Subject: SMML09/08/99VOL632 Date: Mon, 09 Aug 1999 23:59:29 +1000 shipmodels@tac.com.au -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS INDEX 1: Tamiya New Jersey 2: Re: Judging Difficulties 3: Tiny a/c decals 4: Re: Where do you build? 5: Re: Maritieme historie/dutch judging. 6: The TRUTH about color...or the John Snyder celebrity roast... 7: USS Ward DD 139 / APD 16 8: Re: Catalina torpedo bomber 9: Docking a ship 10: Peter Hall's Normandie 11: Lindberg Diesel Tug 12: Re: Catalinas/w torpedoes 13: HMS Warspite 14: Tamiya Shinano and Swordfish 15: Re: Australian Tribals 16: Re: Iron Shipwrights Tug Kit 17: Re: Drydocking 18: Bollards 19: 1:350 Kirov 20: Need Help With Parts 21: MS 21 vs MS 11; the never ending saga 22: Broadsides, Blast Bags, and Deck finish 23: Re: judging colours 24: Colour 25: e-mail discussion groups 26: Re: work bench ergonomics 27: Re: Drydocking 28: ICM Hood -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADERS, ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTICEBOARD INDEX 1: HMS Duncan piture posted -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: "Mike Leonard" Subject: Tamiya New Jersey Could somebody provide me with a photocopy of the instructions to the 1/350 Tamiya New Jersey (the 1984 configuration of this ship)? I'll pay reproduction and postage costs. Thanks, Mike Alexandria, VA USA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: SantMin@aol.com Subject: Re: Judging Difficulties Rusty! I am ashamed of you!!!!!! You would give extra credit to a wooden deck at the International PLASTIC Modelers Society exhibit!!!!!!! How about a PLASTIC deck that looks like wood????? SORRY........ I'm a long time IPMSer too but that is one area that I do have difficulties with. I am not against P.E., I think it's great and I use it a lot myself, in fact I was using it long before it became so available, having my own stuff etched. Also, I model in all materials, including plastic, wood, resin, metal, etc., and I don't think any of my models should qualify at IPMS. I simply feel that IPMS should go back to the "mostly" plastic standard or change the name of the organization. I remember at the Nats in Washington DC, not the last one there, the one before, someone had a simply breath-taking model of a submarine using P.E. for all the deck gratings and rails. Looked like a "best of show" model but was disqualified because of the percent plastic rule that was in effect then. For what it's worth, I'm against metal figures at IPMS too. With a little work most of the the same could be done in plastic. I always felt that that was what made IPMS unique. (I'm off my soapbox now) Cheers, Bob Santos -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From: Mike Connelley Subject: Tiny a/c decals Howdy: Thanks to everyone who replied to my message regarding getting little a/c decals. My local, and remarkably well stocked, hobby shop here in Honolulu had the GMM 1/350 ship decal set. This included 12 white stars in the blue circle (no bars) in two different sizes; so I applied these and painted a red dot in the middle my self (very carefully I assure you). For 1/350 decals they fit perfectly on my 1/384 Kingfishers which I filed down to 1/430. Now the Kingfishers are on the catapults looking fine. Now a shot of clear flat and rigging and I'll be all PAU! Cheers Mike Connelley -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) From: Marc Flake Subject: Re: Where do you build? Greg: When we built our house, I set aside one of the bedrooms for my hobby room. As designed, the room has two, side-by-side shallow closets. One closet holds models-to-be-made, while the other was turned into a modeling booth. I had the builder install an overhead kitchen vent about 47 inches off the floor. I went to a furniture resale warehouse and picked up one of those 6' by 18" conference/display tables and an old swivle-and-tilt office chair. The Vent-a-hood is great. It provides for a good overhead lightsource and it vents out all the harmful fumes when I'm painting/gluing. For my birthday I got a little TV/VCR combo to support my paint rack. Marc Flake (30 miles from where the US Y2K Nationals will be held and where it's forecast to be in the 100s for the foreseeable future.