Subject: SMML VOL 1483 Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2002 11:59:16 +1100 shipmodels@tac.com.au -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS INDEX 1: Dealers accepting Paypal 2: Naval Base Hobbies 3: Worst Kits Discussion 4: Gakken Yamato books - THANKS! 5: Re: AA fit on the Sheffield Dec 1943 6: Naval Base Hobbies 7: Re: Painting a PBR 8: Research at the FAAM & NMM, Fox Photos 9: ABDIEL and MANXMAN - Camouflage 10: Re: Worst model 11: Re: Camouflage of the Sheffield 12: Clarification 13: Naval Base Defense 14: What Kit is It?? -- Trident SSBN -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Model club & SMMLcon Infomation 1: Western Ship Model Conference -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADERS, ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTICEBOARD INDEX 1: Re: Graf Zeppelin / Italy -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: "Eduardo Luis Marcovecchio" Subject: Dealers accepting Paypal Hello friends, Sorry to be so off-topic here, I hope you forgive me. I'm from Brazil, and I have recently sold some old toys and models, some of them to people in the USA. They paid me thru Paypal, but I forgot to check if Paypal would transfer funds to my bank account here in Brazil. Now I have some money stuck in my Paypal account. The only way I can use this money now is to buy things from people that will accept Paypal as a payment method. So, I would like to know if any of you guys that does businness in the ship-modelling market will accept Paypal. I plan to buy some GMM and/or WEM photoetch sets in the near future, and perhaps some models and tools. Using my Paypal funds for that would be great. Again, sorry for the OT subject, and thanks. Eduardo Luis Marcovecchio Hi Eduardo, Firstly this is not OT ;-) The only dealers/maufactures that I can remember off the top of my head who use PayPal are" Warship Books: http://www.warshipbooks.com Plastic Ship Modeler: http://smmlonline.com/reviews/books/psm/psm.html Flagship Models: http://www.okclive.com/flagship/ SeaPhoto Maritime Photography: http://www.warshipphotos.com Hope this helps. Regards, Shane -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: "Keith Linthicum" Subject: Naval Base Hobbies I placed an order with Naval Base Hobbies in December and did not hear from them until I sent an e-mail several days ago inquiring as to the status of my order. They quickly replied and said that they were awaiting one of the items I had requested before shipping the entire order. They apologized for the delay and stated that they would ship the items on-hand immediately to be followed up by the one item. The next day I received a follow-up e-mail which stated that the items were sent. I agree that they (he) is probably a one-man shop and is probably doing the best they/he can within the time constraints they/he faces. Other than letting you know this up front to set expectations it is acceptable as long as they deliever. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From: "Keith Linthicum" Subject: Worst Kits Discussion As a ship modeler who recently got back into the hobby after a long hiatus, I have enjoyed the discussions as to the pros and cons of the various kits. I believe there is a place for most of the kits discussed regardless of their accuracy or lack thereof. The discussions brought back many memories of kits I built growing up in the late 60's and early 70's. In ignorance and without anyone to provide guidance I built many of the Revell ship kits as well planes and tanks. I was to impatient to paint them until an old lady living across the street commented to me that they would look better painted which then started me down the road of increasing accuracy. Of course that took a long time since to me painting meant putting the Forrestal in winter camoflage of all things. As I grew up and learned more things got better. I then took a left turn in high school into the armor world and built dioramas using photographs from World War II as a base line. Model building then went on hold after I went into the Army. The love for ships never left me and I returned to them in the 80's while still serving in the Army (odd as that may be). I built many 1:700 scale ships and then went to 1:350 scale with the Enterprise, New Jersey and Ticonderoga. Another hiatus took place when I retired from the Army in 1995 and began building my civilian career. I am back in the hobby and enjoying it more than ever. My point is that those early kits, as inaccurate and awful as they may be to us now, stimulated kids like myself without having to pay big bucks we couldn't afford and offered a venue on which we could learn without ruining an expensive kit. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) From: "Wahl, ZNM - ID3" Subject: Gakken Yamato books - THANKS! Folks, thanks to all that took the time to respond to my enquiry. I have since concluded that the guy´s asking price of 50 bucks for #11 is way to expensive and have therefore ordered both volumes (#11 and #20) from HLJ. As an aside this had the added benefit of seeing -and ordering- the volume on the Taiho/Shinano ;-) Thanks again and all the best Thors `At least we don´t name our ships for our mothers-in-law.