Subject: SMML VOL 1316 Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 14:14:26 +1000 shipmodels@tac.com.au -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS INDEX 1: Detail sets 2: Re: Atlantic Star & red paint 3: Re: Detail sets 4: Re: Atlantic Star & red paint 5: New scale model submarine kits 6: .50 cal mounts on USN BBs 7: Re: Advice sought 8: SS United States (the liner) 9: "Tsesarevicz" vol.I review 10: The Hunt for the Hood expedition has found the wreck of the Bismarck! 11: Re: Detail sets 12: Re: Red gundecks 13: SS United States 14: ship recognition 15: Re: Rigging material -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Model club & SMMLcon Infomation 1: Re: FOTS SMML CON 2: Re: Future SMML-Cons -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: "Baumbach, Werner" Subject: Detail sets Hello Eduardo, try Bill Gruner at PacFront. I think I got my set through him. He is very helpful and accepts credit cards. Happy modelling Werner -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: Tom's Mail Subject: Re: Atlantic Star & red paint In response to the inquiry regarding the red painting of gun decks aboard British men-of-war, both old and new, it is done so the blood of gun crews wounded on the gun decks, which generally received a lot of pounding during a battle, wouldn't be so obvious and de-moralize the gunners. At least that is what was said by a fromer Royal Naval officer I knew. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From: SteveWiper@aol.com Subject: Re: Detail sets Eduardo, Pacific Front Hobbies can fill all of your needs. They can be found at: www.pacificfront.com Steve @ www.classicwarships.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) From: aandmblevins@att.net Subject: Re: Atlantic Star & red paint Hello, I had heard this for a long time, that the red paint was to disguise the presence of blood. Recently on another list this was discussed at length and that notion was put to rest. Mainly because what about the blood on the sand coated decks. That would sure show up. Unfortunately, no other reason for the red paint was divulged other than custom. Al Blevins -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) From: SeaPhoto@aol.com Subject: New scale model submarine kits Hello, I wanted to bring to the attention of modelers a line of almost ready to submerge scale submarine models built by my friend, Dave Manley. His company is called Small World Models, and at the present time, has two kits available. 1/96 scale USS Blueback (SS-581) and a Russian Kilo class submarine. These are highly detailed, fully functioning submarine kits, which feature a high degree of prefabrication. Water tight cylinders, linkages, motor are all ready made up or installed for you, requiring just a few hours of simple work to go into the water. Many members of the Subcommittee, a group devoted to R/C submarining (and more) have purchased or seen Dave's subs, and they have been very well received. Here is the web page for Small World Models: http://www.geocities.com/smallworldmodels/ You will find, that while these models are not cheap, the level of work (and workmanship) make them good values. I have no connection with Small World models, other than my buddy owns it. If you want to find out more about model submarines in general, go to: http://www.subcomittee.com They have message boards that are very active, as well as informational pages. Cordially, Kurt Greiner SeaPhoto Maritime Photography www.warshipphotos.com Now taking credit cards via Paypal! Warship Models Underway www.warshipmodelsunderway.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) From: "Peter Samolinski" Subject: .50 cal mounts on USN BBs Hello All: a friend needs info/photos on the .50 cal mounts on Pearl Harbor era BBs - where might I steer him? Thanks in advance. Pete -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) From: "Timothy Dike" Subject: Re: Advice sought >> I also have IntelliCAD 2000 and TurboCAD 2D do you know anything about them by any chance?? Will they accept any of the file formats which standart scanner software uses (like .bmp)??? << I have test driven both programs and they have their merits. But the real problem is that they are both vector based programs. Even if you are successful in importing an image into a CAD file, you will be left with a multitude of little pixel like object that are almost useless to work with. A line in a CAD program is defined as a continuous object with a set start and end point. Image formats are merely pixels on the screen. There are a number of programs that assist in getting scanned images converted to CAD vectors but the best way is to simple measure them manually enter them into the program yourself. CAD programs are great, but best used from the start. There are some high end programs that will convert images to CAD vectors but they will require that kidney transplant and thus are out of reach of the average person. Besides all they do is make the conversion, you still need a CAD program to edit the end result. A free limited program that can be downloaded on the net is called WinTopo, it one of the best free programs and will import bmp files, but again there is little you can do with the files once you get them imported. If you are just concerned with touching up the files a good graphics editing program like Photoshop is another good way to go. It will allow you to do such things as fade out the smudges and even touch up the lines Timothy Dike Webmaster and Editor ModelWarships.com http://www.modelwarships.com/index1.