Subject: SMML14/08/99VOL637 Date: Sat, 14 Aug 1999 22:40:32 +1000 shipmodels@tac.com.au -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS INDEX 1: IPMS (UK) Nationals 99 2: Re: USS Nautilas at Midway 3: Revell 1/429 USS Arizona 4: Efficiency Awards 5: Cottage Industries Models 6: Re: solar eclipse 7: "E" Awards 8: Thanks Commander Series Models 9: Battleship Park 10: Battle E Colors 11: New Subscriber 12: Skywave Fletcher and paint 13: Re: Richelieu & Translations 14: Mystery Ship 15: Dutch IPMS 16: Re: E Awards -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADERS, ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTICEBOARD INDEX 1: Website update 2: Neptun 1/1250 warships in stock at East Coast Miniatures -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: "Peter Hall" Subject: IPMS (UK) Nationals 99 Hi everyone, Well, I must say, the IPMS seems to have a bug for everyones bums this year. IPMS (USA) with no public. IPMS (Netherlands) with no paint. And now IPMS (UK) with no metal parts. In their infinite wisdom, the powers that be, have decided to scrap the idea of having the first two ships classes for the smaller and larger scales, (A system that worked extemely well last year as the number of entries in both classes was so great that more table space had to be found). Instead of this the first two ship classes (51 & 52) are for ships any scale. Class 51 is for variations of standard kits only which according to the definitions in the rules does not allow the use of metal parts in any form. Wonderful !!!! Class 52 is for any source of kit which does permit the metals in any form. It does not take much working out as to which class will be oversubscribed, and which class probably will not have any entries in it.(And will get deleted next year probably). The modellers who have been busy preparing ship models in both the large and small scales are to be disappointed when they find their own models competing against each other. And even more disappointed when the owners of 1/700 scale ships suddenly find that someone plonks a bloody great 1/96 scale ship in front of them. Mines bigger than yours. eh Caroline. That sound is still ringing in my ears. And if rumours are true this is just what will be happening this year. How are the judges going to explain or justify awarding one over the other if the level of workmanship over all the scales is the same as it was last year. There should be more than one set of awards. The numbers of classes are about right but the definitions are wrong. To top it all The White Ensign Trophy award has been totally omitted from the list. Why?? Beware of the CC is all I have to say on that one. At least, after years of asking, they have introduced a scratchbuilt ships class. Bravo. Lets see what other IPMS (UK) members think? Cheers Peter Hall The weather is pissy and the kids are stuck indoors. GRRRRRRRR.................. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: "Clappsy, Jim (DF - PCC)" Subject: Re: USS Nautilas at Midway McClusky actually spotted the INS Arashi which was busy depth charging the Nautilas. She was on her way back towards the fleet was he found her. INJS Arashi also picked up a US TBD pilot Wesley Osmus. He was interrogated and then executed. The last TBD pilot to die in enemy hands. I hope this info helps. JIM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From: kenny_II Subject: Revell 1/429 USS Arizona Help from the group, I'm currently working on a Revell Arizona and I'm thinking of a mid to late 1941 fit. Does anyone know of a source for 1/429'th or so Kingfishers? I suppose I could use 1/450, but I'd like input from SMML, y'all seem to have a good perspective on this stuff. Thanks, Tim Maleck -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) From: Adakian@aol.com Subject: Efficiency Awards To follow up on Doc Wiseman's comments on Battle E's, all ship types competed within their respective type commanders for efficiency awards. Once all the point values in all the competitive areas were computed, then the type commander would make the big "E" award. The color breakdowns that I can remember are as follows: Engineering--red "E", Supply--blue "E", Safety--green "S", Communications--black "C", Damage Control--black "DC", Gunnery--black "G", crossed gunner's mate cannon, or "E" on the gun mounts. There are other markings for ASW, AAW, and ASUW, but I can't recall them--my "gator" never rated them. If the ship won the point totals for its ship type (CG, CGN, DD, DDG, AD, etc.), it could then paint the big shadowed white "E" on the bridge wing. This scheme worked for all surface ship types. CV's and CVN's, to my knowledge, never wore the "E's" for the embarked air groups--the individual squadrons who won the awards put them on the aircraft. Gator aviation ships never worried