Subject: SMML24/07/99VOL616 Date: Sun, 25 Jul 1999 13:46:33 +1000 shipmodels@tac.com.au -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS INDEX 1: My First Model 2: A Clarification 3: Re: Your first ship model 4: First ship 5: David Browns new book 6: Re: USS Pennsylvania 7: My first ship model 8: Mistress Lorna Requests 9: First model 10: Re: First Model 11: Re: First Ship Model 12: Wire for rigging 13: First model 14: Re: First Ship Model 15: My First Ship Model 16: Re: First Model 17: Revell 1/720 Arizona to Pennsylvania 18: Re: Converting Arizona to Pennsylvania 19: Re: Airfix 1/1200 ships 20: Re: First model and first ship model. 21: Re: First Model 22: USS Alaska anyone ? 23: Re: My first ship model 24: Re: First Model 25: Re: HMS Warspite Camouflage 26: First model 27: Heller Bismarck, first ship model, and questions. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: Mark McKellar Subject: My First Model First the Applause....clap, clap, clap... I think my first ship was prob the Revell North Carolina - (1/720 scale?). I visited the ship as a youngest - 6 or 7 years old - and bought the kit at the gift shop. Two years later, when we moved from North Carolina, the comnpleted ship never arrived at our new home. My mother blamed the movers but, I do recall a fair number of complaints from her about how difficult it was to dust....I still wonder what happened to that little ship. Mark -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: Felix Bustelo Subject: A Clarification Hi Denis and SMMLers, A quick response to Denis' posting in Vol. 615 - I was born and raised in New York City. My parents moved here after fleeing Cuba in 1961. Thankfully, my mother had two brothers already living in NYC, which made the migration go a little easier. My father and uncle (his brother who also left Cuba shortly after my parents did) have shared many stories of seeing ocean liners and warships in Havana Harbor. They remembers seeing the DeRuyter, which not much later was lost in the Battle of Java Sea and plenty of USN and RN ships as well. I vaguely remember hearing about a German ship visiting Havana (Graf Spee maybe?) but I am not sure. My dad passed away several years ago, but my uncle is still around, so I will have to ask him. Actually, I prefer the cooler temps and I know that Jamaica makes cigars and some mighty fine rum too! Thanks for the compliments on the site and sharing your story with us. Regards, Felix -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From: Kcompany@webtv.net (Marvin Reichman) Subject: Re: Your first ship model My first ship was Airfix HMS Hood which I purchased from Gamages in London. I then proceeded to build most of the Airfix 1/600 line. In those days items were shipped by sea and it took quite a while to get the kits. But they were well worth waiting for. Happy memories -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) From: "larsenal" Subject: First ship Dear Mistress Lorna, Thank you so much for sending me some decades back! My very first model (I remember the scene like yesterday) was a 1/100 Heller Cadet Breguet Alizé (ASW airplane of the French Navy) given to me by my father. The kit was built in one evening using Scotch general purpose glue with lots of spots everywhere!(even on the fingers) Then I tried ships in the form of Airfix ships that were packed in plastic bags and costed no more than 2.50 French Francs(about a half Dollar in these days). This represented my pocket money of the month! The first one was the HMS Cossak, followed by a Frog Exeter. My brother waited a bit more than me and bought a Frog Tiger that was more expensive! Thank you again for the old memories, and all my best recovery wishes to Shane as I am also a great adept of painful back! Best regards, Jacques Druel L'Arsenal -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) From: "chenyangzhang" Subject: David Browns new book Hi Dave Actually the new book on the Grand Fleet is 100% spot on, the only things that the US definately had a lead in WW2 were heavy cruisers - oh and carrier aviation (not carriers). Its actually a superb bit of work and if you like technical details well worth getting. It is also of interest to WW2 buffs as it represents part of an integrated development line stretching back to the 1880s. The book and its comments can safely be assumed to be definitive and its a welcome additon to the literature. Chris Langtree -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) From: Joseph Poutre Subject: Re: USS Pennsylvania From: "Matt Melchert" >> By the way, my next (ship model) project idea is to get Revell's 1/720 Arizona and convert it to USS Pennsylvania using the Tom's Modelworks PE sheet. I was born there (Pennsylvania, that is!), so I thought it would be somewhat appropriate. Has anybody tried this? How good is the Revell 1/720 Arizona, and how hard would it be to convert it? << Matt, Why not just buy the Revell 1/720 USS Pennsylvania? It's out there, and Loren's set includes PE for it. It may not be in