Subject: SMML VOL 1234 Date: Thu, 03 May 2001 17:03:46 +1000 shipmodels@tac.com.au -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS INDEX 1: USS Langley - and a North Carolina for the wife 2: Wives 3: Scale model figures for crew 4: Your FIRST Plastic kit 5: Advice for Tamiya 1:350 USS New Jersey 6: Re: Fletcher mast 7: Re: Pacific Front: NEW ITEMS 8: colour liferafts on US Navy ships WW2 9: Liberty ships 10: Too Many Kits? 11: 1/72 Figures 12: Re: Flower power 13: Re: wives et al 14: Bob Ballard - Pearl Harbour special in OZ 15: Caution - The trouble with Tribles 16: Japanese river gunboats 17: Liberty ship conversions 18: Rules of Acquisition 19: What glue? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: "Edward F Grune" Subject: USS Langley - and a North Carolina for the wife Hello SMMLies Brad Chaucer reported in SMML 1231 that he spoke with Ted Paris of ISW and that among the planned releases is a 1:350 scale USS Langley (CV-1). Nobody has followed up on this, so I guess I'll take the opportunity to ask some questions of Ted and Jon Warneke. What is the planned configuration of the Langley? Is is the classic late-20s "Covered Wagon", or will it be the seaplane tender configuration - as lost early in WWII? What aircraft will be included? I have visions of a deckload of brightly colored biplanes carefully arranged on the deck - and a similar number packed in a jumble in the open below deck area. (Caroline/John - feel free to jump in with some biplanes too!) A look at the May 01 update to the ISW website doesn't show the Langley listed. What is there are some new flashy "Coming Soon" graphics. Something else which is on the ISW site is a new listing of USS North Carolina in her 1944 configuration. My wife is a North Carolina native. A few years back while we were vacationing on the NC outerbanks - we went to Wilmington and toured the ship. She told me of her participation school penny drives that generated the initial funds to help save the ship as a war memorial for the state. Hmm, perhaps I can sell her on the idea of having a model of the ship? She did buy me a curio cabinet for the living room, in which to display my models. It would look nice! Ed Mansfield, TX -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: "Rick Lundin" Subject: Wives On this the day of our 31st wedding anniversary I have to tell everyone that my wife has been nothing but totally supportive of my modelling over the years. She has seen me through fleets of 1/2400th ships, squadrons of 1/72nd planes and battalions of 1/285th AFV's (and has supplied many of them herself over the 30+ Christmases and birthdays we've been together). I've had 1/1200th scale underway refuelling evolutions on the diningroom table, sliced my hand with xacto knives and spilled paint all over myself and on the recliner in the den all the while she has stood there shaking her head, driven me to the hospital for stiches and helped me clean up innumerable messes - depending on the situation. Over the course of our marriage we have visited every air and maritime museum on the eastern seaboard and have had many stimulating discussions (admiteddly one-sided) about how destroyers are the heart of any navy, how good a fighter the Phantom was and why APFSDS is the preferred round for knocking out tanks. As a psych major she will tell anyone that a hobby is therapeutic, it need not have to have a material goal associated with it - it is effort that provides satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment to the person practicing it. Constructive diversion from the usual hassles of life. Engaging in the process is what really matters, not necessarily what ends up sitting on the shelf at the end of the day. The true product of a reasonably practiced hobby, no matter how esoteric, is a stable relationship and a productive life. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From: Rod Dauteuil Subject: Scale model figures for crew I have a couple of scenarios where I will or won't use a crew. If the model is on a stand for display, I won't use a crew. I know figures enhance reality, a ship model on a stand isn't realistic, it's a display. On the other hand, if I make a waterline model with a base, or a full hull in a drydock diorama, then I'll add crewmembers. Contrary to my first comment, I don't think it's realistic to have a ship underway (or in drydock) without figures. I wonder if other listmembers feel the way I do? Also regarding wives and ex wives, I was lucky enough to see the warning signs before I walked down the aisle. Rod -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) From: Paul Jordan Subject: Your FIRST Plastic kit I've been reading the "what's on