Subject: SMML08/03/99VOL478 Date: Tue, 09 Mar 1999 00:37:51 +1100 shipmodels@tac.com.au -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS INDEX 1: HMS Victory's colours 2: HMS Sussex Kit 3: SSBN Countermeasure Devices 4: Re: SSBN colours 5: More on Yamato details 6: Re: Pearl Harbor Visit 7: USS ARTHUR W. RADFORD (DD 983) 8: Soleil Royale instructions 9: Flower Class Corvettes 10: Gneisenau 11: Removing Future floor wax 12: Dragon HMS Invincible 13: Re: 1:300 Napoleonic ships 14: Re: HMS Victory Wood Model -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADERS, ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTICEBOARD INDEX 1: WEM 600 PROFESSIONAL range 2: Warship Update -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: "Caroline Carter" Subject: HMS Victory's colours After seeing a few postings on the subject... >> I am getting prepared to begin this beast of a kit. I picked up two cans of the recomended trainer yellow from Humbrol which is used for the hull stripes. This looks awfully bright to me. I thought the hue should be darker, or more orange. What did ya'll do and what do you think of your color choices? << From "Anatomy of the Ship Victory", "At Trafalgar, Victory's hull was black with three continuous streaks of bright yellow running roughly between her wales. Her gun ports were painted red inside, as were the insides of the gunport lids." As to how bright "Bright Yellow" is, that is a matter of conjecture, although John McKay, the author, is an accepted authority on the ship, and may well have seen traces of the original paintwork. From my own photographs taken over the years, the colour she is painted today IS rather more orange than yellow... Best Regards, Caroline Carter White Ensign Models http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/white.ensign.models The Best Research and Patterns, the Best Casting and the Best Instructions make the BEST ship kits in the world! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: Michael Eisenstadt Subject: HMS Sussex Kit Folks: Does anyone know what version of HMS Sussex the new Hi-Mold 1/700 scale kit depicts? Is it the prewar or the wartime fit? Thanks! Mike Eisenstadt -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From: Ed Grune Subject: SSBN Countermeasure Devices Hello SMML: Response to Tom Dougherty's post about the countermeasure decoy tubes in Volume 477; I recall that the Countermeasure Set, Acoustic MK 2 (CSA) was installed in new construction of the Ohio class SSBNs, starting with the Maryland (SSBN738). The CSA MK2 replaced the eight Five-inch Evasion Devices (FED) launchers with fourteen six-inch device launchers. Eight of the 14 replace the FED launchers mounted in the turtleback aft of the sail. The remaining six launchers are located in the turtleback aft of the missle tubes. The original plan was for the earlier Ohio boats to recieve these and other upgrades when they received their mid-life refit. However, with the Ohio class's change in mission, a number of these upgrades have been deferred. The interesting one which has received comment in the Naval Institute Proceedings is the conversion of these ballistic missile carriers to cruise missile carriers. A number of the missile tubes would be converted to carry a 6-pack of Tomahawks. The Ohio class would have an offensive punch as powerfull as the proposed strike cruiser - and be more stealthy. As Tom Clancy put it ... God could find an Ohio [using sonar], but he'd have to be having a good day. Ed Grune Mansfield (Tiger Town), TX Home of the State High School Girls Basketball Champions -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) From: Darrell Cook Subject: Re: SSBN colours Just thought I would throw my two cents in. I was stationed on the USS Hammerhead SSN663 from 1967-1973. All of the boats in our squadron had the hulls painted in a deep deep charcoal (not quite black, but almost). Below the hull centerline was the antifouling red. Tops of the ballast tank valves were bare metal and covers were installed over these when in port to protect the valves. The very top of the hull, where you could walk was covered in a black "non-skid" paint (very rough texture so you didn't slip on the smooth wet hull. The sail was painted a dark gray ti blend in better from a distance when showing a profile on the surface. Right after commissioning, the escape bouys, which were originally painted international orange from the shipyard, were painted tha same color as the hull. The numbers on the hull were painted over for certain deployments and repainted for others, if you get the meaning. The top surface of the sail was also painted with the black non-skid in case someone had to work on the scopes or antenna. The bottom section of all masts were light gray with black "blotches" as camo. Darrell Cook Ex ST1(SS) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) From: JGordon262@aol.com Subject: More on Yamato details The most intense upgrade for your 1/700 Yamato would be to replace all of the small AA guns with photoetched parts from WEM. They make the Skywave parts