Subject: SMML VOL 1735 Date: Mon, 03 Jun 2002 00:16:51 +1000 SMML is proudly sponsored by SANDLE http://sandlehobbies.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS INDEX 1: K-19 still around? 2: Re: 1/700 Hiryu 3: The right to reply! 4: Polish Site 5: Re: Jecobin Plans 6: Re: Aoshima Hiryu 7: Re: Railroads and Moving House 8: The Use of English 9: Re: WW2 Call letters 10: Re: Sub Questions -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADERS, ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTICEBOARD INDEX 1: Re: Jecobin Plans -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: "Pwesty" Subject: K-19 still around? Does anybody know if the actual K-19 is still around? I am ready a book by one Peter Huchthausen called K-19 that the boat is still around and is sitting in at the shkval shipyards at Polyarney. According to the book during the preproduction of the movie the Russians allowed the company to see and go onboard the ship herself. Does anybody know for sure that the boat is still around? Thanks -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: "John Sutherland" Subject: Re: 1/700 Hiryu Art, The Pit Road carrier decks are actually Joe World PE sets re-labelled, just as many of Tom Harrison's PE sets have been. I cannot comment on the specific set but I do have, and used, the one for Zuiho, and on that basis offer a few personal comments: 1 The set offers more than just the flight deck - it is essentially a PE set for the whole kit. 2 The flight deck is etched only on one side (the top) leaving the underside (visible on IJN carriers) rather smooth and bare - nor is PE given to counter this. The Aoshima kit is standard for the time - that is GROTTY. However, the hull appears acceptably accurate in size and shape and if you took the kit, threw away everything except the hull, decks (except flight deck), and superstructure and built it with the PE set and heaps of bits from the Skywave accessory kits it would look very good, especially finished with either WEM Colourcoats or Pit Road enamel paints or Model Expo acryllic paint. To be honest the case for replacing the kit flight deck with the PE one on iots own is marginal but the rest of the PE on the set is more than worth the price alone and if you have the deck the upper side in particular is superior. The underside will need scratch building - the extent I guess is a matter of taste. Best of luck. John Sutherland Wellington -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From: Subject: The right to reply! As the ONLY one mentioned by name in this latest subject about authors, and their end products, I feel that I have to agree with the writer, Robert (even though he did not recognise me in a bar in Quincy, USA). I must confess that I have never been the best at spelling. Some of my school time was spent singing in air raid shelters at school, and I still cannot sing. I made some spelling errors in my early drawings, but both my partner and I (who knows about these things) have now resolved these problems. The comment that I use stencils is correct. Unfortunately although the size used is standard, I can no longer obtain the original letter face. It is something that I hate doing, and it is very time consuming, but it does provide a standard product. I still write for magazines (and books) and now provide a completed disk of text that HAS been checked both for spelling and content (colour or color). I am aware of Roberts points, indeed I have made the same comments. Some years ago, when I volunteered to review a Corvette publication, I had a change of heart when I saw the mass of spelling errors it contained. It would have been wrong not to have mentioned them, and they did spoil a great deal of research and effort. I have (I hope) slowly improved over the years, I have become less wordy too. My latest effort will be seen in next months Marine Modelling Monthly which details a V & W escort destroyer HMS Whitely. Now that WAS a spelling error! Yours "Aye" John -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) From: nd.ward@virgin.net Subject: Polish Site Has anyone done business with Mirage? I've visited their site www.mirage-hobby.com.pl, and they have some interesting destroyers, modern Soviet frigates (1:400 ) etc, click on the Mirage Hobby Logo and look for OKRETY. However my Polish is non-existant. Can you actually buy from the site - the prices are quoted in zlotys. Dave Ward -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) From: George Peat Subject: Re: Jecobin Plans Jecobin Drawings are available from: Jecobin, 31, Romans Way, Pyrford, Woking, Surrey GU22-8TR They do not give a telephone number or any other way of contacting them. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) From: SAMI ARIM Subject: Re: Aoshima Hiryu I have built the Aoshima Hiryu few years ago and I can say that it would take a lot of work to make her look decent. There is a big chance that the Pitroad PE flight deck would not fit on her plastic deck. I hope Highmold will come with a kit of her as the Soryu. Regards, Sami Arim -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) From: John Snyder Subject: Re: Railroads and Moving House >> The cross section of railroad rail was fairly standard for both standard and narrow guage...the size of the rail was measured in 'Codes' which are the weight of a 3 foot piece of rail. During the Civil War heavily used mainline track might be code 70 (i.e. 3 feet of rail weighed 70 pounds) and lesser used track might be code 30 or 40. Joel Labow (recovering model railroader and unregenerate Yankee) << Sorry Joel, you're letting the model railroader part come through--your recovery isn't yet complete. The "code" system you refer to is strictly model railroad terminology. The U.S. railroads simply refer to rail by weight in pounds/yard, i.e., 40-pound rail, 90-pound rail, 133-pound rail. >> Robert Lockie (not yet felt the need to move house, as if I could anyway with all the books and kits&.) << Aw, c'mon Robert. Do you have any idea how many tons of books and how many kits I moved 6,000 miles from California to the UK? Cheers, John Snyder, former brakeman, Sacramento Northern Railway (and whose father worked 50 years for the Southern Pacific Railroad) Recovered Model Railroader -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) From: "John Rule" Subject: The Use of English Mr Robert Lockie bravely touched upon a subject which I concur had to be brought into the open. Too many books are being published in "English", where the use of that language and the spelling in that language is abysmal, whether US or UK spellings are being used. To further complicate things the attached piece of news regarding the standardisation of language may be of interest. "At last, an international language The European Union commissioners have announced that agreement has been reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, The British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and accepted a five-year phased plan for what will be known as EuroEnglish (Eurish for short). In the first year, 's' will be used instead of the soft 'c'. Sertainly, sivil servants will resieve this news with joy. Also, the hard 'c' will be replaced with 'k.' Not only will this klear up konfusion, but typewriters kan have one less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome 'ph' will be replaced by 'f'. This will make words like 'fotograf' 20 per sent shorter. In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of silent 'e's in the languag is disgrasful, and they would go. By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing 'th' by 'z' and 'w' by 'v'. During ze fifz year, ze unesesary 'o' kan be dropd from vords kontaining 'ou', and similar changes vud of kors; be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters. After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil b no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech ozer. Zen ze dremz of ze sivil servants vil finali kum tru." Unfortunately the above may not have a major impact on the instructions accompanying Japanese or Chinese kits. Sincerely, John (WTIC) Rule Hi John, So will this make your Scottish brouge easier to understand - esp after a few wee drams?? Shane -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9) From: u.brow@t-online.de (u.brow@t-online.de) Subject: Re: WW2 Call letters radio call letters for DKM "Tirpitz" T P "Bismarck" B M Hope i could have helped you Yours Udo -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10) From: Ives100@aol.com Subject: Re: Sub Questions >> I'm a target builder but I want to build a diorama of a sub base using the following subs/targets and wanted advice. I have a few boomers (Skywave - USS George Washington), some attack boats (JAG - USS Skipjack), a floating drydock (Corsair Armada - ARD), and a sub tender (Loose Cannon - USS Fulton). I know the time period would be 1960's, but what sub base would have all of these ships (if they ever mixed boomers and attack boats)? << You might post this over on the SubCommittee BB, there are a lot of ex-submariners involved in modeling there (www.SubCommittee.com). Most SSBNs during the 60's were forward deployed (Holy Loch, Scotland) because of the limited range of their missiles. While officially "homeported" at Groton, the Holy Loch Blue & Gold crews were really flown back & forth from Scotland, not the submarine. While there may have been some "transient" SSNs, I believe that the SSN and SSBNs were deployed largely separate (Although I'm not sure about the Pacific boats). That said, there were undoubtedly cases where, for one reason or another, some of the boats were in port together at a major base such as Newport. I also suggest you get a copy of Yogi Kauffman' "Silent Chase"; great source for pictures of submarines tied up alongside, as well as a boomer in a floating drydock. A number of years back, Ken Hart did a beautiful diorama of a WWII Japanese submarine base in 1:700. He also did a detailed diorama of a Skipjack (using the Aurora kit) tied up alongside a pier at the New London Submarine Base. Have fun! Tom Dougherty -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADERS, ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTICEBOARD -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: LHDockyard@aol.com Subject: Re: Jecobin Plans >> Does anyone know of a source for Jecobin Plans? << Chris, Loyalhanna Dockyard can supply most of the Jecobin plans series. What set were you interested in? Don/Loyalhanna Dockyard www.loyalhannadockyard.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