the workbench" thread and found it fascinating. Unfortunately only ONE person seems to be building a plastic model paddlewheeler...but oh well!! This thread got me to thinking about the very first plastic model I ever built back in 1955 or thereabouts. The only airplanes available up to this time had been solid wood or balsa frame and tissue (Keilcraft??). A 9 year old simply wasn't up to that and I well remember being so disappointed when I lifted the great looking cover art lid off my first solid kit (A USAF Sabre which I think I expected to be a ready built model!!) and found wings with sharp angles and over 1/8 " thick with a length of dowel for the fuselage! It never got built. Then ONE day I spied in our local toy store what appeared to be a small clear plastic bag with a cardboard fold over image of a Hawker Hurricane. Inside you could plainly SEE plastic pieces that actually LOOKED like an airplane. It was the FIRST styrene model I had ever seen and was made by a company I'd never heard of called "Airfix." There quickly followed two more models in their 1/72 series and each were hungrily snapped up by every young modeler in our town as soon as it appeared in the store. I well remember Airfix #2 the Gloster Gladiator (it never got its upper set of wings) and then #3 the RAF Westland Air Sea Rescue Helicopter (which never got its floats ). After that I can't remember what appeared next in the sequence..but I can assure you, I bought EVERY single one of those clear little packages the day it appeared in the store!! So I'd be interested to hear...what was the FIRST plastic model you ever built and at what age..and maybe some of the horror stories at trying to glue some of those pieces which kept sagging...gluey finger marks on the plastic, or life without decent paint or an airbrush. Call it regression therapy if you like. Cheers from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Paul J Victoria Model Shipbuilding Society Visit our Website at http://members.home.net/vmss/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) From: "Carpenter, Bryan" Subject: Advice for Tamiya 1:350 USS New Jersey All, I am seeking any advice for putting this model together. I have not touched a model in over 20 years and I have an urge. And since I once served aboard the N.J. I wend and picked this one up. Any ideas on paint or add on's Thanks, Bry Bryan E. Carpenter -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) From: SHIPMDLR@aol.com Subject: Re: Fletcher mast >> Aside to Rusty White: You commented several issues ago about something being wrong with the Fletcher mast. Could you elaborate please? << Be happy to. Both height, width and taper are correct. The problem is the way the mast was molded. The mast and the yardarm are molded on the same plane that resemble the classic Christian Cross. WRONG! Yardarms are hung from masts. It should look like one rod on top of another fashioned to look like a cross. There isn't anything difficult about this. I don't understand why model companies insist on doing masts and yards in the wrong fashion that most of them do. Depending on the era your modeling, the antennas and radar are different as well. I used Alan Raven's book when I was designing my Early War Fletcher class detail set for this model. It's a great reference for this model. Rusty White Flagship Models Inc. You can now pay using your Visa / MasterCard http://okclive.com/flagship/ "Yeah I want Cheesy Poofs!" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) From: Masashi Ito Subject: Re: Pacific Front: NEW ITEMS >> Given an opportunity to suggest 1:350 Turn of the Century ship kits, I provide the following suggestions: Spanish American War Alfonso XII Infanta Maria Teresa - flag ship at Santiago Bay Cristobal Colon - ACR, has nine sister ships from Italy, Japan and Argentina USS Brooklyn French D'Entrecasteaux - CA Massena - BB Bouvet - BB, lost at the Dardanelles Italian Con di Covour - BB Austro-Hungarian SMS Babenburg/Hapsburg - BB SMS Wien - BB SMS Zrinyi - BB SMS Novara - CL << Great!! I am a great fan of pre-dreadnoughts. Thank you, Bill of the Pacific Front and RhinoBones! Any pre-dreadnoughts of any countries (from any model makers) are indeed welcomed. But I would like to see especially 1/700 kits of the following ships. French: Massena, Bouvet, Charlemagne, Suffren, Republique, Liberte, and Danton (espcially Massena and Charlemagne). Italian: Emanuele Filiberto. German: Kaiser Friedrich III, Braunschweig, and Deutschland. British: Formidable, King Edward VII, Lord Nelson, and Dreadnought. US: Kearsarge, Connecticut, and Virginia. Thank you, Masashi Ito -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) From: "Franz Aigner GmbH" Subject: colour liferafts on US Navy ships WW2 what was the colour of these rafts? was it camouflage or high visibility? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9) From: cfrieden@calpoly.edu Subject: Liberty ships >> A question on the Liberty Ship.....the US navy acquired a few of these and I am curious as to any modifications that were made from the basic Maritime Commission Liberty Ship. For instance, the John G. Nicolay was launched 25 February 1943, acquired by the Navy on 9 March 1943, converted for naval service by the Matson Navigation Company, renamed USS Alberio (AK-90) on 17 March, and commissioned on 29 March 1943. What would the Matson Co. do to "convert" the ship for naval service? I was under the impression that all Liberty Ships were armed and otherwise made ready for naval service, even though operated by the Maratime Commission. Any help here would be greatly appreciated. My late father-in-law served on this ship and I have a few snapshots on her from the war. I would like this model to accurately reflect the deck layout, etc. << Hello Will, Navy AKs generally did not have too much done to them, at least compared to some of the other conversions. As you point out the Liberty ships were armed, although this was not done with naval service in mind. They would typically carry a 15 to 30 man Naval Armed Guard crew in addition to the merchant crew. The USN Liberties operated with a larger crew, so additional life rafts would have been carried. I have also seen ships with an extra pair of boats carried forward of the deckhouse. These were mounted on raised platforms that were level with the boat deck. Sometimes additional armament was added, and other small changes would have been made as well. Also, The Floating Drydock has two photos of the Albireo take at the time of her commissioning. If you have any more questions let me know. My big hobby project right now is a 12 inches to the foot scale Liberty ship, so I guess you could say I have a pretty good reference. Regards, Chris Friedenbach -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10) From: "Mike Leonard" Subject: Too Many Kits? Mike Connor observed - >> I get the depressing feeling that I will never finish all these. I guess I can blame my understanding wife who was the one who twisted my arm to get out the old models and start the hobby again. << Depressing?? Sounds more like another reason to get out of bed in the morning (unlike going to the office). There's a saying over here: "He who dies with the most toys wins!" MWL -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11) From: "Mike Leonard" Subject: 1/72 Figures Squadron Mail Order and Walther's both sell some hard plastic Preiser 1/72 scale figures that would be easy to convert for ship models in that scale. These are # 72508 Luftwaffe Pilots & Ground Crew, and # 72507 Panzer Tank Crew. I'm looking forward to using them on the yet-to-be-released Revell-Germany S-Boat. Mike -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12) From: Bradford Chaucer Subject: Re: Flower power >> To obtain crew of thirty for my Flower I approached Airfix who sent me a number of of 1/72 crew member sprews from several kits. £2.50 the lot! I am delighted as these figures are in battledress (flash protection and all) and will look absolutely superb once painted and detailed. One figure holds a life ring (from the SAR launch kit) - it just begs a scene where the Flower is picking up survivors in the water..... << Doesn't the kit include figures?? The original Matchbook kit did. >> I would be very interested in your more detailed views of the David Parkin sets as I too want to purchase the lot but have not had the intestinal fortitude to part with all that cash! Contact me off list to 'push' me into it..... << Consider yourself pushed. The kits are magnificent. Be forewarned however that you will feel like the output of a brass mill was dumped on you when they arrive!!! I would strongly advise that if you are going to tackle this that you learn how to solder; there are simply too many and too large parts and assemblies to rely on adhesive. Regards, Bradford Chaucer -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13) From: Bradford Chaucer Subject: Re: wives et al >> My wife has been supportive of my hobby. She'd rather that I work on models at home than spend money and time on wine, women and song. Although she wasn't adverse to that while we were courting. (Do we still court?) << I do, but in an entirely different context: sometimes involves women, never unfortunately wine or song!! :-) Regards, Bradford Chaucer -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14) From: "Simon Wolff" Subject: Bob