Subject: SMML03/07/99VOL595 Date: Sun, 04 Jul 1999 00:06:58 +1000 shipmodels@tac.com.au -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS INDEX 1: Camouflage challenge 2: French Nacy Resources 3: Scharnhorst and Gneisenau 4: Re: General News 5: Re: General News 6: 1:700 Battlewagons 7: Re: 1/700 Rulers 8: Fighting Lights 9: Camouflage Challange 10: USS Missouri, BB63 11: French Navy info 12: COLLINS REPORT 13: Re: Classic Warships Website 14: Black Decal Lettering 15: Rajendra's list -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADERS, ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTICEBOARD INDEX 1: Warship Site Technical Difficulties 2: Flower Class Corvette book. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: Vimieraa@aol.com Subject: Camouflage challenge >> Will the person who sent me a list of camouflage schemes on July 1st, please send that list to the WebMaster. Thank you. << Hi gang, HELP...... I have at least one entry coming in & this now means I'll be needing someone to verify the entrant's lists in this challenge, because I know sweet FA about USN camouflage. Regards, Shane -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: "chenyangzhang" Subject: French Nacy Resources Does anyone know if the French Navy or archives has a photo archive (like the Imperial War Museum's photo archive) and if so what their address is? Also how much would obtaining prints from it be? Chris Langtree It's nice and sunny and we've just had a classic England batting collapse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From: "larsenal" Subject: Scharnhorst and Gneisenau For those interested by the subject, the French Magazine Marines has just released a special issue about the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. Altough written in French this magazine is fully illustrated and depicts these ships during their career, also Operation Cerberus is covered. Their ultimate fate is also well explained. Price is 65.00 French Francs, about $10.30 Best regards, Jacques Druel -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) From: "Kenneth H. Goldman" Subject: Re: General News >> 5. The correct formula for Sodium Hydroxide is NaOH, not NaNo which is Sodium Nitrate.........THAT explains why I blew the chemistry lab up at school. << Actually, sodium nitrate is NaONO2 or NaNO3. Ken Goldman THE WALRUS AND THE CARPENTER http://www.wman.com/~khgold/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) From: "Sean D. Hert" Subject: Re: General News Funny you should mention the Collins Program; In today's "Defence News Daily" "Australian submarine programme gets major shake up " http://defence-data.com/current/page4718.htm Sounds pretty bad. Also, modern subs usually have their screws shrouded. I don't know much about modern sub screw design, except that they're very hush-hush. Sean D. Hert Webmeister, MBG Site: http://www.netwalk.com/~popev/bg/ Ringmaster, Big Gun R/C Warship Combat Ring "History doesn't always repeat itself... sometimes it just screams 'Why don't you listen when I'm talking to you?' and lets fly with a club." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) From: Lisa and Bill Wiseman Subject: 1:700 Battlewagons Yet another question for you folks, I'm trying to build a collection of WWII Battleships of the Major Navies (US, German, British, Japanese) sorry if I offend the Canadians, Aussies and other nations on the list. I know their respetive navies were involved but reference material on their involvement is rather hard to find. Here's what I envision. Two each of the four major players. US Battleships Missouri, Iowa, New Jersey, any of these will be fine German Battleships Bismarck, Tirpitz, Japanese Battleships Yamato, Musashi British Battleships Hood, King George I have the Tamiya 1/700 Yamato. I haven't seen a Musashi in 1/700 are there other IJN heavy battleships I've forgotten about? I recently found Fujimi's Iowa and Missouri in 1/700. Are these kits worth buying. I've used Fujimi cars and planes and those kits are on a par with AMT/ ERTL and Revellogram. Are there other kits out there with better molding and detail, more acurate etc? Minicraft is bringing out a Bismarck and a Tirpitz are these new tools or re issues and are they any good? Tamiya made a King George and a Hood in 1/700 are they still in print? I'd prefer to stay with injection molded plastic as these are for my personal collection and I'm footing the bill. The collection needs to be 1/700 for space considerations. My bride hasn't noticed the Type IX C U-Boat in her corner hutch yet. Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated. Regards, Doc Wiseman Hi Doc, Tamiya does the IJN Musasahi in 1/700 & should be just as good as the Yamato (down Greg, down ;-)) ). I have two of the old Tamiya Musashi's & they look pretty good. But Tamiya did do new toolings of both of these last year. Hasegawa does the Kongo class BB's, they're also fairly new toolings. Fujimi did the Kongo class back in the 70's & they're not too bad. Tamiya's Hood & KGV class BBs are still available. As for offending the Aussies because you ain't modelling them, well we didn't use any battleships in WWII, so we really can't take any offense. Now if you were modelling cruisers, that'd be a different kettle of fish ;-). Regards, Shane -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) From: "John E. Fail" Subject: Re: 1/700 Rulers "The Scale Card" makes the scale conversion rulers that several have mentioned on here. They make several other ruler types and scale cards as well. I have several of them and find them very handy. They are at: http:///www.thescalecard.com Box 1078 Highland, CA 92346-1078 They were very quick to respond to my order. A 1:96 Scale card was $3.95, a 1:96 Scale Rule was $12,95 and a scale conversion card was $4.95. All plus shipping which was $3.00 for the above John Fail, Bayfield CO -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) From: Ernst-Bernhard Kayser Subject: Fighting Lights Hi all, About a week ago I asked for information on "fighting lights": What are they... what color are they.. how were they used? ... I was hoping to get answers covering the whole nine yards. One fellow has anwered so far. Embarrassing for me, I deleted the SMML volume before saving his name and address. So, dear John Doe please accept my thanks here and now. The essence of his explanation was: Fighting lights are there to identify friendly vessels. The three lamps making up a "fighting light" are switched on according to a dayly changing code. So far so good but I still have lots of questions: e.g. Were these lights permanently on or flashed only when two vessels approach each other? Were they highly visible (long distance identification) or low viz (identification of the nearest neighbor in a formation only)? Most vessels seem to have had 2 or more fighting lights. Is that to signal in certain sectors only (lights off towards the side where the enemy is expected, lights on towards the side where the friendlies are supposed to be)? Also, the question about the color(s) of these lamps still remains. Can anyone elaborate on this? Bernhard Hi Bernard, The person who answered your query was Chris Langtree at: mailto:chenyangzhang@email.msn.com Shane -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9) From: John Sheridan Subject: Camouflage Challange >> I will try to help, but was really hoping you would start with DD's considering the uncertainty in the camo they wore in late 42. Why not put up a rough draft so no one duplicates your original research (there's that word again!) Hopefully I can regurgitate some facts and not speculation. << I will have a rough-cut of the site online in a few weeks. BTW, I am working on DDs right now since the BBs are pretty much completed. John Sheridan @ Microscale Decals http://www.microscale.com If I'm talking Decals, then I'm talking for Microscale, Otherwise I am speaking for myself. What I do to Spammers: http://microscale.com/images/N2.jpg I am not a Member of the Lumber Cartel (tinlc) and I am not Unit #631 Fight Spam! Join CAUCE! http://www.cauce.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10) From: Duane Fowler Subject: USS Missouri, BB63 Hello All, I was over in Hawaii for 12 hours and had a chance to go aboard the USS Missouri. After talking to their staff and identifying myself as a modeler, they asked if anyone might be interested in building a couple of models for them. Specifically they are looking for a model of the Missouri as launched and in 1986. If anyone is interested in building the models for them they will provide the kits (Tamiya 1/350) and the etched brass. When you are done, they will be displayed on board the Missouri. Anyone interested? Let me know. I may do one, but I really don't know if I have the time to give it the care it should have. If anyone is interested, contact me at mailto:dlfowler@uscg.net mailto:dlfowler@apple.com Best regards, Duane Fowler -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11) From: "Jean-Paul Binot" Subject: French Navy info Hi SMMLers, You will find at http://www-perso.infini.fr/marine/index.htm a very nice site about the Marine Nationale, with pictorial coverage of all current and most decommissionned units. The site is updated frequently. Jean-Paul Binot -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12) From: Baker Subject: COLLINS REPORT With regard to the somewhat fully uninformed comments about the COLLINS class situation in today's SMML, those interested in the subject might want to read the official report to the Australian Defence Minister at: http://www.defence.gov.au/minister/1999/collins.html It lays out the myriad problems facing the RAN