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) From: Michael Bartel Subject: SS United States (the liner) There was another article this week in the Philadelphia Inquirer's Sunday edition about the fate of the SS United States, which is still sitting here docked near Snyder Avenue on the Delaware River. The owners still don't know what to do with the ship, though they do know that they don't want to scrap her. The problem is, they have no money to do anything. There have been numerous proposals, but I personally think that none of them will come to fruition. The ship is totally gutted (even most bulkheads are apparently gone), and I think it would take a sum more than the cost of building the ship (even allowing for inflation) to do something constructive with her. The idea of turning her into a floating museum like the Queen Mary is an idea I like. The idea of turning her into a floating hotel was debated on the grounds of, "the city has already built more hotels recently than they can hope to fill". A tongue-in-cheek idea I once heard was to put guns on the ship to protect Philadelphia from Camden, New Jersey, across the river. (Camden is not really a nice place, folks.) Maybe it's best to just scrap her now. It's costing a lot just to keep here there now, and I don't think that anyone other than an eccentric billionaire would have any real interest in spending all that money when they could just build a new ship. And, it's sad to drive by there and see more rust gathering almost daily. Whatever happens, I hope they do it soon. Close-up, you can see that she is in sad shape. There is also the concern of asbestos removal, and I think that alone could mean that her last trip will ultimately be to the scrapyard. Mike Bartel IHP http://ihphobby.tripod.com 'Assassins do it from behind' -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9) From: "D.Przezdziecki" Subject: "Tsesarevicz" vol.I review I have just received three Russian publications about their warships and thought I will share the quick reviews with the list members which share my interest in the period. Lets start with publication about "Tsesarevicz",other two will follow. 1- R.M. Mielnikov "Tsesarevicz -squadron battleship 1899-1906" vol.1,"Warships of the World" series,Sankt-Peterburg 2000. The publication contains the usual description of construction,delivery and trials of the ship. "Tsesarevicz" career before outbreak of Russo-Japanese War was brief but the war itself is covered in great detail. There is a good description of Port Arthur Campaign, Yellow Sea Battle and the lucky escape to Cindao and its internment there. What follows is the fate of the rest of the fleet after the Yellow Sea battle and than a very detailed description of the damage to "Tsesarevicz" and repairs carried out at Cindao and finaly the return of the ship to Russia in 1906. The publication is 136 pages long and along with full technical data it provides all necessary info about the armament and armour layout of the ship. The oryginal ship builders plans include: hull lines,side view (very poor quality), inboard view and views of superstucture, spar deck, top deck, battery deck, armoured deck, cubrig,platforms and trim. Other drawings show plan and side view of the ship in concept design stage, armour layout, general accomodation plans, two traverse sections midships and at 14th, 22nd and 30th stations, section throu main bridge and secondary gun turret and finaly details of the armoured belt and boat handling derrick. All in all a very comprehensive list and the only item which is missing are the explanatory drawings of the ship's distinctive fighting tops. Apart fm 16 pages fully dedicated to the photos of the ship at various stages in her life there are numerous other photographs scattered throuout the book. The photos included are mostly of a very good quality and majority (AFAIK) was never published before. Of special interest is a comprehensive section of battle damage photos which show many close-up views of the various details of the ship construction In my opinion it is a very valuable (and best so far) reference source about this famous ship and fully deserves the score of 8 out of 10 points. Two points were deducted for the lack of details concerning fighting tops and (IMO) not enough traverse sections throu the more of the hull stations. The publication costs 15 US dollars (+ P&P) and was ordered throu the aviapress website Regards D.P -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10) From: "Simon Wolff" Subject: The Hunt for the Hood expedition has found the wreck of the Bismarck! Hi you all... The following message came from Channel 4's site, really hope that they do find the Hood, half a dozen pictures appear of Bismarck-bitz/wreckage. regards Simon Wolff >> Channel 4’s expedition to find the wreck of the Hood has found the wreck of its Atlantic adversary – the Bismarck. The expedition arrived at the sinking site of the German warship on Tuesday morning. However, bad weather prevented the search from beginning until Thursday afternoon. The wreck was eventually located this weekend. The first pictures from the wreck are already available on the expedition website www.channel4.com/hood and more will be posted as they are received. The team also hopes to be able to stream live underwater footage of the ship in the next few days. Keep checking the website for further details. Launched in 1939 the Bismarck was the pride of the German Navy and a challenge to Britain’s supremacy at sea. During her maiden voyage