Subject: SMML VOL 1787 Date: Wed, 03 Jul 2002 11:29:16 +1000 SMML is proudly sponsored by SANDLE http://sandlehobbies.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS INDEX 1: Merchant Ship Colors and House Logos 2: Really, really accurate models 3: Re: Titanic 4: Re: Bretagne Class 5: Re: Really, really accurate models 6: Re: Merchant vessel company decals 7: Drawings of CSS Manassas 8: Re: Really, really accurate models 9: Russia Blames torpedo fuel for Kursk sinking 10: Gakken Books 11: Re: canopies again - English translation now available on Omami's site 12: Torpedo Dropping 13: Re: RMS Titanic -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Model club & SMMLcon Information 1: Re: IPMS Nats attendees 2: Re: IPMS Nats attendees 3: Re: IPMS Nats Attendee -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: "Katz, Gene S" Subject: Merchant Ship Colors and House Logos Texaco's Marine Div used to publish a nice full color chart showing the funnel colors and (I think) logos of most of the major steamship lines. I have one from the 60s, but just where it is is anybody's guess after cross country moves. There was also a Brit pocket-size publication in the 50s and 60s called "The Observer's Book of Ships" which showed funnel colors and such for Brit steamships. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: Kelvin Mok Subject: Really, really accurate models >> I have a collection of 1/76 landing craft in various stages of construction and I have noted that photographs of the original craft all show battered and "oil canned" hulls that are nothing like the smooth hulls of the models. I have managed to replicate the dents from collisions but haven't yet come up with a way to create scale "oil canning" but I will give it a try now. << I have a miniature sand blaster in the shape of a air brush pen, a made in Taiwan device for less than $20. I got mine from Canada's "Princess Auto" store. The US Harbour Freight chain probably carries it. Perhaps you can mask off each panel and sand blast the exposed resin or plastic to simulate dents and dings. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From: Russell_Lessard@aigvalic.com Subject: Re: Titanic On the Titanic... stay away from the 1/400 Academy model. It has a flat bottom hull, and the details are pretty pathetic. Also, I have found that the parts don't fit together so well. Just one guy's opinion. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) From: "Daniel" Subject: Re: Bretagne Class >> The best reference for this class is Dumas and Guiglini "Les Cuirassés Français de 23500 Tonnes" published by Editions des 4 Seigneurs in 1980. It consists of a book describing Courbet and Bretagne classes in detail and a separate folder of plans at 1/500 showing all the changes throughout their service. All you require is some knowledge of French or, at least, a French-English dictionary. << Let's see... I don't speak French, but I'm thinking that that title translates to something like "French Battleships of 23,500 tons." Pure poetry! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) From: "Daniel" Subject: Re: Really, really accurate models >> I know that a lot of you modelers go to a lot of trouble to make your models very, very accurate, especially with PE additions. However, the one thing that still bothers me is that when I see a model that represents a ship that has been in service for a long time or in a diorama, I see know "oil canning" (sp) of the hull. Meaning you cannot see the frame of the ship where the action of the water has pushed in the hull plates. Probably 1/700 is out of the question and even 1/350 might be hard << September 2001 FSM has an article about a 1/192 Fletcher by Bob Steinbrunn, on which he achieves this effect by 'plating' the wooden hull (from BlueJacket) with styrene sheet cut to simulate the hull straking. Pretty cool. Pretty labor intensive. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) From: William Swan Subject: Re: Merchant vessel company decals >> I've thought about this very type of project for a while now. Unfortunately there aren't a lot of merchant vessels available on the market. I've been considering one of the Imex freighters. But anyway, as for decals I plan to use model railroad decals. There are a whole host of decals available for containers, and using any of the scales O, HO, or N should give you whatever size decals you need. Off hand, I know there is APL, Matson, Japan Line, Evergreen, P+O, to name a few. These may be a little too modern for what you're doing, but maybe it will help? The thought occured to me while I was sittin' on the dock of the bay (only joking!). Actually I was at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco watching all the freighters go by and seeing those big letters on the sides of the hull. I immediately thought intermodal contrainer decals would do the job just fine. I classify this as number 638 in the "someday-I-will-do" file. By the way, is the Burleigh basically the same mold as the C-3 Hawaiian Pilot freighter? I wonder if they adapted the mold like they did with the Mission Capistrano oiler / Merchant tanker kits? << Rod, I have been trying to locate railroad decals for the shipping lines like Moore-McCormack and United States Lines thus far without success. As you suggest newer (companies still in existence!) logos exist for containers. I don't have an ALPS printer so doing it myself is out of the question (lettering was almost always in white). I will continue to look for rr. stuff and accept other suggestions. Re: Burleigh, yes it was derived from the Hawaiian Pilot of 1955 which then morphed into the Doctor Lykes of '61-62. HP/DL was retooled to become the military version of the C3 called Burleigh. This was ironic in that the HP and DL were DEMILITARIZED C3s, so Revell did the opposite of real life in the modeling. The Burleighs are more desirable for my purposes because they include the aft and forward additions where the gun tubs were. Some shipping companies did not remove all or part of these structures when they converted them to civilian use (not to mention that Burleighs, last reissued in '95-96 go for a lot less than HPs or DLs these days). WJS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) From: Alan Simon Subject: Drawings of CSS Manassas Please help locate scale drawings and details of CSS Manassas (early Confederate ironclad), which fought at Battle of New Orleans in 1862. Search is for friend whose great, great... grandfather financed the ship. Have already found several sources on and off internet for period battle scenes, news clippings, etc. Thanks in advance. Alan Simon Atlanta, Ga -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) From: NAVYDAZE@aol.com Subject: Re: Really, really accurate models OK here is my idea and I want a commission from you P.E. manufacturers if you pick up on this. A P.E mask could be made to fit a specific craft, say an LCU. Probably the frame sizes are going to stay the same on most of the hull with some variation towards the bow and stern. So you have this metal mask that you tape on the hull where the frames are and just sand or grind with a Dremel in the middle. Lift it off and move it to another frame area. OK now visit my web site for my address as that is where I want you to send all the money for this great idea!!! Cheers, Mike Donegan NAVYDAZE Naval & Aviation Artist http://www.navydaze.