Subject: SMML24/08/98VOL281 Date: Mon, 24 Aug 1998 18:16:36 +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: Re: Knots at Sea 2: SCALE COMPATIBILITY 3: Tamiya's 1/700 PoW Kit 4: Knot info request ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: Tom Dean Subject: Re: Knots at Sea Although the term knots is often expressed as a speed for a ship, this is not exactly true. Knots are really a term for advancement of the ship. A ship sets revolutions to maintain a speed that she has been pre measured for. This is done on a measured course, usually in calm weather, and the ship most often having come out of refit. The ship will run the measured area and find out how many revolutions produce a speed of how many knots. When it comes time to order a speed that will place a ship from point a to point b they will order a certain number of revolutions to obtain the speed to reach that point. The sea state will dictate if that objective is reached. For example you might set revolution for 18 knots in a sea state of 8 ft waves and sailing into a moderate wind. At the end of a measured sea mile you might have only achieved 15 knots average speed. So you can see than speed itself cannot be measured in actual knots. You could be making a good turn of speed for 1 hour, averaging 19 knots and the conditions of the sea and the wind change and you make less advancement. So at the end of lets say 3 hrs you have advanced at an average of 17 knots, sometimes faster, sometimes slower. Tom Dean Hamilton, Ontario Canada ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: Martin.Lamb@dtf.vic.gov.au Subject: SCALE COMPATIBILITY At what stage do different scales become incompatible? I'm sure most of us happily sit our 1:700 escorts next to a 1:720 aircraft carrier, but what about a 1:800 scale carrier? Is a 1:570 Titanic acceptable next to an Airfix 1:600 Iron Duke? Your thoughts on this would be appreciated. Martin Lamb ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From: Michael Eisenstadt Subject: Tamiya's 1/700 PoW Kit Folks: Given that I've been working on and off on a Tamiya 1/700 PoW for about sixteen years now (I know, don't ask), and that I've had ample time to reflect on the topic, I thought I'd add a few comments about the relative accuracy of the kit to the ongoing thread on the subject. Overall, its a splendid kit. There are only a few minor inaccuracies; some of these can be relatively easily rectified, the others are not worth the effort fixing. 1) the top row of portholes are too high and many are randomly placed; however, it would probably take too much time to fix this. Don't worry about it. Most people won't notice the difference. 2) the slight knuckle along the deckline by the bow is missing; this is easily added with a little sanding, though it wouldn't be a big deal if this feature were not included. 3) the four 5.25" guns are incorrectly shaped. Throw them away and get the newly released WEM professional 5.25 inchers (I haven't seen them yet so I'm acting on faith, Dave and Caroline! I'm sure they're great! Right????!!!!) 4) add the missing ventilators around the B turret barbette (for locations, see references below). Also add portholes and doors per drawings in Williams and Dumas articles mentioned below. 5) replace the aircraft and boats cranes with those from the GMM KGV set. 6) fill the longitudinal cut on the bottom of the forward half of the aft deckhouse with scrap plastic strip. 7) replace all pom-poms with appropriate WEM professional components. 8) all four 5.25" guns are provided with barbettes molded onto the decks. There should be none for the four guns that are located on the raised platforms. Sand off the barbettes for the two guns that are closest to the catapult amidship on each side. In other words, you should be eliminating four of the eight barbettes. Or if you prefer, leave them all on; its not really a big deal. 9) Substitute the kit's alleged Type 271 surface surveillance radar (if you have the kit you know what I mean) with the WEM professional component. The best references for building this kit are: 1) Tamiya's 1/700 Scale Prince of Wales by Roger Chesneau, in Scale Models, May 1976, pp. 220-223. 2) HMS Prince of Wales -- May 1941: A Simple 1:700 Scale Project, by M.W. Williams, in Scale Models International, November 1984, pp. 594-596. 3) HMS King George V by Robert G. Dick, in Model Ship Builder, May/June 1993, pp. 11-23 (though a "how to" article about building a 1/350 scale KGV, a wealth of info for the 1/700 scale PoW modeler). 4) The King George V Class by Robert Dumas, in Warships, Volume III (precise issues unknown). Hope this helps, and happy modeling! Yours truly, Michael Eisenstadt ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) From: Michael Kear Subject: Knot info request G'day JG, A knot is one nautical mile per hour. Since a nautical mile is not the same as a land mile, a knot is not the same as one mile per hour And you can always tell when someone doesn't understand what they are talking about when they refer to 'knots per hour'. Fair winds and following seas, Mike Kear, Webmaster, Task Force 72 Australia 1/72 Scale warship modellers, Australia http://www.healey.com.au/~mkear/taskforce72.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of Volume