Subject: SMML VOL 1820 Date: Sat, 20 Jul 2002 12:11:46 +1000 SMML is proudly sponsored by SANDLE http://sandlehobbies.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS INDEX 1: USS Alaska 2: Re: Preble 3: Re: when is a cruiser not a cruiser? 4: Re: Self-serve laundry 5: Trumpeter Essex and Hornet 6: Re: Hungarian River Monitors 1939-1945 7: The ole Cruiser 8: Re: Shipboard laundries 9: Re: Frigates and Corvettes 10: Re: US Corvettes 11: Re: plans for HMAS Swan 12: Re: self-serve laundry 13: Interesting item on eBay ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Model club & SMMLcon Information 1: 1:700 scale destroyer - Top Ten List ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: "George Peat" Subject: USS Alaska Kostas. If you get back to me off group I have info on the USS Alaska ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: David Wells Subject: Re: Preble George wrote >> I'd really like to have a 1/700 of her, to go with the rest of the ships from the BG. << "Bruce Ross" wrote: >> Well George, unfortunely the only way to get Preble or any of her sisters is to go the scratchbuild route. << Almost. There was the old Renwal 1/500 kit, but that one needs some serious correction to be accurate. As I'm fond of pointing out, that kit looks more like a Mitscher class than a Farragut (Coontz?) class. Also, since it is a 1/500 kit, it doesn't meet George's 1/700 specification either. >> I know, I wanted one bad enough that I took the plunge. If the link works you should see how I'm doing thus far. http://gallery.kithobbyist.com/data/69Preble_032702_1-med.jpg << Nice work! I may have to bug you for some plans! (guess who's still trying to correct his old Renwal.....) David R. Wells "There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today" Adm. D. Beatty, May 31, 1916 http://home.att.net/~WellsBrothers/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From: "Phil Collins" Subject: Re: when is a cruiser not a cruiser? Depends if she is 445ft long and 90 years old! Regards. Phil ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) From: dlfowler@apple.com Subject: Re: Self-serve laundry On some of the more senior US Coast Guard cutters the ship's laundry was a net bag tossed over the side while underway and secured with a strong line. One would have to make sure to keep forward of the septic discharge pipes. If the line parted, well, you just turned your skivies inside out and they were good for another week... Regards, Duane Fowler dlfowler@uscg.net ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) From: "Chuck Evans" Subject: Trumpeter Essex and Hornet I just visited Tom's Modelworks and looked under New Releases, 4th quarter and saw that he will have PE kits ready for the Trumpeter Essex (CV-9) and Hornet (CV-8) in either late 2002 or early 2003. I assume this means that Trumpeter will have those ship released concurrently. Chuck Evans Minneapolis, MN ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) From: URUDOFSKY@aol.com Subject: Re: Hungarian River Monitors 1939-1945 Weyer's Taschenbuch der Kriegsflotten, 1940, lists six Hungarian 140 t (15-18 knots) Danube River monitors (Donauwachtboote) mounting two 7 cm/L30 guns and two machine guns. Measurements: LOA, 44 m; beam, 6 m; draft, 1 m. They carried a crew of 40. They were the old ca. 1918, rebuilt in 1924-28, Austrian gunboats named after Danube fish like Stöhr, Lachs, and Barsch etc. (Sturgeon, Salmon, Perch). They were given names of Hungarian cities lying along the shores of the Danube (Sopron, Debreczen, Baja, Györ, Kecskemet, and Szeged). Weyer's 1940 edition also contains a very tiny 1:2000 drawing of Sopron. Take a look at the Austro-Hungarian naval websites linked at http://www.hszk.bme.hu/~vb021/kuklinks-eng.html. By the way, all these monitors/river gunboats exist as 1:1250 models in their WW1 configuration made by Trident; Friedrich Kermauner shows pictures of all these models: http://members.chello.at/friedrich.kermauner/englisch/donau_krieg.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) From: "Chris Drage" Subject: The ole Cruiser John, >> SIR!! Are you referring to my wife as "an old cruiser"??!! << I have to confess that I have heard the expression ..."battleship" used by our Australian cousins on this list. We Kiwis however, know her for the warm tender loving person that she is. Regards Chris He tao rakau e taea te karo kupu kaore e taea te karo (Te reo Maori) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) From: Fkbrown90@aol.com Subject: Re: Shipboard laundries I beg the tolerance of the deep-water sailors, but I am curious as to the water used in the shipboard laundries. Was it stored fresh water, distilled water(from sea water), or salt water (using soap especially made for salt water use)? What do they use in nuclear subs which can stay submerged for six months? Franklyn ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9) From: 1250man@attbi.com Subject: Re: Frigates and Corvettes Well, Mike makes a very good point. One could say that John really isn't even technically correct. I mean what IS a corvette? The term is a word of art. There's no clear defining difference between a corvette and a gunboat or a frigate either. In the U.S. Navy we called the FLOWERS gunboats. So that's what they were. We could have called them frigates. We didn't. We could have called them corvettes. We didn't. Therefore they were NOT corvettes IN the USN. We gave the British DE's. Since the British denoted them as "frigates" does that mean that they were USN frigates also? No. They were DE's. Mikes point was that there were no corvettes in the USN, after a certain date and he's right. If WE didn't call them corvettes, then it doesn't matter what the Brits, the Italians, the Germans, or anyone else called them. For USN purposes they were gunboats. Paul Jacobs ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10) From: louellet@uism.bu.edu Subject: Re: US Corvettes As John and others have mentioned, there were Flower class corvettes in US service as Patrol Gunships. I am an acquaintance of a former crewman of the USS Courage, who served aboard her for 3-4 years. They escorted many convoys, and spotted u-boats, but never fired a shot or depth charge in anger. The destroyers in the convoys always went after the targets. I asked Ted DeCristofaro (the crewman) recently about the guns on board. Were they the English guns or were they replaced with US guns. He did say one mount was replaced. He also mentioned in passing a 3" and a 4" mount. Not sure which was US and which was UK. Anyone? Ted also said they were overloaded with depth charges, which would have been OK if they were ever allowed to use them! Before returning to port they all had to be disarmed(?) and then re-armed again when they went back on patrol. There were two roll racks on the fantail and launchers (Y or K guns?) on the sides of the ship. Ted said the ship was in very poor condition when it was delivered to Boston, even though it had just been built. The whole crew hated the ship until one day they hit an iceberg. The Captain had never seen one before and ordered the pilot closer and closer until ... Bam! Lots of equipment and people tossed around, and a small hole or split in the bow, but she didn't sink! From that moment on, the crew said how much they loved their ship! There is a lot of information out there on the English Flowers, a very nice web site on the Canadian Flowers, but I can't find much on the US Flowers. Can anyone help me out? I've already contacted John Lambert and he sent me some information on one of the Harland & Wolfe built, US commissioned Flowers built at the same time as USS Courage. (Thanks again John!) Larry Ouellette Volunteer, USS Salem (CA 139) United States Naval Shipbuilding Museum Quincy, Massachusetts, USA http://www.uss-salem.org/ p.s. I won't be able to read any of your replies for around 10 days or so. I'm sailing a 36.5 foot Pearson 365 sloop from Quincy (just south of Boston) to New York City and back. Wish me luck. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11) From: "M Brown" Subject: Re: plans for HMAS Swan The National Archives at Chester Hill have various RAN plans for the River Class DEs at 1/48 scale. If that is too big for ou, I can tell you where to get a 1/72 hull! Michael Brown Task Force 72 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12) From: "Mike C" Subject: Re: self-serve laundry Washing machines? I seem to recall my dad telling me that when he was in the Reserves on destroyers (early 1950's), they'd throw their dirty clothes and some soap in a duffle bag tied to a rope and toss them into the prop wash of the wake. They'd leave them there for a couple hours and hope their knot tying skills were up to the turbulance. I'll never know how true it was, but it made a good story... Have fun, Mike ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13) From: paulship37@aol.com Subject: Interesting item on eBay I saw these items for sale at eBay: 1909 Canadian Steam & Sail ships/lighthouses http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1550069359 1944 US Submarines http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2123677168 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Model club & SMMLcon Information ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: Ed Grune Subject: 1:700 scale destroyer - Top Ten List Hello to all SMMLies I have been coordinating the IPMS North Central Texas' group entry project for next week's IPMS Nationals. Our theme celebrates the centennial of the US Navy's destroyer force. I have called upon the many aircraft and armor modelers of our chapter to produce models of every US destroyer class since the USS Bainbridge of 1902. I have a couple of beautiful scratchbuilt pre-WWI TBDs boxed up and ready to go. I have many more of the classes up to and including the Zumwalt-class (DD-21) destroyer. I've had a dedicated armor modeler call me at 8 am one Saturday morning - wanting to know if I had any more hulls to paint and weather - he had so much fun doing his B-Resina 4-piper. The guy who scratchbuilt the DD-21 and is trying like hell to finish the rest of the pre-WWI boats found out that he is related to Preble - and he wants to do a 1:350 scale pre-WWI Preble when the project is over. One of our aircraft modelers, Frank Landrus, signed up to do a round bridge Fletcher with the increased anti-aircraft armament modifications. He completed his model (after two attempts) and sent me this Top Ten List (with apologies to David Letterman): 10) You can have too much reference material. 9) Broad generalities with the Fletcher class do not work very well since they were custom built by several different manufacturers. 8) The 1/700 Tamiya Fletcher kit and the Skywave Fletcher kit have very little in common. 7) Some dogs have difficulty in distinguishing between dog bones and 1/700 Fletcher hulls. 6) Having enough light to be able to see well enough to paint in 1/700 scale causes the paint to dry very fast. 5) Just because photoetch companies make it does not mean it will fit properly or look right. 4) When you are trying to finish a model to meet a deadline, your relatives will decide to come visit for 10 days. 3) I don't know if I can ever make enough photoetch depthchargers to get them to look right. 2) A 'square' bridge Fletcher looks round and a 'round' bridge Fletcher looks square. And 1) Now I know I have to buy an Optivisor. Thanks Frank, James, and Bruce and thanks to all the people at IPMS/NCT who worked on the project I will have pictures of all the entries in the project. I'll send them off to Shane for posting on the SMML webpage. If you're in VaBeach - stop by and say Howdy! Ed Mansfield, TX IPMS-NCT 2002 Group Project Coordinator ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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