit, but Caroline gave me a whirlwind tour of the store/house, and managed to cram a tremendous amount in, in her renowned lightning fast speech. The amount of stuff there was amazing, boxes of hulls, PE parts, books, plans, complete kits, masters etc were stacked in every available nook and cranny. How they keep track is a mystery, but Caroline knew what almost every box was, without opening it(most of them anyway). I am sure most of you are aware of WEMs kits, so I won't detail everything I saw, but the volume of them here was out of this world. I really was a kid in a candy store. Included in all this, new to me was, the Mary Rose (a true tiny beauty), reworked kits of the Dido, Cossack, and Penelope (good enough to tempt me to buy them again), the resin range of parts (a great idea, at last a British version of the Skywave sets, only better), a weighty hulk of resin that is the hull of the Invincible (quite a molding, really capturing the slab look of the original) and lots of others that I can't now remember. The best though was saved for last. The master for the Warspite is (lost for words). As I handled it, I expected the doors to open and sailors to emerge. The in-scale planking is truly in scale. It was so delicate I was very nervous about handling it, a work of immense skill. I had a wonderful time there, and it was great to see a whole house that looks like my modelling room. Kits everywhere, and few of them built. Dave and Caroline truly live their passion. Caroline made me feel very welcome, for which I am very grateful. If any of you have a chance to visit the wilds of the Welsh Marches, make sure you visit WEM. It will be a visit to remember. Disclaimer: I have no financial involvment in WEM, other than I buy their kits, and I want them and all other manufacturers to stay in business. Ship modellers have never had it so good. BTW, as I had my wife patiently waiting for me, and with reference to the "How to get kits in the House" thread, I was able to get some 'free' rejects to take back home. Finally, Greg, Congrats on the 200, keep it coming. Graham Holmes ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) From: John Clements Subject: Heller KGV (and other kits) I have been reading the recent messages about Heller and the enquiry about their KGV kits all together today as my PC was down for several weeks and I am now catching up on SMML. Firstly the KGV, which I bought recently. John might be disappointed if he compares the model to a good plan, or to someone else's Tamiya KGV, as there are some peculiarities. Certainly the overall shape is good - Heller is excellent at capturing the overall feel of a ship - but it is lacking in detail which ought to be present in this scale. Scuttles, hatches and doors are represented by very light outlines and need driling out or PE. Particularly noticeable is the lack of bridge windows which Tamiya have on their 1/700 version. The real oddity is that the AA directors are not the Mark IV HACS as carried throughout the ship's life, but the Mark V version fitted to the last three ships of the class. These are rather prominent and would need a scratchbuilt replacement to disguise. Also odd is that the box top art shows the correct details for KGV in 1944/45, but there are no parts to reflect the modifications at that time. The suggested positioning of the 20mm guns, and lack of other late-fitted AA armament, also does not match KGV at any time. Careful study of the plan on page 295 of Raven & Roberts British Battleships seems to show that the best fit would be with one of the later ships such as Duke of York in the mid war period but you would need good references. All this does not mean that I will throw it in the bin. It needs a lot of detailing, careful research and lots of photo-etch, but on the other hand it is cheap and a challenge can be as rewarding as a perfect kit which just falls together. As far as Heller kits generally are concerned, I think the previous sentence applies to most. They give a good overall impression of the ship with which you can create something quite spectacular with some extra effort. The Narvik class destroyer I thought particularly good and it includes alternative parts for different versions (although these are not referred to in the instruction sheet) - as does the KGV - choice of UP projectors or pom-poms for the turrets. I just wish they would produce some new models! Lastly just to say that I have been a subscriber for about three months and have enjoyed the correspondence enormously - keep going. John Clements ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) From: "Rick Heinbaugh" Subject: Re: Nichimo Kits The Nichimo ship kits, back in the early '70s, ranged from great to junk. The 30cm line were the last ships Nichimo produced (I think) and were all 30cm (11 3/4") in length. In other words, no common scale. All the 30cm ships I saw were battleships and CVs and were the worst of the junk from Nichimo. I was excited that the Prince of Wales kit was close to 1/700 or 1/600 (don't remember which) and I wasted my $8.00 on it. No detail, little accuracy, not worth building then and certainly not now. However... They made great 1/200 and 1/500 ships. I don't remember if any of these were full-hull. The 1/200 included the famous Yamato kit and some JMSDF destroyer types (Amatsukaze DDG, Takatsuki DDG and sisters and Minegumo DD and one-stack and two-stack near sisters) and WWII DDs: Akatsuki class and an early war class). These ships were tremendous values for the early '70s. Nowadays, technology has improved and I still like the kits. In 1/500, the ships looked as if they had been engineered by two different designers, one more delicate and the other cruder. The 1/500 kits included Yamato class, Ise class (both with flight deck modification - you had to buy two kits and a ton of sheet plastic to backdate them to the six-turret configuration) and Nagato class BBs (Nagato class by the cruder guy), Atago and Myoko class CAs (two of the Atagos were delicate; two heavier - these might have been Chokai & Atago), and very nice carriers: Akagi, Hiryu, Shokaku & Zuikaku. The Myokos and the carriers were the last done and I still think they are very nice kits. The ones by the heavier designer needed a lot more work in the form of topside detail, portholes on the hull and smoothing the join around