production, but there should be plenty of copies out there, though you may have to go overseas for one. Joe Joseph Poutre, aka The Mad Mathematician N2KOW Trustee and Co-Webmaster, Battleship New Jersey Historical Museum Society http://www.bb62museum.org/ Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) From: Loren Perry Subject: My first ship model I never built my first ship model kit, which was given to me when I was a young sprout by my father in the very early 1950's - it was an early Monogram balsa wood kit of an Essex-class carrier. After examining the precarved hull, printed ink outlines of parts and profile printed outlines of Hellcat planes on grainy balsa sheets, I decided that the work involved to make this a presentable model was more than my abilities would allow. So it remained in its box until it simply faded away from memory. The first kit I actually built (again a fatherly gift in the 1950's) was Lindberg's plastic LST. I loved this one - it assembled quickly and the thread railings looked great. But I lost my treasure within days of completion when I laid it in a chair and then, forgetting where I'd placed it, thoughtlessly sat down on it with predictable results. My world came apart on that blackest of days. My first scratchbuilt model was a free-lanced early dreadnought type carved from balsa wood in the late 1950's. I was inspired by the old Classics Illustrated comic-type book on H.G. Wells' The War Of The Worlds which showed a scene of the warship "Thunder Child" taking on the Martian War Machines. There was something about that old ram bow that I loved, so I carved my own "Thunder Child" from blocks of balsa with toothpicks for gun barrels and brush-painted the whole thing gray. No wood filler, nothing elaborate. Being a yank, I had to make it a U.S. Navy type, and knowing that U.S. battleships were named after states, I hand-painted a name on the stern. But because my painting abilities were limited, I picked the shortest name I could think of and christened my balsa beauty the USS Utah. The flat-bottomed balsa model provided me with a lot of satisfaction and play-value. The first model ship I deliberately sank was a Lindberg Q-ship. After watching ships sinking in the old Victory At Sea TV series, I wanted to make a model go down the same way. It took some trial-and-error experimenting with cardboard bulkheads, but eventually I was able to make the little Q-ship go slowly down in ther bathtub bow or stern first in a most realistic and satisfying manner. Eventually I built almost all of the Revell ship kits including their sailing ships (the Santa Maria was first, again in the '50's) as well as Lindberg's offerings and some of Aurora's. There was even the old Marx Toy Company's molded plastic & lithographed tin kit of the clipper ship Sea Witch thrown in for good measure. I started building Airfix kits when I first saw them in the U.S. in the '60's (their clean moldings impressed me) and even built some of the little Eagle/Pyro models whcih I thought were amazingly detailed for their size. And yes, I even tackled the Revell cutaway submarine George Washington (the eight-tubed original) with fair results, but only after I'd used a set of diagonal cutters to clip off parts of the decks to make them fit the hull better allowing the hinged side to close properly. I'll never forget those 1950's Christmas mornings when my younger brother and I found stacks of model kit boxes arrayed under the tree. It was a Revell ad man's dream. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) From: "Doremus, Mark" Subject: Mistress Lorna Requests I'm glad to see other folks have longer memories, I was starting to feel real old. The whole thing is quite a thread. Who says were a bunch of morons who haven't gotten past their 12th birthday! Best I can recall my first plastic model was a large, 1/48 scale (?) F9F Cougar, maybe a Hawk kit, the type with the decal locations molded in. My dad helped me build it in the living room, about 1963-64. After a number of cars and a monkey, I think my first ship was an Aurora (Pyro?) Jolly Roger pirate ship. I was defeated by the complications of Liquid Glue and the small gluing area on the masts and the kit was never completed. I also build a number of the old Revell and Renwall ships including the Arizona, Forrestal, Pine Island, Mission Capistrano and a transport with a lot of little Higgins boats (was that the Montrose?). The see through Ethan Allen was the end of the line for a number of years. What is also amazing it the way we all treated those early kits. Build them in half a day or so, paint them with what ever was available (did anyone use latex?) and then destroy them with BB guns, fireworks or even try to float them. I think several of my old airplanes experienced crash landings and the resultant (lighter fluid) fires. Would any of us try that with the kits we build today???? Mark Tropical Minnesota, temps and humidity in the 90's -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9) From: Lamar Jones Subject: First model Good lord! I started before plastic was invented, with Strombecker kits in WWII, mostly nailed together pieces of pine, then later on up to Boucher Models of New York (now Blue Jacket), and from time to time using plans in a publication that was known as Sea and Ships, which once featured a splendid model series on the building of the USCGC buoy tender Sun Dew.. H. O. Williams wrote the article. Also there were models made by Marine Models, including Cape Ann, a C1 cargo vessel. But that was all 55 years ago. Mistress Lorna wasn't around then! Nor had Australia been discovered! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10) From: Dave Judy Subject: Re: First Model Wow! How many years has that been?? I know I was very young.....I'm 50 now, so.....it was Christmas, I was shaking gifts as all young kids do, three of the gifts with my name on them made this strange rattling sound, little did I know this "sound" was a "virus" that I was never cured of... I "suffered" from this virus all my life with intermittent remissions, but always seemed to relapse, the latest relapse lasting over 15 years. After ever increasing and expensive financial treatment,....the prognosis is terminal........ OH!! the models...........they were the Revell (box scale) USS Saratoga and USS Ranger and USS Forrestal aircraft carriers. PS. Mistress Lorna.....Could you tell my wife I want a 1/350 ISW SMS Sedlitz for my birthday.........before I pass on?? Dave Judy -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11) From: CaptainOD@aol.com Subject: Re: First Ship Model A little younger than Bob Santos, but first ship "models" I had were former WW2 ID models in a case that somebody had given to an older brother. Can't remember if they were a metal or Bakelite style plastic. Very small and lasted about as long as a young boy could discover a way to destroy them. Then came I believe from Sterling was a wooden battleship (USS Missouri?), then finally the plastic ones, a US Fleet boat and Revell PT in an odd scale along with a Destroyer (Sullivans?). Only paint available was lacquer, so they lasted about as long as it took to put the paint on them. Finally followed by many electric motored Lindberg kits which sailed many miles in bath tubs in our travels as Air Force Brats. Then discovered airplanes and tanks, but always bought the Renwall ships when they came out. Wish I kept them all. Bob O'Donovan -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12) From: Terry Godwin Subject: Wire for rigging I have discovered something that might be of interest to those of you who want to use stranded wire for rigging. I may be reinventing the wheel and someone else may have already found this method, but here goes. Stranded wire is very difficult to find without insulation and the insulation is hard to remove. I have tried this successfully on some PVC insulated 32 gauge, some 26 gauge, and some 21 gauge. In each case the wire was tinned and stranded. The method would probably work as well on solid insulated wire. Take a small coil of wire that allows sufficient length for the next run you require and soak it in a jar of Acetone. After about 30 minutes to an hour the insulation swells up, softens, and debonds from the wire. You can then very easily, with your finger, strip the insulation off. After being out of the Acetone for a hour or so the insulation shrinks back up and hardens so don't let the soaked insulated wire sit around. Strip it right away. This will provide cheap very small stranded wire for rigging late era sailing ships, antennas, and rigging for steel Navy. Terry -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13) From: Kurt Van Dahm Subject: First model My first ship model was the Revell USS Constitution at the age of 12 or so. Never got it fully rigged (and to this day I dislike rigging work but seem to do an awful lot of it for restoration/repair work) but it hooked me good. Have worked mostly in scratchbuilding since, but just recently started into some plastic kits again - the Tamiya USS Fletcher and some resin kits and they sure are nice to work with. Kurt Van Dahm Westmont, IL -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14) From: Mike Settle Subject: Re: First Ship Model I don't really remember what my first ship model was, but it was probably one of the Revell battleships. I was around 10 or 11 years old, and had been building airplane models since I was 8. This would all be in the late '50s, early '60s. By the time I had graduated from high school and started college, I had built around 80 or so ship models, all Revell, Aurora, Monogram, Lindberg, or the rarely occasional other brand that showed up in the local Ben Franklin five and dime store. I even built the infamous Renwal Polaris sub. I was in the sixth grade when I built the George Washington, and I got to take it around to all the other fifth and sixth grade classes in the school and explain it to the other kids. My most challenging "youthful" projects were the Revell 