about the issue, since their embarked Marine composite squadron did not participate in the "E" competitions. A. J. Daverede Lanham, MD -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) From: "Millen, Alan R." Subject: Cottage Industries Models Hi there, Listees! I saw a question on one of the three lists I get daily, and cannot remember which one, so I'm replying to all three. Someone was wondering where they could get a resin model of the USS Keokuk since Cottage Industries was no longer selling them. Cottage Industries Models, William Blackmore proprietor, now does all selling of his superb products factory direct! He can be contacted at: 843.769.2352 phone 843.856.0698 fax wjb@awod.com He accepts cash, checks, money orders, but NO PLASTIC at this time. I'm sorry, but I don't have his snail mail address here at the office. Will post it next week, if nobody beats me to it. My wife and I visited with Bill and his wife Judy on our way to Hilton Head last month, and I must say his shop is fascinating. Judy builds wooden ships, while Bill sticks to plastic and resin, and of course he's involved in both ends of the resin kits, making them and building them. His artillery pieces are "really cute" in my wife's words, very highly detailed. On a note found on this list often enough, he is also a collector. I.e., his pile of unbuilt kits actually exceeds mine! His CSS Palmetto State, a 1/96 scale, 24" Confederate ironclad, should be ready for release sometime in the next couple of weeks, depending on how long it takes to get rid of his backlog of orders. Priced in the $150-200 range, for what I believe will be a cut-away ship. I base that on his David, Hunley, Turtle, and Keokuk being cut-aways. This information per Bill in a phone conversation tonight. By the way, Bill is a night owl, as I am, and sleeps during the day, so make any calls in the evening, please. And the disclaimer: I have no ties whatsoever to Cottage Industries Models, other than the tie of being able to sit in wonderment at someone able to do this quality of work. Good thing I don't live in Charleston, SC, or he wouldn't be able to keep me out of his shop! Alan R. Millen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) From: "Aylin Kececi" Subject: Re: solar eclipse Not directly ship modeling related but I couldn't resist posting this message to the list after seeing some other postings. Maybe I was one of the very few lucky observers. The same message wasn't really welcome by some members at space-modelers SIG's mailing list. Never mind, here it goes... We had totality for 2 min 23 sec in Hungary 60 km south of Budapest. It was my first total eclipse. The next one in Hungary will be in 2081, which means I'll have to follow the moon, wherever it goes next. Most of Europe had cloudy weather. I must have been lucky because for about 40 min we had completely clear skies. Although we didn't see the dark stripes moving over the terrain in high speed all the rest was as expected. What was and has ever been written about any eclipse is nothing compared to what we saw (the real thing). Later on TV all channels showed films and pictures of the event. It looked like having a painting by Rembrandt or Van Gogh printed on a post card. The real thing was absolutely SURREALISTIC: "It got really dark but there was this funny light above us like a street lamp but still very bright until the last moment and the shadows were there and were really short. During totality it was deep blue as night with a yellow/orange horizon, from where the moon came with more than twice the speed of sound. Light blue and green where it went. The corona was a pastel color orgy. Mainly blue-green with a pale purple tint to it. The jets were 2.5 times as long as the diameter of the black disc of the moon and the ring around it had solar flares visible to the naked eye." Sorry for writing this long but it would have been impossible for me to sleep without sharing this phenomenon with all colleagues. I do wish all of you similar experiences. Alp -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) From: Ed Grune Subject: "E" Awards I'd like to thank Matt Prager [a fellow Texan] of this list. He's currently active Navy on deployment. He sent a few pages from the naval manuals on the subject, including colors, sizes, and locations. The quick answer is: Battle E White with black border Maritime Warfare Black Engineering Red Command & Control Green Logistics Blue Air Department Yellow Gunnery White. If anyone would like a copy, contact me off list & I'll forward one to you. Ed Mansfield, TX -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) From: JVT7532@aol.com Subject: Thanks Commander Series Models I just wanted to tell everyone what a great company this Commander Series Models is. A few weeks ago I order a 1939 Flower class