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9) From: "John Rule" Subject: Russia Blames torpedo fuel for Kursk sinking >> Although no one had been criminally responisble for the disaster, President Putin last December demoted 3 top navy commanders & sacked 8 admirals in the Northern Fleet to which the kursk belonged." seems a shame really when the admirals were probably just carrying orders from the Kremlin & any complaints or concerns about safety were probably dismissed or filed as "too hard". Maybe the designers/company of the torpedo or the people who allowed such equipment should be held resonsible, but like everything else ..top people don't take the blame they pass it on to someone else .. especially since as people here have said..other navies banned this style of torpedo sometime in the 50's or 60's as being too dangerous... It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to see that something as dangerous as that in a fleet that is literally falling apart is not a good combination. Guess they had something to prove to make people think that the Great Russian Empire is as strong as ever or able to attack & destroy any enemy fleet ...well that's my 2 cents worth << What do you mean 2 cents. That sounds more like $1.50 to me. John Rule -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10) From: "Andrew Jones" Subject: Gakken Books Was going thru the Hobylink Japan web site & saw the range of books besides all in Japanese, how good are they... even just looking at the pictures etc thanks Andrew OZ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11) From: "Stephen Allen" Subject: Re: canopies again - English translation now available on Omami's site In a case of 'if you don't ask you don't get' I asked Omami (builder of the incredible 1:700 scale Kaga and Akagi) if he would translate his techniques for painting small scale carrier aircraft into English. He has very kindly done so now and has posted this information, together with other aspects of his 1:700 scale techniques, on his site at: www.oshipy.com/users/omami/e-top.htm The site also currently features a beautiful take off diorama 'Pearl Harbor trio' in 1:700. I thought it was 1:72 when I first saw the photo! regards Stephen Allen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12) From: "Steven Bryson" Subject: Torpedo Dropping Hello, This is kind of late on the topic, but I recall seeing an early 1930s movie with Gary Cooper (Today We Live?) that shows torpedo boats making runs against a large warship. These boats made a run towards the warship, and dropped the torpedoes from a trough in the stern. Steve Bryson -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13) From: "Michael J. D'Silva" Subject: Re: RMS Titanic Lionel Ng wrote: >> I am thinking of building a plastic model titanic in the scale of either 1:350 or 1:400, any recommendation of which brand will be the best for 350 and 400 scale? << Lionel, Look no further than the Minicraft 1:350 RMS Titanic. This kit is the most accurate and impressive model available in plastic. Then check out www.titanic-model.com, the home page of the Titanic Research and Modelling Association, for hints and tips to help with the building of your kit. Michael D'Silva -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Model club & SMMLcon Information -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: BECJPARKER@aol.com Subject: Re: IPMS Nats attendees As of 2 July this is the list for the IPMS Nationals. There has been a good number of new names added in the last day. Reference getting together on Friday night and that being a conflict with the judging, I realize that there is going to be a number of conflicts with trying to get a SMML meeting together. Like I said my idea was just to try and get as many of us together early on so we can start setting things up amongst ourselves in smaller groups for lunches and dinners and other events and the likes. Also many of us will be driving and we may want to strike out on our own rather than be tied up on the IPMS sponsored tours. On trying to get a place to meet I have called the Doubletree hotel and one of their reps has just called me back. There is space available on Thus and Fri AM and PM if we want to meet there, but it is rather costly. It would run around $300 for a room and just some sodas. They suggested that we just meet in their Bar (The Pelican Bar) they said that can accommodate us and it is open from 4 PM on each afternoon. Most likely the best way for us to meet and get together will be around the ship vendor tables and we can leave messages for each other there, that has worked well in the past. I have also sent the host chapter IPMS contact an e-mail but he hasn't gotten back to me. One last thing I would like to encourage everyone to wear their IPMS name tags and if you can write on the things just write in SMML on them somewhere to identify us as SMML members, that would help in getting together. Or even better if you have the little SMML Badges that one of the vendors was nice enough to pass out at the Dallas show to wear them. CHARLIE PARKER BRADFORD CHAUCER BOB HEALY JAMES CORLEY RAY BEAN TED PARIS JON WARNEKE MIKE BISHOP HUGH LETTERLY DAVID ANGELO STEVE LAU VINCENT MCCULLOUGH SKIP HASSLER MIKE SETTLE JEFF FENTON LON HEIDLER BRUCE BUCHNER JAY SHERER DAVE JUDY JOHN SHERIDAN STEVE BACKER ED GRUNE BOB SANTOS BOB LAPADURA RUSTY WHITE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: annobon4@aol.com Subject: Re: IPMS Nats attendees Hi Concerning the 2002 IPMS Nationals I plan to attend also. Craig -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From: "Rod Millard" Subject: Re: IPMS Nats Attendee Hi I'll be there see ya! Rod Millard -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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