look like bloated, beached sea mammals. These are beautiful little jewels when constructed correctly, but you may end up with bald patches on your scalp as a side effect. My tip is to construct them in their naked brass color- the little fiddly bits are much easier to see. I tried priming some in dark grey before construction and they became almost invisible. However, the Skywave parts are pretty good if you don't want to take it to the limit. As to Hinamarus on the a/c, Jack's idea of punching micro decals with the Waldron tool is a good one, if you have these punches. I found out long ago that a quite acceptable Hinamaru can simply be painted on. You need a best quality OO brush. First you paint a larger white circle, as round as you can make it. Then you paint a smaller red circle within it. You can clean up the white surround with the plane's base color (green or grey). If you use red watercolor for the inner circle, you can use a water moistened brush to clean up that area as well, then coat with a matte acrylic. So how does it look? Well, this method has passed IPMS laser death ray analysis many times, so ya, it looks pretty good. JG Spring-like Northern California -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) From: Jakloek@aol.com Subject: Re: Pearl Harbor Visit Thanks to everyone who responded to my question, both on and off the list. After 24" of snow on Thursday, and another 18" on Saturday, we have definitely decided to make the trip. The good news is that no more snow is predicted until Tuesday night. I got a lot of modeling done this weekend though. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) From: Baker Subject: USS ARTHUR W. RADFORD (DD 983) The RADFORD's damage was not limited to what could be seen in the video released by the Norfolk PILOT, for the merchant ship SAUDI RIYADH has a bulbous forefoot that reportedly gashed right through the destroyer's hull below the waterline; she came close to being lost altogether. The Navy's problem in repairing her is one of funding and politics. Although an effort will be made to assign the blame to the Saudi ship, and they Saudi owners have already been dunned for something like $65 million to cover the cost of repairs, the Saudis have replied (with considerably less than full honesty, no doubt, that the total value of their ship and its cargo was only around $7 million, which is all that the USN is able to claim in compensation under international admiralty law, even should it be shown that the Saudi ship was at fault. For the RADFORD to be repaired with USN funds, scheduled repairs to ten other USN ships will have to be deferred until the next Fiscal Year Budget, and then other ships planned for repair that year will be shoved forward, in what is known as the "bow wave" effect. Alas, ten ships provide work, potentially, for ten shipyards, while RADFORD will make only one happy; thus, Virginia's two senators, four of its congressmen, and various other coastal district congress persons have already weighed in that the USN had better NOT repair the RADFORD with money that might otherwise have gone to their constituents. Well, the new head of the Senate Armed Services Committee is Senator John Warner of Virginia. RADFORD will probably have to wait a while . . . All these folks, of course, have the nation's defense needs uppermost in their minds and hearts at all times. A.D. Baker, III -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) From: BMorri6409@aol.com Subject: Soleil Royale instructions I have both HMS Victory and Soleil Royale by Heller. These are outstanding kits, and I have enjoyed working on them for years. Does anyone know where I can get another set of "Soleil" instructions? Mine were lost during my last military move and the two sources I have tried to use have not responded, including Model Expo and Heller. Thank you for any assistance. Bill -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9) From: Joe Turpen Subject: Flower Class Corvettes I am currently in the process of building a Flower Class Corvette and would appreciate any help in locating information on this class. I have looked on the world wide web and basically come up empty. Thanks in advance for any assistance. Joe Turpen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10) From: "Alan Lindstrom" Subject: Gneisenau I was noticing on a couple of photos of the Gneisenau from December 1940 and March 1941 that the portholes had been covered-up. Were these temporay or permanent coverings? What about the Scharnhorst, were the portholes similarly covered at that time? The Scharnhorst's portholes are clearly visible in 1943 in the well known photo where the ship is dark grey excempt for the ends. Alan Lindstrom -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11) From: Douglas Bauer Subject: Removing Future floor wax I need some help with a very troublesome problem: I decided to try using Future floor wax to clear coat my USS OREGON's hull before applying a waterline decal. Unfortunately, I'm new to the technique and sprayed way too much wax, causing runs. Is