corvette from a web site We all know and love. The ship arrived and even though it was well packaged somehow the bulwark was damaged. I sent Ted Paris of Commander Models an email explaining what had happened and only asked the best way to repair this damage. What he did was to send me two new hulls both the 1939 and the 1941 plus the extra parts to finish both and if that was not enough he even included a 1/350 scale Iron shipwrights Late war 80 foot Elco PT boat. Now I never expected anything like this from a company and I just have to let everyone know that I am more than pleased by this experience. Now if I can just find my microscope so I can put the detonators in these torpedo warheads. Anyway thank you Ted Paris. Jon Theisen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9) From: "Mike Leonard" Subject: Battleship Park Tim Dike's description of the battleship South Dakota memorial park reminded me of a very good book on preserved WW2 ships and related museums. It's called "Memories and Memorials: The WW2 US Navy 40 Years After Victory" by Steve Ewing. It was published by Pictorial Histories of Missoula, Montana, in 1986. Mike Alexandria, VA USA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10) From: "Mike Leonard" Subject: Battle E Colors >> Can anyne out there tell me the colors associated with the "E" Efficiency awards proudly painted on stacks and bridge-house sides. << Somebody can probably provide a better response, but I seem to recall it like went this: Departmental awards (small E): White - gunnery/combat systems (white A for ASW on the ASROC launcher; white E on the Terrier launcher and 5" gun) Red - engineering (red DC for damage control) Green - supply? Blue - electronic warfare? Big E for squadron/group award: White with black counter-shading, as in the style of hull numbers. Currently I imagine they prefer to use "lo viz" colors. Mike Alexandria, VA USA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11) From: "Edgar L. Arnold" Subject: New Subscriber Please accept my subscription to SMML, my main interest is WW2 German and U.S. submarines of all eras. Thankyou, Ed Arnold (elarnold@snet.net) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12) From: "Doremus, Mark" Subject: Skywave Fletcher and paint The Skywave square bridge Fletcher has a small flaw. The front of the bridge appears to be correct, but the angled sides are not correct. As molded, they angle back at about 45 degrees. They are only long enough for one porthole (deadlight?). According to plans for the Kidd, the sides of the bridge should angle back about 30 degrees and be long enough for 2 portholes and a doorway. You are correct, it is Navy Blue vertical, Deck Blue Vertical. I've got the Polly S for my Johnston. Testors has paints with "FS" Numbers that are supposed to match the old Navy usage. See Warship Modeling tips for details. Sorry, I don't have the matches for the brands you mentioned, but I think other folks have covered this before. Mark -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13) From: "Richard - Charlotte Marelius" Subject: Re: Richelieu & Translations Robert, For translations, try http://babelfish.altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/translate Type in the text you want translated, select the language 'to' and 'from' and read on. It's not perfect, (and is sometime amusing*) but it should get you there. Sorry, but it doesn't do Polish for all these good books we're getting from over there. Maybe someday. * It reminds me of when my company was working with some European partners, and were too cheap to hire qualified technical translators. We got spec's that had "hydraulic ram" translated to read "lubricated sheep"! Maybe the NZ guys can explain it to me? Rick Marelius Granada Hills, CA Where the cloud of helicopters has finally lifted; now it's sunny and clear. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14) From: "chenyangzhang" Subject: Mystery Ship Yes the Australian Grmisbys did spend time in European waters and in fact Parramatta was sunk off Bardia by U559. It looks to me as if the ship is burning or making smoke. Given that smoke generators are normally located on the stern I think she's on fire due to damage received. I would also hazard a guess as to that being the reason for the photo. Unfortunately there are quite a few Grimsby, Bittern, Egret and Black Swan that were sunk. What is interesting is that she seems to have 2 sets of cowls near the cut-off and I have yet to find a photo with that particular configuration. Chris Langtree -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15) From: "Jens H. Brandal" Subject: Dutch IPMS >> Wha! I did enter, (even won something, a trophy with the IPMS label fixed onto it with sticking tape, no joking!). << Very well, I stand corrected and take my hat