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) From: Pieter Cornelissen Subject: Re: Maritieme historie/dutch judging. >> Is there anyone out there who could direct me to the right address (and web site if one exists) for obtaining photos of Royal Netherlands Navy ships in WWII? Is there in the Netherlands a "Dutch National Archives" or "Naval Historical Center" that is the central repository for such photos? << Micheal, The dutch navy has a naval history section, the Instituut voorMaritieme Historie. A little information on it can be found at: http://www.mindef.nl/marine/historie/imheng.htm On dutch judging. I know I'm running the risk of starting a flame now, but I think Ervert-Jan is a bit fast in denouncing the partially unpainted 1/500 Nagato that went to second place in the 1998 nationals. Evert could have at least mentioned the general level of the competition (not as bad as in 1/700 but incomparable to UK/US standards). He could also have mentioned the method of judging. People judge each others' models because no one seems to be willing or able to judge. This tends to favour models in which a lot of time and effort seems to have been invested. The Nagato was built way before the time of photo-etch or good research on japanese navy colors. The Nagato had a full suit of railings, catapults, cranes etc. done BY HAND in stretched sprue and metal. I think this might explain why it almost won the competition. Pieter Cornelissen Delft, The Netherlands Who is trying to acquire some basic painting skills before the next nationals in November. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) From: "Jeff Herne" Subject: The TRUTH about color...or the John Snyder celebrity roast... Photospectometry? Reflectance? To those of us who know you, here's the REAL Story... How many of us have ever gone into a hardware store or automotive store, gone to the spray paint aisle, and seen all those little spots of paint sprayed on the racks, stockboys, and floors? Curious customers? Naw, it was John, who wanders the country searching for the perfect match for those paint chips... He's been thrown out of numerous paint stores, I recollect a story not to recently about him attempting to spray paint a Disruptive Pattern on a store manager.... Seriously though...I think John's post to SMML sums up the amount and quality of the work that goes into their product, and I for one am grateful. Jeff PS: John, I guess that makes 2 tots of scotch I owe you :-) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) From: "Doremus, Mark" Subject: USS Ward DD 139 / APD 16 This might get a little complicated, but hang on. On Saturday, I attended an airshow sponsored by the SOUTHERN Minnesota wing of the Confederate Air Force. Among all the rest of the stuff was a booth sponsored by the "First Shot Naval Vets". They were selling a book about the WWII career of the USS Ward, both as a destroyer and as an APD. OK, I went to an air show and bought a book about a ship. Go figure! Actually, the Ward's crew was made up from Naval Reservists from St. Paul, Minnesota. (apparently none of them would admit being from Minneapolis) And a few remain in the area. They've put together this book about their war service. It's done in the "In Action" format, 50 pages with drawings by Alan Chesley and the text was edited by Robert Sumrall. It also describes their efforts to get the Ward's #3 gun, the one that holed a Japanese mini sub 1 hour before the attack on Pearl Harbor, enshrined at the Minnesota Capital. It's not a great historical volume, but it was a worthwhile read. Talking with one of the old salts about his picture in the book, I found out that many APD sailors dyed their Dixie cup hats green so the white wouldn't show against the greens of the camouflage paint. (No, he didn't have a Munsell match for the green dye.) It's available from: The First Shot Naval Vets PO Box 17235 St. Paul, MN 55117 I paid $5 for my copy, I don't know about shipping costs. Mark Doremus Eden Prairie, MN I am not affiliated with The First Shot Naval Vets in any way. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) From: Mike Settle Subject: Re: Catalina torpedo bomber >> I`m sure you have all read about various Catalina recon. flying boats (PBY5-A) being used as torpedo bombers at various times in WWII in the Pacific. Does anyone know of any photographs of aircraft with the torpedos being carried? I presume 1 or 2 were carried slung underwing? How about drawings or descriptions of the improvised racks and release gear used? << The Squadron Signal "Walk Around PBY Catalina", has a photo on page 71 of a PBY-5A. The ground crew in the picture is loading 500 pound bombs on the bomb rack. A torpedo rack is visible in the picture between the bomb rack and the wing strut. Also in the Squadron "PBY Catalina in Action", on page 45 is a drawing of the torpedo hoist and loading platform. The following quote also appears on the same page: "There have been repeated references to "jury rigged" PBYs making torpedo attacks. In fact, all models of