1/96th scale Cutty Sark and the CSS Alabama. My Mother helped me with both of these, especially with all the rigging. Dad always thought modeling was a waste of money and time. Alas, not a one of these models has survived to today. The only models that have survived from my youth are most of the car models. All the ship and airplane models were stored in boxes in my Mother's basement when a major flood took them out several years ago. The car models were luckily in a different location, so I still have some momentoes of a "mis-spent" youth. Mike Settle -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15) From: "Peter Hall" Subject: My First Ship Model Hi Lorna, Well now, thinking back to the early sixties, when I was just an infant barely out of nappies, I was given a model of HMS Warspite. I do not know, nor can I remember that far back, who the kit was by, but it was of a small scale, probably 1/1200. Needless to say I put it together in about ten minutes and got glue everywhere. From then on I became an aircraft modeller. As the years went by and I got through my Naval career, I saw the Tamiya 1/350 Enterprise, this was 9 years ago now. I just had to have one of those, and fitted out with Loren Perry's photo etch as well! This was my first serious ship, which I still have. I was hooked and I haven't looked back. I still model 1/72 scale aircraft as well, but just for a change of scenery. Peter Hall -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16) Sender: Tom Detweiler Subject: Re: First Model I enjoyed the Mistress Lorna stuff very much. I'm glad I'm not the only kid who went crazy with the pyrotechnics and ended up sinking his own fleet! My first models were the typical "blobs of plastic" that sold in dimestores back when I was a kid in the 50's. I still have an Aurora/Revell USS Iowa in about 1/500 that I brought home from my parent's house last visit, and may fix it up and add PE. I think I must have built them all. Actually, the ones I remember most were the scratch-built ones, like a scratch-built wooden model of the Monitor, with a tuna can as a revolving turret and of course real firing cannons copped from whitemetal toys and operated with homemade black powder. That one even had an engine compartment with an electric motor, prop and shaft, and actually ran for many years on our pond and creek, although I don't remember how it met its fate. Unfortunately, most of my plastic models were either self-destroyed, or eventually ended up in one of my parent's many frequent "garage sales" once we left home! When I look at the collector values on what would have been the surviving collection, it's enough to make one weep. By the way, "Mistress" Lorna, your title makes me wonder just how the unfortunate Shane hurt his back, anyway -- or am I just one of those kinky Americans? Just kidding. Now Tom, if he'd hurt his back *that* way he could hardly be called unfortunate could he? But it wasn't my fault and the leather boots in my closet are only a coincidence ;-) Mistress Lorna -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17) From: "James Kloek" Subject: Revell 1/720 Arizona to Pennsylvania Someone asked if anyone had done this conversion. Yes. Actually it worked out pretty well, and I managed to get an article published on it in one of the Fine Scale "Modeling the Second World War" annuals. What made it possible for me was a set of plans I purchased from Floating Drydock, it would have been near impossible to do just from photographs. I did my Pennsy as she was in 1945, but you would need to decide what time frame you wanted to model her in, since she changed several times during the war. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18) From: Marc Flake Subject: Re: Converting Arizona to Pennsylvania Matt: I did this last year following the instructions in the 1995 "Modeling the Second World War" issue by FineScale Modeler. The article was by Jim Kloek and details the steps to convert the 1/720 1941 Revell Arizona to a 1945 Pennsylvania. If you can get a copy of this article the project will be much easier. I enjoyed doing it and decided that I had put so much work on it I wanted to show it off. I carted it off to the Fort Worth IPMSA contest and won first place. Last March, it placed second in the North Central Texas regional competition. You'll need some Skywave spare parts, battleship PE and strip styrene. You'll need patience, too, but if you're a modeler, you already have that. Marc Flake -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19) From: Marc Flake Subject: Re: Airfix 1/1200 ships These are always at the top of my want lists when I head out to swap meets and conventions. I'm looking for a Suffolk now. I, too, wish Airfix would reissue them. Heck, who knows, it looks like all our talk about the Olympia may have had some results. There may be someone among the 800 or so lurkers out there that may have some say over what Airfix produces. Marc Flake -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20) From: dhjonespsm@juno.com Subject: Re: First model and first ship model. Well, here is my trip down memory lane.... My first model(s) were Comet wooden kits of airplanes - Ryan Navion, Beech Bonanza, Taylor Craft, etc. I lived for 7 of my first 10 years with my grandparents in a very small town in Arkansas - where plastic kits were not available, except for some of the Gowland & Gowland (later Revell) 1/32 scale "Highway Pioneers" antique cars. These were my first plastic kits. When I came to live in Colorado in 1954, for Christmas of that year I received a Revell F.D.R. aircraft carrier. I built it as per the instructions - silver guns and all. I too was frustrated that I could not make it look anythng like the box illustration. The only model paints in those days were gloss, and there was not much of a selection. Of course, there was Floquil, but I never saw any of those paints until many years later. I would have been 11 years old at the time. I followed this with some of the other Revell ships, then drifted back into airplanes and cars (in 1957 the introduction of the 1/25 scale AMT 3 in 1 kits were seductive to say the least). I dabbled in ships from time to time but mainly I built cars and 1/72 airplanes. However, I did do some scratch building in 1/1200 ( to go with the Eagle/Pyro ship kits) as well as collecting some of the die cast models (mainly the old models by Superior, Viking, and Hansa). Then the 1/700 Waterline series started to appear (very exciting to me - BB's, CV's, and DD's of my favorite navy and in THE SAME SCALE!!!) and I was really hooked on ships. The focus sharpened to the degree that I sold all the airplane kits and books and concentrated entirely on ships, even to the degree of starting a magazine about them. My wife thinks that qualifies as an obsession ... naw... it's just a hobby. Right..... Daniel Jones Plastic Ship Modeler magazine -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21) From: Bradford Chaucer Subject: Re: First Model >> Wow, every one of you guys started out on a plastic model!!!!!!! Makes me feel old. My fist ship model kit was most likely during or just prior to WWII and there were no plastic kits back then! My first kits were wood, or paper, and then during WWII when there was a shortage of everything, many kits had molded peanut shell and glue hulls and balsa superstructures. << Thank you for the above, I was starting to feel depressingly old reading all the posts from modelers who started in the late 60s and 70s :-) Regards, Bradford Chaucer -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22) From: SJantscher@aol.com Subject: USS Alaska anyone ? Hi All, I'm just wondering if anyone else that preordered the Classic Warship USS Alaska 1/350th kit have received theirs yet?I'm sure Steve's been busy at the Nationals, selling as many as he can. I had just hoped that he would have sent out kits to those who preordered them, some many months ago, first. Let me know when someone gets one. I can't wait... Steve Jantscher South Minneapolis, sunny and very hot and humid, 80 degree dew temp! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23) From: JohnVCP@aol.com Subject: Re: My first ship model My first ship model was a Strombecker "Cruiser" and I think it was a Portland Class CA. My Dad helped me with it and this had to be around 1940. The one model I remember most was an aircraft carrier that was balsa and tissue! The hull was built-up just like a rubber-band flying model (balsa frames and balsa strips, covered with tissue!). The flightdeck and "island" were printed balsa. Does anyone remember the Rigby (spelling?) paper ship models? John Heasel -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 24) From: "arthur" Subject: Re: First Model First model boat? A cardboard galleon as a project in primary school. Being surrounded by the RN Med fleet and the US 6th fleet on Malta for 6 years in the fifties, this quickly fuelled an interest in all things naval and probably accounted for my going to sea myself. Having a 14' PBK canoe, I was free to explore all harbours around Valletta and Sliema and spent more time on ships than in school. My parents only found out when I brought home a CPO from the Burmese Yan Myo Aung for tea and offered to buy me for 5 quid ( Nookalu Terapele?sp. my how the mind works!!). I lost my paddles for a week! Cool to see 4 Aircraft Carriers in the main Harbour at once. Favourite ship the Manxman, boy could she move! (Suez Canal crisis). Most interesting project - raising a WW11 sub that had been bombed in 1944. Unfortunately my Box Brownie photo's of the time do not do justice to the subject. I confess that I have never bought or built a plastic boat, having always built from scratch in timber and lately fibreglass. Current project a 1/96 IJN Shokaku R/C that launches all 74 planes and fires the 5" guns. Worked up from a 1/72 PT boat then a 1/96 Gearing DD in the same fashion. Always learning more and more from this list. Envious of the wealth of expertise available and the thought that