off. Now, where's that hat? >> The IPMS normally has an annual exposition in the dutch aviation museum, which takes a week, with children running around, and most modelers wont risk damage (Some build a display case) and the level is thus low, even for most of the airplane kits. << Agree. Under similar circumstances, I wouldn't enter if I knew that would be the end of my model as I know it. Being the current secretary of IPMS Norway, I don't want to give the impression that we're telling IPMS Holland how to run their competitions, but would more people enter the competition if it was a two day event? And if so, why don't they change it? We've had National competitions in the Museum of Science and Technology in Oslo, and there's simply been too many too many kids with too few parents telling them not to touch the models. Heck, the people old enough to read are the worst! For that reason alone, we decided to find a more peaceful venue, and the Armed Forces Museum in Oslo is far more suitable and accommodating. It is also a more "neutral" ground for most modellers even if that really does not matter. More importantly though, there's lots of free parking, and it is centrally located on the fortress of Akershus. I know that competitions are a way of recruiting new modellers to the hobby, but one should not forget the people who already constitute this hobby. The IPMS Norway Nationals is primarily a venue for meeting old friends and make new ones who share the hobby. Due to the distances involved, this is often the only time of the year some people get to see eachother. >> The serious modelers don't even go to that modeling show. It does tend to hide the good modelers from view. << A pity, but understandable given the circumstances. >> The IPMS nationals are interesting, with a lot of shopowners etc, but the jury system still remains a bit odd, as the general jury system fails to pick out the better models, which became apparent in the 1:35 group. << People who do not have a clue what to look for in a particular type of model - e.g. military vehicles vs. motorcycles may in many cases cannot appreciate the hard work that goes into a particular model. Someone may have spent hundreds of hours correcting and converting and detailing an old Heller kit, and the next guy may "just" have added some resin and photoetch to the latest Tamiya offering... Life's not fair. Even "professional" judges make mistakes, so no system is perfect. Now finish that Fletcher of yours! Jens -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16) From: "Matthew Prager" Subject: Re: E Awards Hi from the Persian Gulf! Ed Grune wrote >> Can anyne out there tell me the colors associated with the "E" Efficiency awards proudly painted on stacks and bridge-house sides. << Attached is a WORD 6.0 document that provides information, color schemes, and diagrams for Command Excellence Awards displayed by U.S. Navy ships. Hope this helps. MNC(SW) Matthew S. Prager, USN (email msprager@hotmail.com) Ingleside, TX Currently deployed in USS ARDENT (MCM-12), Middle East Force, Arabian Gulf Hi Matt, et al, I've posted the document to the website, along with 20 more back issues. See post in annoucements. Shane -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADERS, ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTICEBOARD -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: Shane Subject: Website update Hi gang, I've just uploaded 20 more volumes & the ship awards.doc to the site. Goto: http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/4712/volumes/ & find out all about knots ;->> Shane -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: Michael Morse Subject: Neptun 1/1250 warships in stock at East Coast Miniatures I have the following Neptun 1/1250 warships in stock: 1004a Gneisenau...$79, 1031 Blucher...$60, 1126 Empire Macrae...$40, 1134b Berwick...$48, 1144 Penelope...$40, 1212 Taiho...NOW...$99, 1214 Hiryu...$75, 1235 Furutaka...$45, 1243 Yubari...$29, 1262 Akizuki...$26, 1264 Kagero...$22, 1267 Hatsuharu...$22, 1281 Chidori...$14, 1290 Erimo tanker...$32, 1301 BB Alabama...$68, 1430 Algerie...$50, 1441a Gloire...$46, 1510 CV Aquila...$80, 1211 Unryu...$92, 1213 Shokaku...$89, 1002 Bismarck...$85, 1004b Gneisenau w/ 15" guns...$85, 1282 Shimushu...$14, 1145 Perth...$42, 1230 Tone...$59, 1292 Tsugaru minelayer...$26, 1000 H-Klasse BB...$99, 1102 Rodney...$69, 1110 Hood...$80, 1147 Emerald...NEW...$48, 1240 Oyodo...$40, 1272a I-16 sub & midget...$19, 1331a St. Paul...$62, 1361 Fletcher...$22, 1393 AO Pecos...$42 You may either email your order to: ecminis@bellsouth.net or phone 561-642-0026. Mastercard, Visa, Discover credit cards accepted. We are happy to take special requests as well. Thanks, Mike Morse East Coast Miniatures -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of Volume