Subject: SMML VOL 1479 Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2002 12:13:37 +1100 shipmodels@tac.com.au -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS INDEX 1: Spray booth 2: Resin Casting Supplies 3: Egad! An armor modeler! 4: Re: Helena and Benham 5: Inspirations for Ships Models 6: Yamato-operation ten-ichigo 7: more of the worst ship kit 8: Why I became a ship modeler 9: Why someone else (might) become a modeller 10: Gakken Yamato book - what´s it worth? 11: USS Kearsarge 1861 12: Re: Fletcher -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADERS, ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTICEBOARD INDEX 1: Future book for IJN fans -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: david_l._miller@ccmail.wiu.edu Subject: Spray booth This last week I drew up rough plans for a spray booth and took them to a local furnace and air conditioning business. The fellow there was very helpful, and had many useful suggestions. His team fabricated a very nice metal spray booth (32x18x18 inches) including replaceable filter and receptacle for the fan and motor. They do this type of fabrication daily building plenums and ducting for furnaces and central air conditioning systems. They charged me $110. Last night it took me about 45 minutes to install a booster fan and switch in the booth. I purchased the booster fan new several years ago, and found I did not need it for its original purpose. My total cost for this project is probably no more than $150. I tried it out last night and it works great. I still need to arrange for external venting, although I may try some different filters first. Even without external venting, you can see it taking the visible airborne particles into the filter. The booth is big enough that I could easily mount a small shop light inside of it, if I need to. Dave Miller Macomb, IL -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: JKrakow@aol.com Subject: Resin Casting Supplies Hi Recently decided I need to cast some duplicate parts in resin and am considering buying the necessary chemicals from Micro Mark. Their "starter kit" #82084 costs $60 (more than the price of the kit from which I need duplicate parts, but never mind). I would like to know if anyone has any experience with this product, or can recommend another source. Generally, I like Micro Mark's products but have been cautious ever since they sent me a machinist's square advertised "the Ultimate in Accuracy" made in Pakistan and less square than the cardboard box it came in. Dave www.PrinzEugen.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From: "Poutre, Joseph A" Subject: Egad! An armor modeler! Mr. Mehlberger, How dare thou sully our good group with your naughty talk of "armor" and "airplanes"? Have at thee! Sheesh. Those armor people, thinking they can just waltz in and take over the joint. We don't want any of _their_ type around here, right people? Joe Poutre Proud ship modeler (closet airplane and armor builder) For the clue-deprived: :-) ;-) :-) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) From: "Timothy Dike" Subject: Re: Helena and Benham >> Are there model kits of the Helena or Benham? << Ah, some of my favorite ships! The Helena has just been reissued from Classic Warships in 1/700 scale (and hopefully soon in 350). It is a great kit that I thoroughly enjoyed building. Iron Shipwights is working on a 1/350 Benham, and in 700 scale all the Benhams are out of production. At one time Classic Warships, Bureau of Small Warships, and I think Naval Works and Kobo Hiryu all had one in 700 scale. You might find one on E-Bay if your lucky. I've been looking for one to use to build the Sterret for about three years now with no success. There is a buildup on the Helena on ModelWarships.com that might interest you (link in the sig file below). I think it's neat that you were able to talk to a survivor of the ships. It sure add's something to your modeling subjects when you can relate to their history. Timothy Dike Webmaster and Editor ModelWarships.com http://www.modelwarships.com/index1.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) From: "Kerry L. Jang" Subject: Inspirations for Ships Models I got into ships largely because of the box lid paintings that graced the old Airfix kits. The steel warships were cool, but the sailing ships -- WOW! Check out the box lid paintings for the "Royal Soveriegn" kit or "Prince" -- now that is inspiring. They still are -- my 5 year old son saw the "Prince" kit the other day and begged me to get it for him to build along with Dad's sailing ships. I see his infatuation with "Star Wars" and "Gundams" have been superceded (thanks goodness!). Other reasons include the sheer power ships exude and maritime history of your native land. If you are American, British, German, etc there is a tradition, and for innate, patriotic/nationalistic reasons you are drawn to these ships. For me, being ethnically Chinese born and raised in Canada, we had the RCN/RN. But being Asian by descent this was always unsatisfying to me. The closest thing I had to identify with was the IJN, (a weird love-hate relationship. Your "home countries" were at war but they were still Asians so you had a kinship and admired them for taking on the "West" -- at that time my parents and I were of the generation where discrimination in Canada was still a real barrier to participating in society so there was always a tinge of bitterness...), so the Waterline series from Japan really excited me. Now, over 20 years later, we have models of ships actually used by the Chinese (Ch'ing Gov't, PRC, ROC, etc, etc) have kept the flames of enthusiasm going. I see Trumpeter is to release a kit of the famous "treasure ships" of the Eunuch Zheng Ho who in the Ming Dynasty travelled to the Middle East, to even the coast of BC by some archaeological evidence. With all the great kits, plans, accessories catering to every whim and taste, I've almost all but given up building models of other subjects (the odd WWI aeroplane for me still). Kerry -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) From: "Michael Taylor" Subject: Yamato-operation ten-ichigo Hi List! Finishing up my 1/350 Yamato but I have 1 question: Were the spotter aircraft on board during this operation, and if so would they be on the catapults or the deck? If anyone's going to be at the show in Indianapolis Feb 9th it'll be there. Thanks.... Mike T -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) From: "john fiebke" Subject: more of the worst ship kit i just wanted to take a moment and disagree with the notion that a bad ship kit is ok if you're a kid and just playing with it. I have been building models since I was five..and used to build solely planes and armor as a kid because one day I happened to purchase the revell missouri with my hard earned allowance and was appalled by the lack of detail. I remember being really offended that there weren't even molded on bridge windows (my favorite part of a ship for some reason...even now...I spent a night last week cutting out the bridge windows on the banner Arizona and replacing them with styrene strip/rod.). Anyway, I missed out on years of ship building because in relation to the standard of aircraft models, even in 1982 (I'm young), this kit was extremely lacking. That they still sell it is amazing to me. I didn't recover for several years later, when I found this thing called a "hobby shop" and bought a Tamiya Hornet. I still view this as the best ship kit ever, as it forever awakened in me a love for ship models. And Revell is still pulling the wool over modelers eyes. I saw the box for the 1/400 Enterprise the other day. Its the biggest box I've ever seen a model in. I thinks its actually bigger than the box their 1/48 B-1 comes in. Sitting next to it was the Arii 1/400 Enterprise in a box 1/4 of the size. How many young modelers will be suckered into buying this thing and forever turned off from this hobby? I work in advertising and this sort of thing is what gives my profession a bad name. It borders on being unethical. Sorry for the rambling. I just think that we should hold manufacturers accountable for jeopardizing our hobby. j. fiebke -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) From: "john fiebke" Subject: Why I became a ship modeler >> I first started building ship models at the age of around ten or eleven, after watching Star Blazers (Space Battleship Yamato). This was in 1980, when the English translation was first being broadcast in the USA. << Oh, man..thanks for writing this. I was sitting here the other day trying to figure out when I got into ships and this was it! It was 1980. I was in Kindergarten. I had the afternoon class and went to my friends house before school started. One day, we were sitting around playing with our VAST collection of Legos and the first episode of Starblazers came on, with the hulk of the old Yamato sitting on the floor of the dried up ocean. This image sparked my imagination like no other. Next thing you know, there's a three foot long lego Yamato (we had a LOT of legos). I never have built a model of that ship, though I own the big Tamiya one. When I found out it was a real ship, I was amazed. I was even kinda heartbroken years later when I was in the library researching a report on the Pacific war as a high-schooler and came across a drawing of the Yamato as she actually looks today, in pieces, broken in two and then some. So much for making a giant space ship out of her to save the human race. john fiebke -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9) From: "Bill & Kaja Michaels" Subject: Why someone else (might) become a modeller I just returned from my semi-annual visit to the dentist. Every time I go, I bring along a few of my old magazines to leave behind. (I do this anytime I go to a place with a waiting room.) Today I left 2 issues of Seaways Ships in Scale, 2 issues of Flying Models, and an older Model Aviation. Maybe some day somebody will reply to this thread with... "It all started the day I was waiting at the doctor's office, and I saw this modelling magazine....." Check out my US Coast Guard subjects model list at: http://www.tiac.net/users/billkaja/kitlist.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10) From: thorstenwahl@t-online.de (Wahl, Thorsten) Subject: Gakken Yamato book - what´s it worth? Hi, I was offered this book - can you give me an estimate on what this is worth and what I should pay for it? Thanks and all the best Thors ´At least we don´t name our ships for our mothers-in-law.´ USS Reuben James to HMS Battleaxe -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11) From: Edwparent@aol.com Subject: USS Kearsarge 1861 Does any one know of a model kit for this vessel? There used to be one at 1/96 scale by Boucher Model Co. but it probably isn't made any more. Ed Parent -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12) From: HAZEGRAYADM@aol.com Subject: Re: Fletcher Re: NAVY DAZE Fletcher DDs w/ catapults inquiry: when you say "Catapults from CLs", understand the catapults are the same as those used on the Omaha class, not the larger ones that appeared on the Honolulus, Clevelands, etc. The Pringle, Halford & Stevens used these lighter cats but I have no info on where they got them from: surplus most likely & not stolen from any of the Omaha CLs. Bert McDowell -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADERS, ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTICEBOARD -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: Keith Butterley Subject: Future book for IJN fans Hi group, I just talked to Simon Kooter at Vanwell publishing. He is hoping to release a book on Japanese merchant ships of WWII in the fall. No other details available at this time. Regards Keith Butterley warshipbooks.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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://apma.org.au/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of Volume