the hulls' bulges and upper and lower hull join. Dennis Moore did a very nice building article on one of the Myokos several years ago in a magazine I don't have at hand - Ships in Scale? Ship Modeler? A number of these old Nichimo kits are still available from shops and are well worth the price. I think the kit you saw may have been Atago vice Agano; I'm pretty certain that Agano has only been released (in plastic) in 1/700 (Tamiya?) and some smaller 1/1000 type kits. Sorry this was so long; the 1/500 kits were my favorites for a long time. Rick ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) From: SantMin@aol.com Subject: Re: list members Greg, I see other comments about the wide ranging membership on this list. It would be interesting to see a listing of who is where in the world. Any chance of that? Cheers, Bob Santos Harrisburg, PA USA ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) From : Greg Lee (Listmaster - SMML) Subject : Re : List Members Hey Bob, Sure, that would be fun! O.k. so everybody who is interested in taking part in this survey (by no means compulsery), send me a mail with *SURVEY* in the subject line, and simply state in the message body, your name, e-mail address, and your geographic location, and I will compile it all into an addendum for, lets say Wednesday nights SMML. May'be we could even state what ships/yards/museums are close by to us, or what our fav modelling subjects are, so we can all find out who else has similar interests to our own? Like a "Lets get to know each other" sort of thing - Great Idea! Greg (Listmaster - SMML) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9) From: "Björn Bäcklund" Subject: USS.Hornet Hello. I´m converting the Hasegawa Yorktown II in to CV-12 USS.Hornet, (I got inspired by an article in Fine Scale Modeler). But after reading some remarks on the Essex kit, (one complaint is that the hangar bay doors being wrong) I went through the few references I´ve got on the Essex class. I could see that the hangar doors didn´t match in the case of Essex, but I dont´t have any clear pictures on the Hornet´s hangar doors. Does anyone know whether I have to convert the kit or if it´s right in that respect. Björn, Sweden ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10) From: b29@ix.netcom.com Subject: Re: Smuggling kits in without the little woman knowing: I've been a divorce lawyer for over 21 years so I know something about marriage. Here's my advice: 1. Never, never try to hide your purchases. Marriages can't survive without honesty and communication. 2. Don't be ashamed of your purchases. Assuming that you work hard and earn a decent living and your family isn't doing without necessities, you're entitled to a diversion. But if your spending is depressing the family standard of living, then you need counseling or a second job. 3. Tell your spouse that you need a hobby to maintain your sanity. She has a choice of which diversions she'd like you to engage in: a. You can collect and build "toy" ships etc. b. You can spend your nights and money down with the guys at the local bar. c. You can start a collection of pornographic material. d. You can acquire a mistress. If you have a healthy marriage, she'll tell you that she's happy that you are building your "toys". If she selects b. or d., you'd better consult a lawyer. If she selects c, you're either spending too much time on your "toys" or you'd better buy some Viagra. If you're already engaged in more than one of the above, you're pushing your luck. Paul Jacobs 1200/1250 Editor http://warship.simplenet.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11) From: "Johnston" Subject: 1:72 Scale Matchbox Flower class Corvette Can anyone advise if these models are still available and if so where. Many thanks. Raynor Johnston. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12) From: Ives100@aol.com Subject: Re: Nichimo kits I have one of the Nichimo Type IX-B U-boat kits, and it is very, very good. Probably the best styrnene U-Boat kit available, with lots of detail and very good accuracy. Only major modification is to plug the centerline hole that they provide for those who want to motorize the kit. Tom Dougherty ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Shane & Lorna Jenkins Subject: Re: Smuggling even more kits into your already vast inventory of unbuilt kits without the little woman(love of your life etc) suspecting any sinful wrongdoing ! ! ! Hi all, The solution is easy!! Just marry a lovely woman who just also happens to be a modeller. Can't happen? Well, think again. I just happened to marry such a paragon. But the main problem is she models WW1 aircraft so everytime I buy a kit or reference she says she needs the latest Windsock (A$40 approx) or the latest book on Austro-Hungarian aircraft or the latest Eduard kit. And Caroline you wonder why I can't afford any of the great resin kits that you have on offer. Paragon speaking now: failing Shane's wonderful solution. After all we are not all psychotic :-) The other option is to be honest about the price (shock,gasp,horror) and then let her spend the same amount of money at her favourite store. Have you all had cardiac arrest yet? This has the advantage of guilt free shopping for both of you and if she is really supportive you will finally be able to buy WEM's 1/350th resin HMS Hood with all the added reference material needed. After all for that money a wife with real shopping skills could actually come home with more than a handbag or a pair of shoes. On the other hand if this option means you require extra oxygen as you are hyperventilating then the amount of scratchbuilt models will improve no end (all apologies to WEM). Then all you have to worry about is that people will start to talk about correlations between scratchbuilding and goldfishes bums. All the best Shane and Lorna(shopping is necessary Retail Therapy) Jenkins ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: RVanda1839@aol.com Subject: Re: Bismarck & Tirpitz Details Just saw in the latest issue of USNI Proceedings an ad for a book on the Bismarck and Tirpitz. Title is: Battleships of the Bismarck Class. By Bernard Koop and Klaus-Peter Schmolke. 160 pages, 185 photos, 20 diagrams, 7 Maps. Catalog number is #1-0495 and lists for $39.95 (members $31.96). Rich ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of Volume