in making the class into useful combatant submarines in a very informed and dispassionate manner and then proceeds to make coherant recommendations on how to fix the problems. Recommissioning (the essentially unrecommissionable) retired OBERONS is not given as a recommended option. Good read, if rather damning of much of the contractor effort (including Rockwell--now Boeing--in the U.S., which had responsibility for the still non-functional combat data system). The COLLINS class SHOULD be a scandal, but the RAN needs the submarines, and the country needs to get on with fixing them. As to buying the KIDD class, it now seems that no foreign country will be getting the class and that they will probably eventually be scrapped; sad when one considers that they are probably the world's best-equipped destroyers after the AEGIS-equipped BURKE and KONGO classes, and I'm not sure I'd place the KONGOs ahead of them. Research beats rhetoric any day. Best/Dave Baker -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13) From: Marc Flake Subject: Re: Classic Warships Website Steve: Awesome Website! I hope everyone's been able to check it out. Especially noteworthy are the photos of the actual ships in his catalog, as well as some nice shots of completed models. The Links page is comprehensive, and I expect it to be very usefull. The only complaint I have is that the homepage loads kinda slow. I never waited around for the graphic of the Sims to load. I was too anxious to see the rest of the site. After all the discussion about your 1/700 destroyers being out of production, I was surprised to see all of them listed. Is this because there are still a few of these out there? Or are they really still in production? Marc in Mansfield -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14) From: Danjessar@aol.com Subject: Black Decal Lettering I'm doing a "superficial" conversion of Revell's USS Randall attack transport to another ship in the class, the USS Dickens. "Superficial" meaning I'm changing the name and hull number, and nothing else, unless I come across a reference detailing a difference between these two ships. I've taken care of the hull number via Gold Medal Models' decal set, but I can't find any black decal letters to do the name across the stern. Does anybody know where I can find these, or have any ideas how I can do the name? (Scale is approximately 1/400). Thanks, Dan Schweikert -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15) From: PulligS@aol.com Subject: Rajendra's list Would someone post his URL, also any other good kit review lists. Sam Pullig Hi Sam, The url is: http://navismagazine.com/rajendra.htm . As for other sites, well the usual suspects are as follow ;-): International Marine Modelling: http://members.tripod.com/~Febus65/imm.htm The Official Titanic Page: http://titanic-model.com/ The Ark Royal Page: http://www.inquest.demon.co.uk/royal/index.html Internet Modeller: http://www.internetmodeler.com/ Warships: http://warship.simplenet.com/ That'll get you going for starters. Shane -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADERS, ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTICEBOARD -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: "Rob Mackie" Subject: Warship Site Technical Difficulties The Warship site http://warship.simplenet.com has been inaccessible since Thursday morning. This is because of a hard disk failure at Simplenet, my web host provider. The server on which the site resides experienced a catastrophic failure that necessitated restoring the Warship web site (and all the other web sites residing on this particular server) from a tape backup. This is a slow process. The site may be accessible by the time SMML readers view this message Saturday, 3 July. I have a wealth of new material coming this month. There will be many new photo tours, reviews and buildup articles, as well as updates to the 1250 scale portion of the site. As always, I will announce major updates on SMML. Rob Mackie Warship Editor and Webmaster http://warship.simplenet.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: WRPRESSINC@aol.com Subject: Flower Class Corvette book. Dear Mr Frohock, If things go smoothly, W R PRESS inc will publish Flower Class Corvettes in the Warship Perspectives Series this autumn. The volume will contain a large number of fully detailed general arrangement plans along with many detailed plans of fittings and weapons. As for camouflage, there will be approximately twenty to thirty designs shown as carried by specific vessels. There will be a section giving (for the very first time in print), funnel markings of all types including funnel emblems, and --------- there will be text, and ------- nearly one hundred pages of large size (12"x9") in landscape format. W R PRESS inc -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of Volume