Subject: SMML09/08/98VOL266 Date: Sun, 9 Aug 1998 22:54:58 +1000 (EST) shipmodels@wr.com.au --------------------------------- Thanks for having SMML at your home, why not stop by our home at: http://warship.simplenet.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS INDEX 1: fletcher class, etc 2: Re: 1/200 Gato/Balao 3: Re: What ship is that? 4: Re: Best looking ship 5: New Mexico Photos 6: RE: Gato submarines 7: The Yamato dream 8: Re: Plastic Injection Kits 9: RE: Tamiya 1/700 Yamato 10: Re: Plastic Injection Kits 11: Re: New Tamiya Yamato 12: RE: Plastic Injection Ship Kits 13: Gunze-Sanyo 1/350 Lusitania 14: Re: What Ship is that? 15: Viking Models -- USS Texas 16: Shades of grey on a Type 36A (A paler shade of grey) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: "Al Evans" Subject: fletcher class, etc Advice needed: I have a Tamiya fletcher class which I would like to do as the USS Radford (DD 446)--former crewmember. The second front mount on the Radford is a hedgehog versus a convention 5". Also, the Radford is FRAM DASH destroyer. Questions: 1. Recommendations are building the hedgehog or aftermarket parts. 2. Are there other Fletcher kits besides Tamiya. 3. Looking for a 65' Revell/Monogram kit on the Radford. Ideas? 4. Recommendations on a compressor for a Badger II air brush suitable for hobby use. Al Evans Everett, Washington ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: Ronnie Hiatt Subject: Re: 1/200 Gato/Balao >> Don't know of any 1/200 Gatos or Balaos. But there are a couple in 1/192 coming out REAL soon. (Not from me!) << Now I am excited! How soon is "REAL soon?" Months? Weeks? TOMORROW? ;-) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From: Dave Carter Subject: Re: What ship is that? Hi Graham, It is HMS Howe... she was there in 1944.. In "British Soviet, Dutch and French BBs in WW2" by Garzke and Dulin, it is stated that both KGV and HMS Howe arrived in the Far East in 1944.. However, KGV didn't arrive until 15th December, and departed shortly after... ..And re Richelieu, she left Ceylon in September 1944, so it HAS to be Howe. Cheers Caroline "Shiphead" Carter/nWMo and WEMblie http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/avenue/xdt22/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) From: Hess1962@aol.com Subject: Re: Best looking ship My vote? HMS Rodney (or Nelson). These vessels LOOK the way a battleship is supposed to; in other words, if a little kid drew a picture of a BB, it would look like Rodney with all those massive guns forward and the elongated prow. Desirable kits? ANYTHING in 1:1200. The kit market, right now, is limited to Len Jordan's resin merchantmen/liners and (I guess) some European Revell models. I enjoy WORKING in the smaller scale, not just COLLECTING. Help! Dave Hess, Kalamazoo MI USA ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) From: Ed Grune Subject: New Mexico Photos The NavSource Photo site (http://www.navsource.org/Archive) has many photos of the major US combatants -- up to current days. They have 11 photos of the New Mexico -- pre-war, and in different wartime camoflage schemes. They claim that their pages for auxilliaries will be up at the end of August so bookmark them and check back. While I have the floor, let me change the topic to the injected ship models: The pre-war BBs, in their pre-war configuration as well as extra parts to do them after their refits. Scale in 700 and 350. (An aside ... decals for range clocks and turret bearing rings are a must). Auxilliaries: AK, AP, AO. Again in 700 and/or 350. 4-pipe Destroyer in 700/350. I yield the floor .... Ed ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) From: Ives100@aol.com Subject: RE: Gato submarines >> Don't know of any 1/200 Gatos or Balaos. But there are a couple in 1/192 coming out REAL soon. (Not from me!) << OK, I'll bite. Are they in styrene or resin? Have you seen the preproduction shots? If they are resin, I can probably make a real good guess as to the source, based on two recent 1:192 SSBN resin submarines just released... Tom Dougherty ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) From: JGordon262@aol.com Subject: The Yamato dream I had the strangest dream last night. Don't ask me where this one came from, my first ship related dream. ********** I am walking up a spiraling dirt road, there are no trees in this place. A long, white limosine drives up behind me and stops. The driver, a brusque fellow wearing white pants and T shirt, bald and short, demands to know where I am going. I tell him I'm going to the see the Yamato. He gets surly with me and demands explanations. I stop, turn to him, and