Subject: SMML02/10/98VOL320 Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 12:57:04 +1000 (EST) shipmodels@tac.com.au -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **NOTICE TO ALL READERS:** This will be the last distribution of SMML until Tuesday 6/10/98. As I announced last week, I am off on a short vacation for three days as it is a long weekend here in NSW Australia. All will resume to normal on Tuesday, with Saturday Through Mondays editions being posted out then also. Thanks Greg (Listmaster - SMML) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS INDEX 1: Re: Accenting ship models 2: Rigging Help 3: Scale Ship Modeler magazine 4: Re: USN Flowers 5: Re: FSM & ship articles 6: Aircraft Recovery 7: 1/350 replacement parts 8: Accenting Modern Ships 9: Valiant and Vanguard 10: HMHS Britannic 11: Re: Q:resin casting and mold release, thanks... 12: AA on Ark Royal 13: Nisshin 14: Re: copyright and the VATman 15: Re: Ark's AA ( last word; absolutely honest) 16: Ballard, Bismark & Titanic CD -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: SHIPMDLR@aol.com Subject: Re: Accenting ship models >> I'm within a hair of finishing the Revell 1:542 Franklin D.Roosevelt. Got the flight deck all nice and used-looking, but the vertical surfaces (gull gray) look very monochromatic. Can anyone offer some tips on weathering or accenting so that the model will look more like a real ship? << Check out my article in this months issue of Navismagazine.com. I show techniques for washes, dry-brushing and pastels to realistically weather ships. You will be amazed at the difference it makes to an ordinary model. Rusty White Flagship Models Inc. http://www.okclive.com/flagship/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: Charles Stephanian Subject: Rigging Help I was wondering what fellow modelers use to attach their rigging. I'm working in 1/700 with flyfishing line (dairiki 7x) and I'm not having much luck attaching it. Any help or tips is most appreciated. Thanks! Charles Stephanian -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From: Gene Larson Subject: Scale Ship Modeler magazine Are others as disappointed as I am in the change Challenge Publications made by combining "Scale Ship Modeler" magazine into "Scale R/C"? In the "new" issue 11 of the 86 pages are ship model related articles. The rest are armor, aircraft, and military miniatures. Although there might be a tid-bit here and there applicable to ship modeling, I don't care to read all those other articles to try to find something. I sent Challenge an e-mail on this, but have not had a reply. Gene Larson, Alexandria, Virginia mailto:genenrg@Naut-Res-Guild.org Nautical Research Guild, Inc. http://www.Naut-Res-Guild.org "A non-profit, tax exempt, educational organization with international membership, dedicated to maritime research and accurate ship model building." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) From: John Snyder Subject: Re: USN Flowers There's also coverage of these ships in Peter Elliott's _Allied Escort Ships of World War II: A Complete Survey._ (London: Macdonald and Jane's, 1977), including photos of TENACITY (ex-CANDYTUFT) and SURPRISE (ex-HELIOTROPE) in 1944, still wearing what appears to be RN Western Approaches camo, and READY (ex-CALENDULA) in Measure 21, and a line drawing of SAUCY in her May 1942 rig. John Snyder -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) From: SHIPMDLR@aol.com Subject: Re: FSM & ship articles >> Is it my imagination or is FSM featuring more ship articles and reviews of ships? The last several issues have featured the Titanic, the USS Saratoga in her dazzle scheme, and a review of the Wave-Line USS Baltimore. In this month's issue, the new 1/700 Tamiya Y****o (that dreaded ship) is reviewed. There is also an Advertiser Profile on Bill Gruner and Pacific Front Hobbies. Looks like we ship modelers are finally getting some attention. << Having written a number of articles for FSM I may be able to clear things up here. FSM as you have noticed has printed a number of articles dealing with ships lately. As far as Titanic article goes, it was added at the last minute due to the popularity of the movie (and bumped MY USS RELIANT OFF THE COVER!!). FSM is really looking for any articles that differ from the usual aircraft and armors stuff. Paul Boyer told me they would really like to get more ship stuff but they can only print what they get. I would suggest calling Paul Boyer at FSM. Paul will tell you over the phone if your idea has merit or if they already have someone working on the same subject you want to do. So call Paul or checkout their web site for guidelines for submitting an article. Kit reviews are done as they come in. They hand the kit to an unsolicited reviewer and they are given a deadline to have the review submitted. This is just a coincidence that more ships are showing up there. I wish WEM or some of the other resin ship manufacturers would send kits in for review. It would increase their sales and bring ship modeling to the forefront. Bill Gruner's (Loren Perry's and Flagship's) advertisement is a coincidence as well. My advertisement was placed in FSM 3 or 4 issues back with Loren's put in the issue before mine. FSM called people who have been advertising with them for a while as a FSM promotion for their ad sales. They wanted a short reason why I used FSM and the rest, as they say is history. I jumped at it since a color ad that size is worth big bucks. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) From: Duane Fowler Subject: Aircraft Recovery >> The ship tows a large net in the water beside the ship (I don't think they did it behind the ship to keep the plane out of the ship's prop wash). << Actually, I have several references from the USN, IJN, and RN that show that they did tow the nets directly behind the ship. They mounted a large roller on the fantail. I'm not sure how they dealt with the prop wash, but maybe it helps smooth out the swells. I'll look up the references and list them tomorrow. Best regards, Duane Fowler -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) From: Duane Fowler Subject: 1/350 replacement parts >> The poor quality 5" guns can best be replaced by castings by HR Products. They have a line of 1/384 parts that are a little under scale but usable. Much better than the kit parts, in any event. << I have had a hard time understanding why HR is so popular. They only support odd sizes (who builds in 1/384?) and don't have good customer responce, as far as I've seen. I'm much more pleased with Joe Zappa at Liberty Model Productions. All of his parts have been very clean and hey - they're in 1/350! His address is Liberty Model Productions, P.O. Box 204, Sharpsville, PA 16150. He's got a repeat customer from me. Regards, Duane Fowler -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) From: Michael Connelley Subject: Accenting Modern Ships Hello: While I've never accented a modern ship, I have done that to a 1/72 F-14D I did. When I finished the F-14 looked very 'flat', while planes out there in the fleet weather very rapidly. What I did was I thinned down black paint quite a bit (experiment to you likeing...start thin then thicken to taste) and applied it on in broad strokes with a q-tip. I basically went over the whole kit several times and this built up a nice and quite subtle variation in the shade of the paint color that broke up the 'flatness'. Then I focused on certian areas to darken them and make them look weathered. On real planes the panel lines aren't dark but often the areas around them are and the q-tip is great for doing this. On a ship, you can make random variations in the paint shade and shadowed areas around the hangar bays and under overhang areas....just a few ideas. It takes a while to build up the paint to noticably darken an area, but it worked great for me. Since the FDR is a big ship, you can work around the ship and by time you get back to where you started the paint has dried and you can put more on if you like. Also thanks to Mike Leonard for his source for guns. I'll check them out. Have you used these guns? How is your kit coming? And big thanks to RKennedyCo@aol.com (please let us know who you really are!) for his note on the Arizona's casemate guns. With all these notes we can write a new book on the Arizona. Cheers Mike Connelley -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9) From: "patrick cunningham" Subject: Valiant and Vanguard My father served in the Royal Marines and during the War was on HMS Valiant, after the war he was on HMS Vanguard. I am interested in plastic scale models of these two battleships and would like to know if and where I could obtain them. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10) From: Duane Fowler Subject: HMHS Britannic "Lost Liners" by Dr. Robert Ballard has the best color photograph of the Britannic that I have seen as previously mentioned by Larry Ouellette. She was white with a green stripe and large red crosses on the sides. She also had two red crosses on her boat decks. The funnels were a solid buff tan color (like CG spar) with no black tops. There was also a large red plaque beneath the center of the bridge with the hull number in red (It's in the book). The three sisters were all relatively the same size. The Olympic and the Titanic were 92.5' wide and 882.75 feet long. There were differences in gross tonnage, but that is a measure of usable volume, not weight. They displaced the same amount at about 56000 tons (I have seen the figure of 66000 tons, but the engineering notebook from the Olympic states 56000 tons at 34.5' draft). The Britannic was two feet wider owing to the complete double hull added after the titanic disaster. Because of this, she displaced more than her sisters. The propellers were the same on all three ships when built, although they were eventually changed on the Olympic. As reported, the most noticeable difference between the Britannic and her sisters were the large (huge) crane-like davits. Originally there were supposed to be eight, but when the Britannic was pressed into government service only five were installed. There was one on the port side behind the bridge and two on either side just forward and aft of funnel #4. To make up for the missing davits, there were six Wellin type davits added to the boat deck on either side, as well as one added to the poop deck. Other differences were that the third class smoking room was moved from below to above the poop deck effectively raising the height of the deck one level. The Docking Bridge was not raised, however and sat on top of the new smoking room. The aft well deck was covered over, although the sides were not enclosed, and the crane positions were moved slightly. There were other changes to the well deck, but they are not evident due to the covering. There were also changes to the ventilator patterns and the compass platform. I have a set of deck and rigging plans from the Titanic Historical Society that shows some of these details. Also, as previously reported, the window and porthole pattern between the three sisters, especially on A, B, and C decks was different. The Britannic had the first third of the A deck Promenade enclosed like the Titanic, but the window patterns on all three decks was different. Also, the shape of the salon on A deck was different.. There was an additional porthole on either side of the bow. There were also three expansion joints on the Britannic compared to the two on her sisters. Let me know if you need anything else, or a list of resources. Best regards, Duane (as the days grow shorter I can