the PBY were equipped to carry standard aircraft torpedos. An adapter, mounted on the underwing bomb racks, carried the torpedo and the installation provided all necessary services for a launch (arming the warhead, starting the motor, and electrical or manual release of the weapon). A Navy developed Torpedo Director Sight could be mounted on a track inside the windshield above the instrument panel to provide the pilot with sighting information and a release point during the attack run. Many PBY torpedo attacks were made during World War II, usually multi-plane night actions early in the war. And while some successes were claimed and losses to the PBYs were minimal, there were better torpedo planes available and few Catalina attacks were reported after 1943." End Quote. Mike Settle -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9) From: "foeth" Subject: Docking a ship Each ships comes with a docking plan, so that the blocks below the ship always land on a main girder. If you want to support a ship on it's hull plating only, there will surely be structural failure. The main centre girder, and web frames are usually the supporting structures. Larger ships need to be supported on multiple blocks, while others require a single row. There should be something to keep the ship from falling over, so there will be a set of off-centre supports, or beams from the side to the dock to the ship. These are often the same supports as used when launching a ship. During the launch the ship will experience the heaviest loads in its career, unless it is torpedoed or runs aground of course When all the blocks are set up in the dock, the dock is filled and the ship can enter, with the aide of tugs etc. At the corners of the dock, there are usually a set of winches to direct the ship to its final "resting place". I've witnessed the docking of a ship a few times during an internship at the Amsterdam "Shipdock" repair yard. The docking master positions the ship by: (here comes the high tech departement) He hung a line with a small weight across the dock the indicate the farest the bow at the waterline should go, with a small white marker to indicate the middle of the ship. He'll be standing at the end of the dock, in the middle, manning the winch controls, and directing other workers (With aproximately 80% foul language). He'll have a small "ship director" (A set of rings on a line) and with that he'll "eyeball" the ship in its right position. When he's happy, the ship is secured with winches, and the dock can be drained, with huge pumpes. These pumps required so much power, that they had to ask the electrical company when they could use them! The winches will try to have the ship in the right position during the draining, which will take an hour or so, as the docks weren't that large. When the ship hits the supports it will no longer have full buoyancy and it will dump its ballast water to decrease the load. I've observed the docking of a small fast cooling ship, among others, which did not dump its ballast water from a forward tank. Apparently, the ship landed with a dumping port exactly on a support! Well, I learned a lot of new words that day. In the end, they removed the block with forklifts airlifted into the docks with the cranes (Not in a gentle manner). The ship needed now bottom plating along the bow area, destroyed due to slamming. That same ship was later shown in a desing course as a "bad ship". The desing prof was pleased to hear what was wrong with that ship (Not a dutch design, I can tell you) Foeth -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10) From: "Jean-Paul Binot" Subject: Peter Hall's Normandie Fellow SMMLers, For once, a kit manufacturer offers to listen to popular demand and actually proposes to produce a kit of our choice. We collectively select the French liner Normandie to be that kit, by a wide margin. This is the first time ever that we are given a chance to own a kit of the Normandie in a reasonable scale (1/600 is a de facto standard for liners). And the maker of the kit is Peter Hall, remember, with the certainty of quality and accuracy that the name implies. All Peter is asking is for ten of us to express our interest by letting WEM have our details for a pre-order. I just cannot believe that we have come so close to actually having a kit of the Normandie produced, only to let the opportunity escape by lack of interest. It is just not believable that the worldwide market for a 1/600 Normandie would not even fetch 10 kits! Come on guys (and gals), do the right thing and send your details to WEM. Jean-Paul Binot -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11) From: "K. Hagerup" Subject: Lindberg Diesel Tug Does anyone know of any references for Lindberg's diesel tug in its USN fit? Thanks, Ken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12) From: Dave Judy Subject: Re: Catalinas/w torpedoes Paolo, Check Andrew Hendrie's Flying Cats.......page 125 shows a Cat with what appears to be a light weight aerial torpedo on the port wing! Dave Judy -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13) From: "chenyangzhang" Subject: HMS Warspite Yet more confusion re Warspite's layout, camouflage scheme etc! I missed the photo on page 34 (Anatomy) but this would leave an unusual layout if the drawings were correct (two twins on one side and two on the signal bridge). I took the 36 inch searchlights on page 35 to be the rear pair near the funnel but am not so sure now. If everything remained symetrical then the 4 twins would have been located towards the rear of the ship. Photos anyone? Chris Langtree -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14) From: Erwin Van Deynze Subject: Tamiya Shinano and Swordfish Hi, all I've just been on the tamiya website and found some fine pics of their new 1/700 IJN Shinano, looks very nice ! http://www.tamiya.com/english/products/31215shinano/shinano.htm They also have nice pics of their upcoming 1/48 Swordfish http://www.tamiya.com/english/products/swordfish2/swordfish2.htm Greetings, Erwin -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15) From: "chenyangzhang" Subject: Re: Australian Tribals Hi Greg Just a few more details to back up Shane's information. There were due to be 4 more RAN vessels but they were cancelled. Displacement 1927 tones (as opposed to 1870 for RN vessels). Armament as follows 3 x twin 4.7, 1 x twin 4 inch AA, 1 four barrelled pom pom, 8 .5 machine guns. 4 x 21 inch torpedo tubes. This would have changed during the war. Crew was 250. Bataan was originally named Kurnai and was sold to Japan 2.5.58 for scrapping. Arunta was lost 13.2.69 on its way to the shipbreakers and Warramunga sold in January 1963 to Japan for scrapping. Chris Langtree -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16) From: "John Snyder" Subject: Re: Iron Shipwrights Tug Kit My 1944 copy of Fahey's _Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, Second War Edition_, shows some tugs in various schemes. A couple of the photos seem to be pre-war, and show the vessels in overall Standard Navy Gray #5, with black stack caps (conversely, this could also be the wartime Measure 23, overall Light Gray (5-L). One shows USS KONOKA (YT-151) with a dark hull and lighter superstructure; if this is a wartime shot, the colors should be Navy Blue (5-N) on the hull, and Haze Gray (5-H) on the superstructure; stack cap is still black. John Snyder Snyder & Short Enterprises The Paint Guys -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17) From: Rick Heinbaugh Subject: Re: Drydocking >> This question is a little off topic but I have always wondered how they put a large ship into drydock. You see many pictures of them high and dry supported by timbers but how do they make sure they have all right timbers in all the right places before they pump out the water especially if the ship has never been docked there before? Does the ship carry some sort of docking plan that specifies where to put everything so the hull is adequately supported and not damaged? Perhaps use divers? I can see where a mistake could be a real disaster. << Yes, the ship carries docking plans with specifics, and even more than that, the ship will have multiple docking plans. I forget if they are identified "A", "B" and "C", or what. The idea is that if the ship was docked in 1995 by Plan "A", then you want a different set of places to apply the stresses of the weight of the docked ship when you dock it in 1998. So the location of the timbers will be rotated by the use of three diffeerent docking plans. Rick -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18) From: "foeth" Subject: Bollards If the bollards are nice and round, I'd make them with a punch-and-die set, a tool that everybody should have. Just punch a small diameter cilinder from thick styrene (Or use a pice of rod, but cutting it leaves a not-so-straight top, requiring sanding, which is nearly impossible due to the size of the rod, but also leaves you with a set of unique rods, and they need to be identical). Make a small disk from a larger diamter punch out of thin styrene. For those of you who have never heard of this tool: it consists of two small slabs, one steel, one transparent plastic (Else it wouldn't be of much use). You need to drill two holes at one