Subject: SMML15/04/99VOL516 Date: Fri, 16 Apr 1999 00:17:21 +1000 shipmodels@tac.com.au -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS INDEX 1: Airfix 1/400 ship kits?? 2: Re: Airfix Re-releases 3: Re: USS Denver call sign 4: IJN flightdecks 5: Yardbirds 6: Fujimi's Shipmodels 7: Re: Waveline West Virginia 8: Re: MB Yorktown 9: Purpose of paravanes on ships 10: Re: USS Sea Tiger 11: USS Pringle Memorial Service At Sea 16 April 1999 12: Waveline West Virginia Kit 13: The "Tragedy" at Midway 14: Re: BWN Perry Class Frigate - 1/350 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADERS, ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTICEBOARD INDEX 1: 1/350 Missouri Sale -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: "Les Case" Subject: Airfix 1/400 ship kits?? I heard from Felix Bustelo (who heard from a "very reliable source") that Airfix produced a 1/400 Normandie and a 1/400 Andrea Doria in the early 1970s. Has anyone ever seen one of these kits? Does anyone have one they don't want and are willing to sell? Les Case Hi Les, I'd be interested in finding out about this as well. Because AFAIK, Airfix has never produced these ships (shades of the Miles Juniper). It's also possible I suppose, that Airfix marketed these ships somewhere else under another name as well. I also checked the Shiplist & couldn't find any reference there as well. Shane -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: Felix Bustelo Subject: Re: Airfix Re-releases Alan, Naval Base Hobbies has the Ajax and Graf Spee in stock. http://www.modelshipbuilding.com Felix Bustelo International Maritime Modeling http://members.tripod.com/~Febus65/imm.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From: "Lars Orloff" Subject: Re: USS Denver call sign Paul, I tried the Naval HIstorical Center and the National Vessel Registry. Unfortunately, NVR presently has on file only those non-active ships scrapped after 1978. I did find something in the National Archives. Amazingly, there exists a movie of the USS Denver transiting the Panama Canal in 1943. I assume this is the Denver you are looking for. Go to the link below and select "Search NAIL." Then select either the normal or expert search, and type in "USS Denver". You have to hit "display results," and you'll see three entries in the table. Two of them are for the Denver movie. Here's the link: http://www.nara.gov/nara/nail.html I hope this helps. I don't know if it's possible to buy the movie, or if you have to go to the National Archives to see it. I do know that, whenever a Navy ship crosses into "inland" waters as defined by the International Treaty on the Prevention of Collisions at Sea (a.k.a. the Coast Guard Rules of the Road), the ship must display her call sign. Since Denver is transiting "inland" waters, the movie should (hopefully) show her flying the four signal flags that make up her call sign. For any type of information on active, inactive, historical, etc. ships, searching a Navy or related website gives you the best chance for answers. Here are some other links. Good luck, and let me know if I can help further. US Navy homepage http://www.navy.mil US Naval Historical Center http://www.history.navy.mil National Vessel Register http://www.nvr.navy.mil Lars R. H. Orloff Lieutenant, USN -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) From: Burl Burlingame / Pacific Monograph Subject: IJN flightdecks No, what Best says was "yellow" was actually a orange-brown, almost natural-wood color. The metal areas of the IJN flightdecks, were, however painted. Burl Burlingame Pacific Monograph, 1124 Kahili Street, Kailua HI 96734 A historical interpretation company. Visit our web site at http://www.PacificHistory.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) From: "Leonard, Michael W" Subject: Yardbirds Well, I'm off to Bath Iron Works for a well-earned vacation and the christening of the USS Winston S. Churchill on Saturday. I'll be sure to say hello to the yardbirds while I'm there. My last visit was back in 1983, and I recall as safety officer during our overhaul that those guys could sure put away an impressive quantity of beer, vodka, whiskey and marijuana while on the job! (No wonder we left in worse shape than we arrived... :>) Mike Leonard Alexandria, VA USA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) From: Subject: Fujimi's Shipmodels Dear Smmlies: Recently I noticed that increasingly ship items of Fujimi company has been "re-produced" by Tamiya and Hesegawa, such as BB Hiei, Haruna, CA Kinu, Nagara, Natori, CV Shokaku, DD Matsu, Sakura, and also for pocket battleship Deutschland... Could someone please kindly tell me what happened to Fujimi and its ship models? and what is(are) the difference(s) between former Fujimi's product and these "re-produced" ones, except box art? Thank you! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) From: "FERNANDO, YOHAN" Subject: Re: Waveline West Virginia Alan, I built the Waveline Maryland a few months ago and the model is superb! The casting is excellent and the photo-etch cagemasts really make the kit come alive. Although there are no molded templates to work from, they are easy to roll and assemble. The photoetch is not in brass, but in silver metal which seemed very forgiving to mistakes. Overall, the masts were easier to assemble and paint than I expected and look great. I think I heard that the Hi-Mold kit is really the Waveline kit with machined brass 16" barrels in place of the cast white metal ones. It's also priced a bit higher. If you can live without the fancy barrels, you can save some money and get pretty much the same kit for less by going with the one sold under the Waveline name. (They're all owned by Skywave if I'm not mistaken) Yohan Fernando -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) From: Dave Judy Subject: Re: MB Yorktown Hi all, Concerning the Yorktown, I belive the main concern about the brass deck,is to secure it with epoxy instead of super glue. I built the Enterprise( the early one with the 6 piece hull ), and I used super glue to secure the ( 3 piece deck ) to the hull. After a while the deck sections popped up from unequal expantion/contraction. After some delicate cleanup work, I used epoxy....no more troubles! Dave Judy -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9) From: "John Noory" Subject: Purpose of paravanes on ships I've seen sketches of paravanes on IJN ships but am not familiar with their use. What does a paravane do for a ship? Thanks, John Noory Hi John, IIRC, paravanes were used for minesweeping. In that they're towed by the ship to help prevent mines hitting warships. They were also used in mine hunting as well. Shane -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10) From: Ives100@aol.com Subject: Re: USS Sea Tiger >> USS Sea Tiger << I used to know which boat they used, but I can't for the life of me recall the name. The sub was, IIRC, a Balao class, not a Gato. If you want to rescue that Lionfish and turn it into a decent model, treat yourself to the Nautilus Models conning tower & gun set of your choice (three Gato configs & 1 Balao), along with the photetch railing. Makes a HUGE difference. I'm writing up an article for Warships on how to convert and upgrade the Revell Lionfish, for Rob's big Submarine Special next month. Rob is going to post a photo tour of USS Pampanito, and I've contributed some shots I've taken of modern boats (LA SSNs and the USS Wyoming, SSBN 742). Tom Dougherty -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11) From: "Alex F. Wojcicki" Subject: USS Pringle Memorial Service At Sea 16 April 1999 Hi, folks! Wish I could say we were making great progress with the 1:10 replica, but we have run into a small glitch... Bob Keefer (boss of the building gang) is in the middle of moving (April), so we have not gotten the ways built yet. He should be settled in soon to his new house, and then we can go for it. Still getting good ides from a bunch of sources, and working out final plans. All is not quiet, though... If you check out the site (as per the subject), you will see that there will be a memorial service held at the exact time and location of the sinking on the 54th anniversary of her loss. We have put up a special memorial ceremony page, linked from the home page, with all the details. One interesting point is that this memorial is for both the Americans and the Japanese Kamikaze pilots who were killed. We have been able to research the names of those as well, and they are included on the wreath to be placed on the waters. Best regards, Alex Wojcicki / Bob Keefer USS Pringle (DD-477) Historic Reconstruction Project http://www.foto.infi.net/~wojo/pringle -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12) From: SteveWiper@aol.com Subject: Waveline West Virginia Kit This is directed to Alan Lindstrom's (and if any others are interested) request for info on the cage mast and the Wee Vee. The cage mast are done in the same fashion that every manufacturer has done them, in photo-etch, and they are beautiful, as is the rest of the kit. You have to see this kit to believe it, truly stunning, kinda mesmerizing. REALLY! You wont regret this purchase(probably regret not getting it) Steve Wiper/Classic Warships -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13) From: MDDoremus@aol.com Subject: The "Tragedy" at Midway I watched the Yorktown special last night. The early reviews were right. It's more about Ballard than the Yorktown, Kaga or Midway. The historical / narrative inaccuracies were jolting, "The Yorktown launched fighters" over a shot of an F-4F with Enterprise squadron number. Stars with spots, stars without spots, planes with and without tail stripes. Finally a description of Yorktown's dive bombers attacking Hiryu, while showing TBD's peeling over. By 1100 that morning I don't think that there was a single flyable TBD left, let alone 8 to peel over. Watching the old movies was fascinating, but how many people were fooled by a Japanese torpedo plane crashing as the death throes of the Hiriu? If John Ford shot so much film at Midway, why didn't they use more of that instead of using several old movie clips over and over again? What really got me though was the constant use of the word "tragedy" when describing the battle. Yes, brave young men died on both sides. But why did they focus only on the deaths? Shouldn't the unbelievable courage of the men in the Torpedo squadrons be celebrated? How about the young men on both nation's carriers fighting the very fires of hell on their decks? The damage control parties that stayed on the stricken Yorktown. What would have happened if they hadn't made their sacrifice? Everything we have in America (good and bad) is a result of those scarifies. Dismissing W.W.II as a simple "tragedy" ignores the very real history that happened in those 6 years. The film was OK but turn off the volume. Mark -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14) From: Steven Rogers Subject: Re: BWN Perry Class Frigate - 1/350 The detail is excellent. Molding is very crisp. The only flaws are; (1) no easy way to locate the anti-roll stabilizers mid hull and (2) there is no recess for the anchor on the starboard bow. Nice photo-etch sheet.