she engaged and sunk HMS Hood off the coast of Greenland with a single shot. This in turn led to her own destruction 3 days later at the hands of the British navy. From a crew of over 2000 only 115 men were saved. The wreck of the Bismarck was first found in 1988 by undersea explorer Bob Ballard. It lies at 4790 metres – a full 1790 metres deeper than Hood. Ballard never revealed the exact location to protect it from souvenir hunters. After filming the Bismarck, the expedition will set off for Iceland to embark on its main and most important mission – locating the Hood which has never been found. << -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11) From: Mike Settle Subject: Re: Detail sets >> I would like to know where I can buy a photo-etched detail set for the Yamato battleship in 1/600 (or near) scale, but I have to buy from a company that will ship internationally and accept payment by credit card (I'm from Brazil). I would love to purchase from Gold Medal, but they don't accept credit cards, and I don't know another company that have a detail set for the Yamato. << Try Pacific Front Hobbies or White Ensign Models. If one of them doesn't have it, it will be hard to find. http://www.pacificfront.com/ http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/avenue/xdt22/ You might also try Tom's Modelworks, but I do not have his web link. Mike Settle I am not agent #1908 of the non-existent Lumber Cartel (tinlc)tm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12) From: "David Griffith" Subject: Re: Red gundecks Hi, It has long been a belief that gundecks of British men of war were painted red so as not to show the blood. In my opinion, and it is only an opinion, this is incorrect. It was not the decks that were so painted, it was the inside of the bulwarks. The decks themselves were bare wood and scrubbed, as in the sea song, "We'll rub her and we'll scrub her, with holystone and sand, For there blows some cold nor'easters on the coast of Newfoundland!" Bare decks would hardly hide the blood, which even at sea would tend to flow vertically under gravity, and even if they were painted red they wouldn't hide the dead bodies! Incidentally, I am also led to believe that the gun deck of a man of war could be a pretty safe place to be. Apparently there were no fatal injuries from cannon fire on the main deck of HMS Victory during the Battle of Trafalgar. All this notwithstanding, I cannot tell you why the bulwarks were painted red, but perhaps the red pigment was a good wood preservative. After all it was also common practice for the wheels and undercarriages of farm waggons and coaches to be painted red in this country. Regards, David -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13) From: Craig R Bennett Subject: SS United States Hi Guys I have some news about the SS United States. 3 days ago they had a meeting on board the ship. A offer was made to buy the ocean liner and have it towed to New York City and then to make it into a Hotel and Bar/Restaurant at Ellis Island. Has any one else heard about it? Craig -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14) From: "resolution" Subject: ship recognition I have come across a great picture of pre war Gibraltar, and was wondering if anyone out there can recognise all the ships, nelson & Rodney are there, a couple of carriers one or two Queen Elizabeth's and a couple of R's + plus loads more. I have purposely left it large to aid the task. it's at. http://www.resolution.ic24.net/gib.jpg good luck Richard Baker p.s when you look at this photo you will wish you had a time machine. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15) From: Teliczan Tom Civ 15 SVS/SVF Subject: Re: Rigging material Where would one purchase the material for rigging called "Tippets Line?" TIA! Tomt -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Model club & SMMLcon Infomation -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: HGYL@aol.com Subject: Re: FOTS SMML CON Someone mentioned suggesting hotels to stay at for this event. I have not been able to find a room in either Portsmouth or Southsea and have been told by several of the hotels I have tried that all accommodation in the area for the bank holiday weekend is sold out. Harold Lincoln -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: Bradford Chaucer Subject: Re: Future SMML-Cons >> The Guild conferences might, in fact, be a good venue for an "add-on" SMMLcon-style event. This year's conference (Washington DC) will already serve as the gathering point for another special interest group on modeling a particular "age of sail" vessel. Perhaps a similar arrangement would meet the group's needs. Keep in mind, however, that the schedule for this year's conference is already set and such a special interest group meeting might conflict with one of the tours that have been planned for the conference. So such a meeting would either have to occur in the evening, or the attendees would have to forgo one of the tours. We currently have conferences scheduled in Washington (2001), Philadelphia (2002), Chicago (2003), and Hampton Roads (2005). We hope to see many of you at one or more of the conferences. << Now I take that as a warm invitation!!! I also sounds like a set of future Cons! Now lets have some input from the group Regards, Bradford Chaucer -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Check out the SMML site for the List Rules, Backissues, Member's models & reference pictures at: http://smmlonline.com 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