end of the plate to pount two position pens, and at the other end you drill all the diameters you can think of, and you make the punches on a milling machine, fitting in these holes. Insert styrene between the slabs, insert pin, give it a whack, and there's a disk! *Very* usefull for all kinds of things! There is no model that can't benefit from it! If you have a 0,5mm punch, you can even add bolts on turret tops. Foeth -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19) From: "Jens H. Brandal" Subject: 1:350 Kirov Peter, It's time to come out of the closet and say I am really excited about a 1:350 Kirov even at £300. My preference is modern warships, and the Kirov is such a handsome ship, so you can count me in on one as soon as I can dig up the cash. I have no problem with a waterline model as that's the way I prefer to display my ship models, but I would definitely ask you to include the decals for the hull numbers and ship names. Jens (beginning Kirovaholic) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20) From: YHSAIO@aol.com Subject: Need Help With Parts Can any SMMLs out there givme some help? I am building a 1/700 Waveline USS New Orleans (WL-91) and had a major accident. The CA I was using caused major damage to the bridge, which looks like the aftereffects of a major shelling (the bridge lools like it went through one of the battles of Guadacanal-CA debonder made it even worse). Ordinarily, I would contact Bill Gruner for replacement parts, as the kit was purchased from Pacific Front, but with his impending move, he's too busy. The parts I need are the three upper bridge levels (parts C-9, C-10, & C-11). Anybody out there who can part (no pun intended) with these pieces, please contact me off post. Hopefully, there is somebody converting New Orleans to a late war configuration who doesn't need the parts. I'll even consider taking scratchbuilt parts, but copies from the original may or may not be considered (remembering the thread here about the legality of copies, I don't want to open up a can of worms:-)). I will pay for any costs incurred. Thanks for any help. Yunchi Hsaio -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21) From: John Sheridan Subject: MS 21 vs MS 11; the never ending saga In talking to several people between the IPMS convention and yesterday, We have come to a census on whether MS 11 lasted into 1942 in the Pacific Theater. It seems that alot of ships that passed through Pearl Harbor on their way from the Atlantic to the South Pacific in 1942 were painted in MS 21 (Navy Blue 5-N) and NOT MS 11 (Sea Blue 5-S) as once thought. This is because the paint used for MS 11 did not stand-up to exposure well at all and it tended to chalk and fade after only a few weeks. The main difference with Sea Blue According to John Snyder, is that it came pre-mixed from the factory unlike most of the other paints which started with a base and needed to be mixed with pigments before using. Sea Blue 5-S was officially dropped as a color in December 1941. A few of us assumed that with wartime shortages, the Navy would have used existing stocks of paint before switching to new formulas. This does not appear to be the case with Sea Blue simply because the paint was so defective. It is also safe to say if any shipyard in the Atlantic painted ships in MS 12 or MS 12 Modified in 1942, that they too switched to Navy Blue 5-N even though MS 12 calls for Sea Blue 5-S. I will be changing the tables on the Warship Camouflage Pages to reflect this in the next few days. John Sheridan @ Warship Camouflage http://home.earthlink.net/~jrsheridan/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22) From: KDur597268@aol.com Subject: Broadsides, Blast Bags, and Deck finish Hello all - I also had heard the projectile interference explanation for the staggered salvo. Although there is probably some truth to it, I think that the hull rationale is more of a remnant from the wooden ship days - the "rippled" broadside. (Boy, would I like to hear that from a 74!) Also I read somewhere that the muzzle blast on deck from Yamato's 18-inchers was sufficient to literally pulverize a small mammal - I think a Guinea Pig was mentioned. Does that sound true? And if so, is the blast from a 16-inch gun so much less that human mammals could loiter in it's effect without fear of, say, inner ear damage? I may have missed a post, but has anyone mentioned white glue-soaked tissue for making blast bags? I've made control stick boots, bedrolls, etc from it, and it looks real nice - easy to control the folds when the glue sets up a little. I just picked up a book called "The German Navy, 1939-1945" by Cajus