do more modeling) Fowler P.S. Those guys over at http://titanic-model.com are really hard core, similar to the Yamatoholics here. They discuss and rehash every little detail. Can you imagine a web page dedicated to just one ship and one model? It's pretty cool - I'm going there now! ;) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11) From: KoopmaFS@utrc.utc.com Subject: Re: Q:resin casting and mold release, thanks... To Jon Warneke, Al Ross, and others that replied to my question... Thanks. I tried things out reproducing a missing turret of a previously owned kit. After a couple tries, I started getting good at rooting around with the sewing needle to work out air bubbles, and by the third try I had an acceptable replacement. I have a Timaya 1/350 Missouri waiting in the wings to be started after I finish my four current modeling projects. I've noticed that the 40mm quads are somewhat bland, needing replacing. With this method I'll only need to scratch-build once. Who knows? I may even have the balls to try my hand at photo-etching shields for them using the instructions off the web page. Thanks again.. Fritz -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12) From: Vimieraa@aol.com Subject: AA on Ark Royal I really don't understand this. "the big picture", By paying attention to ALL types of details then a standard is established that will carry over to configeration and physical details.ie one is setting a standard. Also mentioned was the phrase "not fully connected", In the context of the mounting working working with the director this has NO meaning. It is either connected or it is not. Also mentioned was that the directors were used for the 4.5"guns. This is not true. I refer to the drawing on page 124 of British Carrier Aviation. This plan shows (i) SIX POM POMS (II) SIX POM POM DIRECTORS (III) FOUR HACS DIRECTORS The HACS directors control the eight twin 4.5 mountings. The drawings were taken from the offical "as fitted" plans and if anybody takes issue with me on on any of this I shall give up ships and move over to TANKS--------------I mean it!!!!!!!!!! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13) From: Mark Sloan Subject: Nisshin I'm looking for Waveline's kit of the seaplane carrier Nisshin. Unfortunately it was out of production by the time that I became aware of it. I know that it's a long shot, but does anyone have this kit who is willing to part with it? If so, please let me know. Mark Sloan -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14) From: "Caroline Carter" Subject: Re: copyright and the VATman Bradford, you have made a very good point here with your posting... however, regs of course, also vary from country to country, and are widely open to interpretation... hell, look at the perfume and clothing industry for mega rip-offs at work. From a resin manufacturers point of view, we are one of the few folks around in the resin bizz who make a point of creating our own range of resin master patterns... BTW, Skywave has the most commonly ripped-off parts in this hobby.. it amazes me how this state of affairs seems to be widely accepted as O.K. by many folks... As many people are now aware, we market our own items.. weapons, boats, etc, separately under the "Professional" range of resin after-detail parts, and are shortly going to produce a range of decent parts for 1/700 Scale models of US subjects.. people will, quite inexpensively, be able to upgrade a 1/700 Scale resin or plastic ship model by buying these parts from us..... and woe-betide anyone who copies WEM parts without our permission! Cheers Caroline SMMLlie old WEMblie BTW, I will be doing VAT returns all weekend, so will be heading offline for a few days... apologies if your replies are late.. We have around 38 E-Mails to answer daily, but I would rather be late answering your replies than be late with my returns!!! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15) From: "Robert J. Mitchell" Subject: Re: Ark's AA ( last word; absolutely honest) As Originally designed, Ark Royal was the last word in A.a. defence thinking. Her dual-purpose 4.5's and two pounder were comtrolled by a four cornered director layout, although the forwrd starboard side director was actually mounted on the island. It appears that they has two independent circuits; Low-angle and High Angle. because of wartime stortage, not all the 2pdr's could be fitted right away. When she did get them, she was under sailing orders for Operation Halibut (resupply of Malta) So when she went to sea these two mounts had to either fire by line of sight or recieve basic information by voice telephone.. There are many accounts that up to and during this operation, the italian Airforce always favoured attacking her on the portside. When you read it, it soundslike they only put one missing mount aboard, but it was in fact both I think. Whether or not they were wired up on return to Gib is not recorded, but they probably were. many thanks to Les Pickstock for jogging my memeory Regards Bob Mitchell -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16) From: "Mike Leonard" Subject: Ballard, Bismark & Titanic CD Slightly off-topic, but... I just came across a new CD-ROM entitled, "Robert D. Ballard: Titanic - Challenge of Discovery" by Maris Multimedia Ltd. (US$19.99 at CompUSA). Impressive sound and graphics, from what I've looked at so far. Looks to be sort of a cross between a submarine simulator and an adventure game, where the player acts as a crew member on one of Ballard's deep sea expeditions. There are three wrecks to explore: a Roman warship, Bismark, and - of course - Titanic. Another part of the Great Conspiracy to keep us away from our ship models? (Secretly funded by wives of SMML members, no doubt.) Mike -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of Volume