there a way to remove the wax without damaging the paint (Testor's enamel, and Floquil Marine paints) underneath? By the time this gets posted the wax will be quite dry. Any help will be most graciously appreciated. Doug Bauer -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12) From: DILIANE@aol.com Subject: Dragon HMS Invincible Hey, it's great reading about all the things happening in the ship world. I am currently working on the DML HMS Invincible. I was impressed to find a modern weapons sprue from Skywave in the kit. But now I get to my question. On the painting instructions, the hull color is listed as aircraft grey. Is this supposed to be one of the ghost grey colors? I am still in the Tamiya paint mode, so I could definitely use some help. (That's what my wife says anyhow.{Yours too eh ;-þ, Shane ) The flight deck is listed as dark sea grey also. It definitely had some heavy duty lines on the deck, too. James Campbell Chippewa Falls, WI where we get the left over snow from Minnesota -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13) From: Minadmiral@aol.com Subject: Re: 1:300 Napoleonic ships Hi; If anyone is interested in the 1:300 Napoleonic ships the manufacturer is Rod Langton. His latest is a 32 gun frigate to go with the brigs and cutters. Being intended for wargaming these are waterline models. Anyone interested can contact me off-line for an address. Chuck Duggie -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14) From: robin Subject: Re: HMS Victory Wood Model >> I'm currently working on the victory to but it's not the plastic kit. The kit I'm doing is from Mantua. A 52"long plank on frame job. I have never built this type of ship before. I needed a challange for once. Scratch building masters of steel navy ships just doesn't make much of an effort as it used too. This kit will keep my busy for the next 5-7 years. << Hi Mike, Glad to see someone else is doing a ship other than just plastic.... I too am doing a wooden ship, the VASA from billing boats - great model, extremely challenging though, for 12 years I've been doing plastic ones, now I have dared to touch this monster - it some ways it is bigger than the Titanic (my plastic one, anyway !).... I have framed it & decked it, now I'm just waiting for the courage to try & plank it... may god have mercy on my soul.... Hope you do well with the victory. Cheers & 73's for now, ordrazz Web Page: http://www.ne.com.au/~ordrazz/frames.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADERS, ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTICEBOARD -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: "Caroline Carter" Subject: WEM 600 PROFESSIONAL range As requested, Here are the details of PRO items. Thanks to Felix for his encouragement. 1/600 SCALE WEM "PROFESSIONAL" Cast Resin Upgrades 1/600 Scale Originals WEM PRO 601 4" QF Mk XVI in twin Mk XIX mount x 4 2.51 WEM PRO 602 Vickers quad 0.5" machine guns x 6 2.51 WEM PRO 603 Quad Pom-Poms x 4 2.51 WEM PRO 606 8-Barrelled Pom-Poms x4 2.51 Prices in pounds, One Pound = about 1.6 US dollars on a typical credit card exchange rate at this time.. Some of you have held off ordering as you don't realise how quickly we can move on any subject.... I suspect that people don't generally expect a company to move as fast as we do.. viz.. Dockyard Mateys in 1.700. Idea conceived in late December, masters completed within 2 weeks.. casting started 1 week after that.. stock on shelves only 6 weeks after decision made..25 items in total! Not bad hey?? We could have the 1/600 range up and in prod. within 4 weeks from now, even with the heavy pressure of work/product development... I will also post updates on my own webpages.. BOOKMARK us using the Netmind form on my homepage for updates! Best Regards, Caroline Carter White Ensign Models, http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/white.ensign.models The Best Research and Patterns, the Best Casting and the Best Instructions make the BEST ship kits in the world! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: Rob Mackie Subject: Warship Update I have updated the Warship (http://warship.simplenet.com) site with the following new items: In-the-box reviews of the following kits: B Resina 1:700 HMS Warspite Italeri 1:720 USS America (CVA 66) Delphis Models 1:700 Guiseppi Garibaldi Delphis Models 1:700 MN Barletta auxiliary cruiser Artitec Models 1:350 Type VIIc U-Boat Loose Cannon 1:700 T-2 Tanker Gold Medal Models 1:720 Set for US Supercarriers The Iron Shipwright and White Ensign Models 1:350 scale HMS Hood kits side-by-side First look at Iron Shipwright 1/350th USS Detroit Omaha class light cruiser Added USS Juneau CL-52 to the Pic-of-the-Week Photo Archive Added USS Missouri 1944-45 to the Pic-of-the-Week Photo Archive Photo tour of Battleship USS New Jersey circa 1988 Photo tour of Battleship USS Missouri circa 1989 Added drydock photos to the USS Massachusetts photo tour Three new Jim Gordon feature articles: Four Torpedo Boats and a Ram: Modeling Confederate Torpedo Boats New Life for the Aoshima IJN Submarine I-400 Admiral G C