Bekker (Dial Press) for a few bucks and it has a lot of very nice photos, including one taken on board Prinz Eugen - according to the caption - that's great for two reasons: one is it's sheer drama - it looks like it's taken by someone looking forward, hanging outboard abeam B turret: a great shot of the bow and the bow wave heading into a stormy sky. Secondly, and of modeling interest, it has great detail of the main deck in the immediate vicinity, and it really caught my eye how many *different* textures and colors (ok, shades - it's B&W) are visible - areas of frequent use are obviously darker and more worn, etc. There is also a "T-shaped" area forward that is darker that I've never seen before. It does not correspond with the - now I don't remember what it's properly called: the V-shaped back-ribbed "breakwater" just forward of Anton. If anyone has this book (p.90) and would care to comment I'd be very interested to hear. Or if you're interested in the pic I could scan and send it to you. Thanks Ken Durling -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23) From: "Phil Gollin" Subject: Re: judging colours Further to John Snyder's piece on the correct judging of colours, yesterday. When I was at college, prior to the introduction of International Standards, the British equivalent of John's "North sky daylight" was our "BRITISH STANDARD OVERCAST SKY" - which we always felt was less an official standards description but rather a rather wry comment on the state of British weather. Best of luck with John's efforts to pin down one side of the colour mysteries. Phil -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 24) From: "John Rule" Subject: Colour Re: John Snyder dissertation on colour matching. Wow! Are you sure you weren't an alchemist in a past life. Anyway, the part I want to know is how do you know which Munsell colour you are trying to match in the first place. Is that not the hardest. The second part, though time consuming and potentially expensive is scientific, and therefore readily solvable with effort. You can add my vote to the WWI paint chip idea. John Rule -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 25) From: "Alpaslan Ertungealp" Subject: e-mail discussion groups Dave, Try the following link: http://www.buffnet.net/~tonym/models.htm It is Tony Matteliano's Scale Model Index. You'll get links for "Personal/Special Interest Groups ", "Reference Pages For Modelers", "Model Clubs & Events", "Model Related Vendors " These make up more than 2000 links. I remember seeing links for aviation and armour SIGs. After more than 6 months on and off, I haven't finished going through the lists yet. Many new links will be added soon. I hope you'll find, what you're looking for. Alp -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 26) From: "Richard - Charlotte Marelius" Subject: Re: work bench ergonomics Hi Greg and all, My husband pointed out your work-bench-to-chair ratio question, knowing that bad workstation ergonomics have long since gone from a pet peeve to an obsession with me-- but not to an education or a degree. I have peripheral neuropathy, and I must keep a sharp eye out on things like this because repetitive discomforts can cause quite a bit of damage to me. Sad to say, there is no absolute answer on this, as people and tasks require constant adjustability. However, there are some pretty steadfast guidelines. Your most important asset is a chair in which these parameters can be adjusted (each independent of the other): seat height; tilt fore and aft of back; height of back up and down so lumber cushioning fits right in the small of your back; if you want arms, they also need to be height adjustable, and an angling arm cushion is an excellent feature. The contour of the back should not push your head or shoulders forward -- a surprising number do. If it has an integral foot rest, it should be independently height adjustable irrespective of the seat height. The chair should have an odd number of legs (five is most common) as a safety feature to lessen the chance of tipping over. The structural seat pan, underneath all the upholstery and cushioning foam, should be roughly flat on the sitting side with a curled down front edge; there are many that have seat pans made of plastic basins; once the cushioning gets crushed down in these chairs, the edges dig into the back of your thigh or knee. There are lots of people who sell really sexy looking chairs for very high prices so you can't go by price when selecting a chair. A good chair will cost you US$300 (so will a lousy one), and a really good chair will set you back US$600. If you don't have just tons