Ballard - Pearl Harbour special in OZ Hi you all... For Australian cable/TV alert. National Geographic channel is showing a special on Pearl Harbour 'Legacy of Attack' on Saturday May 26th. Program starts 7.00 PM and goes to 8.55 PM, looking at the shorts last night it looks quite interesting... Blurb says " Sixty years after the devastating attack on the US naval base, we reveal new discoveries about the event". (this replays next day 4.00 PM). Also Monday 28th is the start of 'Submarine week' with a couple of programs, one called 'Search for I-152' and another called 'Hitler's lost Sub'.. sounds like Adolf was being a bit clumsy. Looking forward to the shows. Simon -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15) From: "Connor, Michael" Subject: Caution - The trouble with Tribles Hi All, Chuck Duggie wrote: >> Use EXTREME caution here. According to Gene Roddenberry (hope I spelled it right) you can very easily be overwhelmed with Tribles! I have no idea at all how to neuter the darn things. << Thanks for the warning Chuck. However there is madness in my method (or is that method in my madness). I managed (somehow?) to turn a "Tribal" into a "Trible". Now, if I time it right, I just have to wait for procreation to have its way and then turn them back into "Tribals". Presto I have enough "Tribals" to cover the British, Candian and Australian ships. If I am lucky I may get a few left over to convert to J's, K's and N's. Coming back to reality! I wonder if there are any others' out there who model in 1/600 and are finding it hard to get destroyers in this scale? Perhaps we can interest a manufacturer if we can get enough people to say "please". Mike -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16) From: MMille1053@aol.com Subject: Japanese river gunboats Just discovered your site from ad in Plastic ship modeler I have collected from the beginning the water line ships I have nearlly all Japanese with many duplicates, plus resin kits of the second line A/C and smaller combat types. also many US and entire German navy. Looking for the Japanes river gunboats missed when they were offered from Pacific Font Hobbies. Also have nearly all the books covering the IJN that I bought in 1974 Hard bound with excelent P/W pics Sincerly Mike Miller -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17) From: "lcp9" Subject: Liberty ship conversions The Smithsonian 's catalog of ship plans lists 4 separate sets of Liberty ship plans, Liberty Ship, Liberty Ship Collier,Liberty Ship Tanker,Liberty ship Airplane Transport. The Navy also converted some to Station Tankers, Various types of Repair ships, and AK's Most of the changes,other than extra armament & directors, were internal. I have a couple shots of the AK's, they show 5 LCM's stored on deck plus 1- 5"; 1-3" 2 40MM & 6 20MM guns. David -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18) From: "Btbldr" Subject: Rules of Acquisition For Ken >> Boat Builder's list of acquisition rules is a hoot. My only question is how much modeling time did you lose while coming up with such a long document? << I found it on the web years ago and copied it - hence my apologies to the original author. I had a good laugh and saved it in the "remember this" file - the understanding spouse thread made me remember. Life is good, and today was fun! Also very funny is the Argentinian shell, the impact glue and the happy (and then unhappy) sailor! - Go figure - a 30 mm shell means nothing, but that &*(*&^%^*) glue - sheesh what is the world coming to :-) :-) :-) For John >> I really enjoyed Btbldr's treatise on model acquisition. I pasted it into my bible. << Thanks John - survived another layoff round today - have been giggling ever since - life is very very good! regards Boatbldr -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19) From: "Btbldr" Subject: What glue? >> My suggestion for a crew is to buy "Airfix" HO/00 box of "RAF personnel", some of the figures can be easily converted into sailors, another good source is gun crew provided with "Airfix" Bofors AA gun & tractor. << The plastic on these airfix soldier sets is really yucky gunky soft - How do you.. a) cut arms and legs to re shape without getting "hairs" of plastic everywhere? and b) glue the stuff? Normal solvent glue doesn't cut it for some reason??? regards Boatbldr (Still giggling!) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Check out the SMML site for the List Rules, Backissues, Member's models & reference pictures at: http://www.smml.org.uk Check out the APMA site for an index of ship articles in the Reference section at: http://www.tac.com.au/~sljenkins/apma.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of Volume