´ USS Reuben James to HMS Battleaxe -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) From: John Snyder Subject: Re: AA fit on the Sheffield Dec 1943 >> I love these easy questions. The real question is; how was the ship camouflaged? << I LOVE these easy questions. The answer is: with paint, of course! Cheers, John Snyder -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) From: Ken Subject: Naval Base Hobbies I have ordered only once from Naval Base and the order took quite some time to come. On inquiry, I found that my order included a decal sheet that was out-of-stock. So, I was waiting for a one-person shop to get product from another one-person shop. OK, so is this Model Expo or Amazon.com? No. Are they supplying products that we can't get elsewhere? Yes. Do those products make our models infinitely better? Oh, yes. Should the small suppliers explain these things on their websites and when taking orders? Again, yes. Will I order again from Naval Base? Sure; I'll just order a little sooner. Give them a break. If you are in that much of a hurry, take up another hobby! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) From: "Poutre, Joseph A" Subject: Re: Painting a PBR If you want to see photos of a genuine PBR, Mk. 2, you can visit the New Jersey Naval Museum in Hackensack. If you can't get there you can see one photo on their website at http://www.njnm.com/ Joe Poutre -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) From: Dimi Apostolopoulos Subject: Research at the FAAM & NMM, Fox Photos Folks, I am looking for any recommendations of how to pursue sustained research of the Fleet Air Arm Museum and National Maritime Museum photoarchives in the UK given that I live in the US and can only afford to travel to the UK maybe once every other year for a few days. The curator at the FAAM has been helpful but I have difficulty with NMM. In any case, I am looking for ways to do steady research. I was able to do some of that in the IWM archives with the help of a freelance researcher who lives in London but have not found someone that could do the same thing in the FAAM and NMM. If you know of any people that specialize in this kind of thing, let me know. Also, in anybody aware of Fox Photos in the UK? Dimi -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9) From: Tim Stoneman Subject: ABDIEL and MANXMAN - Camouflage Looking for camouflage details for these two minelayers early in their careers. MANXMAN was in a 2-colour angular pattern (stbd bow photo of her at Kyle of Lochalsh in the Profile Morskie book 'ABDIEL and ARIADNE', coloured stbd side profile in the same book (although with 7x1 20mm and RDF Type 292 which I don't think she carried at this stage) and stbd side view (stated to be symmetrical) in Alan Raven's 'Camouflage Vol 1'). The actual pattern varies a little in all these depictions, but that's probably due to differing interpretations of grainy photos! ABDIEL was overall dark or medium grey for trials, and was later photographed in an Admiralty Disruptive pattern. However, one shot on the Australian War Memorial website (negative number P00090.104 ) shows a ship in a similar (but not identical) pattern, but is captioned 'ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT, 1940. HMS ABDIEL IN THE HARBOUR'. Since she wasn't completed until 1941, the caption must be in doubt, but the background LOOKS like Alexandria! Does anyone know if she also carried this geometric pattern, and if so, was she still carrying RDF Type 286, and quad .5" guns instead of the 20mm? Alternatively, is this a miscaptioned picture, and it's actually MANXMAN? Tim Stoneman -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10) From: RhinoBones@aol.com Subject: Re: Worst model With all of the talk lately concerning the "worst" models ever, the USS Maine (Pyro's abomination of the Olympia?) seems to be one of the winners of the ugly award. Would anyone out there actually have a picture to share of a built, or unbuilt, Maine showing the gun turrets pasted on to the hull? Might be fun to build one just for amusement . . . On the serious side, here is a modeling question. I have a Kombrig Tsesarevitch in the works and I am unsure about the color/material used on the upper decks. The reference pictures show a wooden main deck but they also show the same wood color for the upper decks. Does anyone know whether the upper decks were wood or were they steel? The same question applies to other Russian ships of the 1900's era. Regards, RhinoBones -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11) From: WRPRESSINC@aol.com Subject: Re: Camouflage of the Sheffield Very possible that the ship had the paintwork changed by December 1943. My feeling is that this was the case, but there is no photographic evidence that I know of, of photos accurately dated to late 1943 that exist. It is unfortunate, but many photos from official sources are wrongly dated so that one has to line up configeration with refit and docking dates, with the date on the photo. This dating inaccuracy applies to a great percentage of the prints held in the Imperial War Museum. Dates given to a photos are the dates on which they were distributed by Admiralty, and NOT the dates on which they were actually taken, the latter often post dating the former by several months. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12) From: "john fiebke" Subject: Clarification >> Someone wrote earlier that they thought manufacturers should be held accountable for the demise of the hobby. Does that include the good plastic manufacturers who are constantly releasing new, largely high-quality products, and the small cottage manufacturers (like myself) who are busting our asses for tiny profits to try and make the modeling world a little better place? << That's not what I meant at all. I wasn't talking about all manufacturers. I'm talking about what a kid will find in a place like Wal-mart. I was just saying that it was apparent to me at a young age, and is still apparent to me, that for many manufacturers (not all by any means) there seems to be a different standard for what is acceptable to release as a ship model. I grew up in the eighties, at which time even Monogram and Revell were releasing accurate, highly detailed aircraft models. Yet the decades old Revell Missouri was (and still is) about the only ship kit you will find outside of a hobby shop. When these models were originally produced, next to the competition they were fine. But aircraft, armour, cars, even sci-fi moved on. When Monogram sell old airplane kits, they put them in their "classic" boxes now, so you'll know what you're getting. Not so the old ship kits. And I didn't mean to sound as if the demise of the hobby has happenned. I think there are better kits, with more variety, than ever, and that is almost solely do to the efforts of the cottage industries and a few Japanese firms that understand what is possible with a ship model. I just don't think it should be acceptable to say "aww, he's a kid, he won't know the difference." Maybe I was the exception, but I was obsessed with military equipment from the time I was about five. I was better at ship identification at ten than I am know, as thats all I read about. I don't think you guys give kids enough credit. Sorry for the novel. And again, thanks to all the cottage industry folks. You're saving this hobby. John Fiebke. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13) From: Derek Wakefield Subject: Naval Base Defense I've also had a few dealings with Naval Base and had no probs with their service. I ordered a couple of kits and a ship's cap from them, and all arrived within a reasonable time. When I did have questions, Shaya was quick to respond. I wouldn't hesitate to do business with them based on my experience. Derek Wakefield -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14) From: "Hank Lapa" Subject: What Kit is It?? -- Trident SSBN All, I recently acquired two sub models, I think of OHIO-class SSBNs. They are hulls only with integral sail. They are about 32-1/2 inches long. I would like to know who kitted these things so I can acquire the necessary bits to complete them. If it weren't for those props, I'd just make up the details from scratch. Any ideas from where they came?? Regards and thanks in advance, Hank -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Model club & SMMLcon Infomation -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: BSteinIPMS@aol.com Subject: Western Ship Model Conference During April 5, 6, & 7, 2002, the Western Ship Model Conference & Exhibit will be held in Long Beach, California. This is in the Los Angeles area and is less than an hour from LAX airport. This biennial event draws attendees from all over the world and is, perhaps, the largest exhibit in the U.S. It's hosted by the Ship Modelers Association of Southern California and more information can be had on their excellent Web site at: http://www.ship-modelers-assn.org The venue for this conference is the Royal Mail Ship QUEEN MARY, and this is also the official hotel. What a setting for this premier event! You can look into hotel reservations if you're interested in attending, or just explore the history of the QUEEN MARY, at: http://www.queenmary.com This exhibit draws many warship modelers, as well as sailing ship modelers, and they expect over 300 ship models of various types to be on display. There will be guest speakers, seminars, demonstrations, and vendors selling hobby kits, tools, and supplies. If you're a warship, steel & steam, or sailing ship enthusiast, or a manufacturer/book dealer/cottage industry/hobby supplier, you might have an interest in attending. One of the guest speakers (me) will be presenting a slide show on the building/painting/weathering of a model of USS KIDD, DD-661, a FLETCHER class WWII destroyer in 1/192 scale. All is not lost, however, since I'm told the pub across the hall will be open during my presentation. (grin) Bob Steinbrunn Minneapolis Nautical Research Guild Tin Can Sailors Friends of the battleship NORTH CAROLINA IPMS/USA #3345 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADERS, ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTICEBOARD -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: stillmo@mb.sympatico.ca Subject: Re: Graf Zeppelin / Italy Attn. Jack: Re Graf Zepplin Resin kit by Reg. Mar. Upcoming issue of PLASTIC SHIP MODELLER magasine will have an extensive build article on the kit in question, by modeller Paul O Reilly. He did a marvelous job on it and we will have good pics and text on it. Ray D. Bean, writer for PLASTIC SHIP MODLLER MAGAZINE..... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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