of money to burn, minimum seating requirement is height adjustable chair, a small pillow to pad the small of your back (lumbar spine) and a foot stool, even if it's a pile of old phone books or a cardboard box. The things to measure and consider in establishing a "correct" station: * How much of your time is spent in 'microscopic, only the fingers move work' vs 'fine, close work requiring reasonably careful hand and forearm activity' vs 'whole arm and torso work' done. Consider also whether you work while standing. Why? These data influence the optimum height of the bench surface and whether or not multi-level surfaces would be the best/only way to go or can you just adjust the height of your chair for this range of work. Working height difference from micro to macro work is many inches -- if memory serves, it's in the 7 inch to 11 inch range of adjustability required. * Have someone assess your seated position, in terms of joint to joint to joint. When talking about parallels and right angles here, I'll be referring to the bone, not the entire body part. When I make reference to a specific degree, i'm assuming 0 degrees is at 3:00 o'clock and increases anticlockwise. Here are some of the measurements you need to take into account to set the interface between you, your chair, and your bench. 1. from hip to knee joints including foot position: with your feet settled nicely flat on the floor, the knee joint should be a bit above hip joint level, say 1/2 inch to an inch. Reason: this prevents or at least diminishes the uneven, squeezing (tiddly-wink type) pressure on the discs in the lumbar spine, and helps set up the spine to balance the shoulders. No matter how high you adjust your chair to sit, maintain this hip-knee-foot relationship. This may mean you need to have two or three different height foot rests; many people find a foot stool that tilts up a bit at the toe side (as far up as 15 degrees) to be most comfortable. Word of caution: foot support rings are not usually a replacement for foot rests in my opinion, because they pull your knee joint below your hip joint and are seldom height adjustable themselves. Many people do find them quite satisfactory, though, my opinion notwithstanding. Second word of caution: avoid sitting and supporting your legs by raising your heels off the floor and resting just on your toes. Reason: this causes long term, repetitive tensing of the plantar fascia tendon (goes from the toes to the heel), and the achilles tendon, and the calf muscles. Before long, this costs you the ability to flex your foot fully and walk comfortably up inclines, and increases your chances of tearing the plantar fascia (ouch). 2. Some work benches are height adjustable, but most are built for the normal guy. In other words, the bench won't fit you, anybody in your family, or anybody you know or have ever seen. Your work bench surface for doing average accuracy and detail of work should be at a height that allows you to have your forearms, when bent at ninety degrees from the upper arm which falls straight from the shoulder, roughly parallel to the floor, from big first knuckles through wrist to elbow. Finer work is done at a higher (relative to your chair) bench level; coarse work is done at a relatively lower bench level. Resting your forearms or elbows on the bench should not cause your shoulders to rise up in a hunch. Leaning your body weight on forearms or elbows is not good for you (can cause briuising of bone and nerves). It shows your chair is at the wrong height and/or indicates you sit too far away, inevitable for some of us plumper people. Pull out shelves (or a board you can slide toward you) come in handy in situtations where you're too far away part of the time. Whenever you find yourself sitting with your chin jutted forward, your neck extended, looking out the bottom half of your eyes, and your mouth slightly open, you have proof that you've got the chair seat to bench surface height wrong. 