I will never get to the level of most contributors before I die. Will keep on trying though. Congrats on the high level of presentation Shane/Mistress Lorna. Keep up the good work. One day you will receive official recognition. Arthur NZ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 25) From: Sanartjam@aol.com Subject: Re: HMS Warspite Camouflage Hi SMMLies, Does anyone know what camouflage, if any, the Warspite carried in the spring of 1941 at Matapan and Crete? I've seen photographs of her at Narvik (in 507A) and after her repairs in the USA (in a pattern of 507B and 507C, I think), but only one photograph of her in early 1941 (in David Thomas' book on Crete). Thanks, Art Nicholson -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 26) From: Lisa and Bill Wiseman Subject: First model My first model was actually three models. My Dad was on his shore rotation at Naval Base Norfolk, VA. While he was home, he built sailing ships. He was working on the Cutty Sark or the Sea Witch, and I wanted to "help". What was a four year old going to do to these ships? We went to the base excahnge and he found a set of three 1/72 snap tite WWII aircraft: a P-51, a Spitfire and an ME-109. I burned up a full tube of Testors cement on three tiny snap tite kits. My Mom actually saved the one I didn't destroy by trying to "fly" them on a string. I went into cars because they were plentiful and cheap at the local Woolworth's in town. Started in on planes and deciided, like Ms Caroline, that they were too much the same. My first ship was an Aircraft Carrier, I believe it was an old MPC kit of the Enterprise or the Wasp. It had the recovered space capsule from one of the Apollo flights. It came with a cardboard record of the recovery operation radio traffic. I remember burning up my phonograph needle playing it over and over. I saw it in a hobby store in the "mall" on our once- a- month trips into the "city" from the farm. I saved my chore money for a whole month (about 8 bucks) to buy it. I built the ship and took it to the pond, on the family farm, where I promptly sunk it with my Trusty "Red Rider- Range Model- 200 Shot- Carbine Action- Air Rifle". Thankfully, the pond was only about 5 feet deep there and I was able to mount a salvage and recovery operation. I built the Revell/Renwall "show off" George Washington. I attempted the USS Constitution, which suffered a tragic case of feline weathering/battle damage. The Show Off George Washington (curse & spit on the ground) was so bad I went into Planes for a few years (gasp). I started on those Monogram Planes with the cool Shep Paine,"how -to" booklets inside. As a teenager, I built a whole bunch of planes. It was mostly 1/72 WWII stuff, but, there were some Viet-Nam era jets: Phantoms, Thunderchiefs, Delta Darts and the like. When I entered the Navy, I didn't have too much time or enough space to build too much. What I built, was mostly ships. The Revell series of Carriers, LHA's, Cruisers and such. I left them with my last Shore Station to use as training aids. The sillhouettes were at least right. I got into tanks and armor after I got out of the service and had more room to work. I still build armor and dioramas in addition to the ships. Funny how things go in circles. Bill Wiseman New Windsor, NY -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 27) From: "Peter Mispelkamp" Subject: Heller Bismarck, first ship model, and questions. Hello Lorna If you keep doing this good a job, Shane might not want it back!! Anway, this is a bit of rambling post because I have been away on a business trip and have just caught up to my email. The Heller Bismarck is, overall an excellent kit. The only major problems concern its AAA fit - no 20mm quads and not enough 20mm singles, the domed tops of the aft two AAA directors - they were never covered during her only operation (BTW the forward pair on the Prinz were never covered until after she arrived at Brest!!). So far as the Bismarck is concerned the Heller kit will make a magnificent model especially if you add a good PE set. Now, if we could only get somebody to make to make those KM 20mm quads!!! First Kit - actually I started by building any kit I could get my hands on. My first ship was an Aurora Admiral Graf Spee - boy do I wish I had never opened that box!!). Nowadays I am concentrating on 1/400 scale WW II ships, (Have over 80) and 1/72 scale Luftwaffe Aircraft (SHAME, SHAME ON ME!!). The only recent exceptions to my 1/400 scale rule have been the Airfix Narvik ( want to use it as a master for a conversion of the Heller Z-31 to a Z-28, and the Revell Graf Zeppelin. Questions: during my arrival in Philidephia my plane passee over a USN shipyard - swear I saw a WWII vintage heavy cruiser - was I dreaming?? On take-off from Minneapolis I saw a TR-71 Blackbird stationed at a National Air Guard museem. I thought they were still active - or at least top secret!! Anyway keep up the good work. Peter K. H. Mispelkamp -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of Volume