shout "YOU'RE NOT READY FOR THE YAMATO!" He disappears. Yamato lies preserved in a huge earthen cutout. It is surrounded by a tall perimeter chain link fence, but you can jump it at the stern-there are no guards there. It is beautifully intact. I jump the fence and board the Yamato. I enter one of the stern launches and am impressed by the beautiful hardwood decks on these auxiliaries. There is a descriptive plaque that states " The motors of the launches were always run during high speed trials in order to add power to the ship and provide a pleasing sound." I remember that Mick Fleetwood and another music guy started the Save the Yamato Foundation which began all this years ago. I am afraid that I will get caught for having not paid admmission. I return to the fence to leave. Other solitary figures come and go, all jumping the fence to get in. They wear dark overcoats and sunglasses. I realise the Yamato foundation is losing a lot of revenue to fence jumpers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) From: ECammeron@aol.com Subject: Re: Plastic Injection Kits By all means both long and short hull Essex Class Carriers in 1:700 and 1:350. I'm rather amazed no resin type has tried to offer replacement parts for the worst errors of the Hasagawa kit - the port side hangar sides. If they did, it might make life a lot easier on those trying to build an accurate model. Also, consider that if you count paint schemes, air groups, 40-mm quads, catapults and radar rigs of just WWII Essexes, you have about 40 possible variations to chose from. The angledeck versions get more complex because there are three distinct variations - the two SCB27C variations and the SCB27A. The bow shape varies and on the two 27Cs the position of #3 elevator varies. Still, an ACCURATE set of ESSEX models would be well received. And the ESSEX as built is a beautiful ship. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9) From: "Lisa & Frank Allen" Subject: RE: Tamiya 1/700 Yamato Thanks for the info on the new kit. I've seen the photos now and it does look great! Kudos to Tamiya for righting a wrong! Now if only the other Japanese waterline producers would fix their old and "crappy" kits! It would be great if Aoshima got off it's rump and retooled the 1/700 Bismarck and Tirpitz...they are even worse than the "old" Yamato was! That's one to add to my wish list! Oh, my vote for NEW 1/700 offerings would be DKM Hipper, Blucher and Prinz Eugen. My vote for most beautiful (as if anyone cares)...HOOD of course! She may have sucked as a warship, but man she was sexy! Frank Allen, Colorado Springs, CO ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10) From: Growlrr@aol.com Subject: Re: Plastic Injection Kits 1) Since we have all assumed a prostrate stance on this issue allow me to add the following...how about a 1/700 scale kit of one of the Great Lakes paddle steamer flattops used to train thousands of Navy avaitors during WWII. They had a freeboard of about a foot from the looks of them.....Since we're dreaming a 1/350 Growler/Grayback would be another one for the list...or perhaps a helicopter carrier, Vietnam vintage (read U.S.S. Guadalcanal) 11) How is it possible the Atlanta class CL's have only gotten one vote? Sleek, fast and armed to the teeth....A knuckled bow and true transom stern...symetrical and with great camoflage options....how can it not be one of the most beautiful ships ever launched? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11) From: Sue & Ben Subject: Re: New Tamiya Yamato Hi gang! Given that there was much wrong (it appears!) with the older 1/700th kit, should I assume that Tamiya's larger version is also incorrect? Big Y isn't my favorite ship, but she _is_ a battlewagon and has such has some redeeming features as well as historical significance. So I'll just have to build her one day. :-) Hence my desire to know what, if anything, is wrong with the 350th kit. Anyone out there know? Cheers Ben ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12) From: Tim Perry Subject: RE: Plastic Injection Ship Kits Surely the answer to ALL of these wish lists is for people to start scratchbuilding..... Provocatively yours, Tim Perry (Bristol, UK) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13) From: jim burt Subject: Gunze-Sanyo 1/350 Lusitania Hi group, I'm about to purchase a Gunze-Sanyo Lusitania in 1/350 scale, & I wanted to know what the quality of the kit is. I've seen some pics of it, & it looks to a great kit, but I want ot know if there are any building problems that come with this kit....... Thanks, Steve ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14) From: Dave Carter Subject: Re: What Ship is that? Having posted earlier re. Graham's query, Tim's post prompted us to check back, and yes (humble pie... he's done this to us before!!), we now concur with Tim that this was HMS Queen Elizabeth (Howe was the easy solution at 2 in the morning of course!!). However, Tim's library is undoubtedly bigger and better organised than ours, and the Navy obviously gives him too much time off to research this sort of question properly anyway!! Look forward to seeing you Tim, and other "SMMeLlies" at Bath Sunday. Cheers Caroline "shiphead" Carter/nWMo and WEMblie http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/avenue/xdt22/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15) From: Ed Grune Subject: Viking Models -- USS Texas I was at the Ft Worth IPMS show today and I had a chance to speak with the people of Viking Models. They are working on a 1/700 Texas and a 1/700 New York. Their hoped for date to have it ready is 4 to 6 weeks. That will make it mid- to late-September. Their target retail cost bogey is less than $60.00(US). I didn't ask about extras like brass. Rusty - are you working on them? They did not have any of their 1/350 Texas on thir table. Other vendors did. They did have plenty of thei Alvins and their new Trieste II bathyscaphe. They also had their new SSN-21 in resin and etched brass. Also on their table was a test shot of their SSN-21 waterline. Its cast into the water surface with all of the wakes and eddys. I didn't pull out my trusty pocket protractor to check to see if the angle was 39.5 +/- a fudge. Since the kit is the sub at decks-awash their isn't a lot of additions to the sub. The kit becomes an exercise in the art of painting the sea. Check on the Viking website at http://www.byrus.net/vikingmodels. Ed ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16) From: "Malcolm Batchelor" Subject Shades of grey on a Type 36A (A paler shade of grey) Alberto, Sorry for the delay in getting back to you (my boss has this silly idea that I'm supposed to work for him, as I said, silly idea). Anyway, I did a little reading (I have both "German Destroyers of WW II" by MJ Whitley and "Anstriche und Tarnanstriche der Duetschen Kriegsmarine" by Jung, Abendroth & Kelling). Going thru these, there is little uniformity in the camouflage of the DKM as a whole and destroyers in particular that I can find. From what I can find, the Type 36A's were generally painted in a base coat of light grey (hellgrau 51, aka fehgrau RAL 7000 or hellgrau 50, aka silbergrau RAL 7001) with various patterns of darker greys over this (dunkelgrau 53(?) aka anthrazitgrau RAL 7016 or dunkelgrau 52(?) aka graphitgrau RAL 7024). Several types of patterns appear that I found, the first is a light grey base with three large areas in a simple angular pattern (from the waterline up) of a dark grey at the bridge, the funnel area, and the aft end of the after deckhouse. Another variation of this scheme is a zig-zag pattern of dark grey over light grey on the hull (Z-31). In the picture, it is hard to tell exactly how it carries up to the deckhouses. A different scheme appears to use the same colours in a "sunburst" pattern. This is a series of dark bars rising from the waterline straight up a foot or two, and then angling towards a point between and above the funnels, getting progressively narrower as the go from the waterline up (Z-32). And yes, there is a variation on this scheme to. It has the longitudinal parts of the bars in black with the oblique parts in a dark grey or dark green ? on the Z-33 (ATDK page 95 Picture 54). The Z-24 and Z-23 used a scheme that's hard to describe but I'll try. Start with a base of light grey, there were two bands of dark grey, the first was slanted towards the stern from below the bridge covering the back of the bridge house and front of the forward funnel (it also went form the bottom port side to the upper starboard side on the face of the bridge), the second slanted towards the bow covering the after tubes, AA platform and diagonal across the aft funnel. It's hard to tell, but here appears to also be a small, low triangle of the same dark grey on the hull below the after deckhouse. The Z-24 had her bow painted a medium grey from the #1 gun forward while the Z-23 had the same with a pale or very light grey. I'm guessing here, but I would think that the stern matched the bow on both ships, but that is a guess. I don't know if this will help or confuse you, but either way I tried. I can come up with a little more info if you need it, just let me know. Stuart Batchelor ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of Volume