3. Using your posture in a relaxed (neutral) seated position to check bench/human/chair alignment and positioning: if you have everything set up right -- chair height, feet positioned at the right height, bench height, and lumbar support, you can just about draw an imaginary line up to the ceiling, perpendicular to the floor, and it will (in a side view of you), pass through your hip joint, your shoulder joint and the opening in your ear. 4. For exercises to reduce or elimnate the stiff back and neck and shoulders, look in physical therapy or rehablitation therapy books on treating carpal tunnel syndrome, as it's the same group of muscles and abuses to them that are involved here. Ask wife/husband to give neck massage by rubbing neck and shoulders with you lying face up, being careful to maintain equal pressure simultaneously on both sides of the spine. Doing this with you face up adds your weight to the massage, and it's much more effective. Also, while standing, press down firmly on the big muscle that runs from the base of your neck (back side) to the shoulder joint while moving your arm, bent at the elbow, gently fore and aft about ten times per arm. 5. Why does sitting on the floor at the coffee table work? Your knees are above your hips, you tend to rock and readjust when sitting on the floor, and the table is close to you with the weight of your arms supported. It fails to support your lumbar spine, but all in all it's not all that bad -- ergonomically speaking. (Ergonomics: what a poplular word, eh?!) May I recommend a ten-week old kitten for you, too. Any impulse to build on the coffee table is quickly scuttled without ever having to figure out spouses at all! When working at a work bench, you tend to stop and relax far more often to watch the kitten show. Adult cat's whiskers (naturally shed, now) sure look like they'd make good aerials, don't you think? And the kitten would almost surely absorb spousal attention and increase the air of tolerance. Works on me! Apologies for such a long response. Like I said, obsession. Charlotte Marelius ....and I was just going to tell you to stick to larger scale ships; but I guess that just means a greater volume of fiddly bits! Rick Marelius Hi Charlotte & Rick, Great Post - now all I have to do is actually take this advice, in regards to my back ;-). We hear all the time about the "dangers" of modelling eg: resin, airbrushing etc, but this points out another danger in modelling, as well as too much time spent at the computer ;-). Shane -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 27) From: Rick Heinbaugh Subject: Re: Drydocking >> This question is a little off topic but I have always wondered how they put a large ship into drydock. You see many pictures of them high and dry supported by timbers but how do they make sure they have all right timbers in all the right places before they pump out the water especially if the ship has never been docked there before? Does the ship carry some sort of docking plan that specifies where to put everything so the hull is adequately supported and not damaged? Perhaps use divers? I can see where a mistake could be a real disaster. << Yes, the ship carries docking plans with specifics, and even more than that, the ship will have multiple docking plans. I forget if they are identified "A", "B" and "C", or what. The idea is that if the ship was docked in 1995 by Plan "A", then you want a different set of places to apply the stresses of the weight of the docked ship when you dock it in 1998. So the location of the timbers will be rotated by the use of three diffeerent docking plans. Rick -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 28) From: "Satin, Michael N. (SHEP)" Subject: ICM Hood Hey everyone! After hearing all the rumors about an ICM 1/350 Hood I went to their US website and sent them an e-mail asking them to confirm it. Herewith, the response [my comments in brackets]: >> Dear Mr. Satin, Thank you very much for your letter. The rumor is true, the [sic] HMS Hood with four other battle cruisers [!!!!!!] is coming. The release date on the Hood is scheduled around February 2000. We are all very excited about this model and think our customers including your self are too [you got it, brother!]. We estimate the retail price for the Hood will be around $60-$90, we do realize that this is a very wide rage but at the moment this all we know. But I am sure you know, even if the ship will be priced at $80 it will be a very approachable figure [guess I'm forced to agree with this]. Please don't hesitate to call or write our office in California, with any questions or suggestions. Best regards, Ilya Lipovich VP of Sales, ICM-USA P.S. Please feel free to post any information on your list, but do realize that the price is an UNCONFIRMED PRICE. << There we are folks, the straight gen. Michael -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADERS, ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTICEBOARD -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: Shane Subject: HMS Duncan piture posted Hi gang, I've just uploaded a picture of HMS Duncan courtesy of John Rule to the SMML website at: http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/4712/pics/HMS-Duncan01.JPG Enjoy. Regards, Shane -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of Volume