Subject: SMML VOL 1838 Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2002 11:54:27 +1000 SMML is proudly sponsored by SANDLE http://sandlehobbies.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS INDEX 1: Gary's holes 2: Re: British "P Boats" 3: Re: Istukutshima/Hashidate/Matsukushima 4: Re: REVELL Plans 1/72 Blohm & Voss BV 222 Flying Boat Kit!! 5: Re: Superb destroyers 6: Come soon a Discovery Channel near you, The Dkm Bismark 7: Re: Tsushima or Yalu??? 8: jap destroyers 9: RE: LPD 1 RALEIGH 10: IJN Destroyer Books 11: Re: Revell Bismarck -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADERS, ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTICEBOARD INDEX 1: Captain Harlock Books 4 Sale ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: BSteinIPMS@aol.com Subject: Gary's holes Gary Kingzett raises some fundamentally interesting and important questions regarding holes. I'd like to cast this discussion into perspective by reminding everyone that the Swiss, not the British, were the originators of prepackaged precision holes and remain the sole source of same in cheese of that name. Besides, I've seen exquisite examples of Gary's work which he showed me in Long Beach at the Western Ship Model Conference, namely finely machined brass guns for period battleships he's scratch-building. Clearly, the holes in the muzzles of his model weapons were definitely not of British origin. Since they were so precise and uniform, my guess is that they were Swiss. Just a theory, mind. Bob Steinbrunn Minneapolis Nautical Research Guild ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: MEDWAY Subject: Re: British "P Boats" They were never designed to dive, just look like subs from a distance & some of them survived until the 1930s. Michael Brown ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From: "D.Przezdziecki" Subject: Re: Istukutshima/Hashidate/Matsukushima Gernot, backdating Itsu/Hashi models is not very difficult. All it involves is cutting additonal four (two per side) 120mm gun ports, making the "roof" of the main turret slightly larger, exchanging four 120mm guns on the upper deck for 47 mm ones and adding two struts, fighting top and spotting top to the mast. However, I personally do not believe that any sort of conversion kit is possible to transform Itsukushima or Hashidate into Matsushima. To show the extend of the changes necessary let me name just a few of them: quaterdeck needs to be lowered, forecastle deck needs to be raised, 120mm battery gun ports have to be relocated forward and so on and so forth. I would genuinely like to see a conversion set that would make all this drastic surgery any easier but I do not think it possible. Best wishes, Darius ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) From: "GrahamBoak" Subject: Re: REVELL Plans 1/72 Blohm & Voss BV 222 Flying Boat Kit!! >> 1:72 kit to be released December 2002. Kit length = 514 mm; wingspan 639mm. Model of flying boat built 1941 c/w 6 x 746 kW engines;airspeed of 390km/h. 514mm long!! Why has Revell,Germany plunked down bales of cash on mega-huge tooling for an obscure Nazi flying boat kit?? Surely with the success of their 1/72 S-Boote kit,they should now know good warship kits do sell. Just a moan and whinge first thing on a sunny winter's morning. << Answers: 1. Because aircraft sell more than ships. 2. Each year, Revell Germany does a missing WW2 German aircraft subject, and only the big ones are left! 3. The Bv.222 project would have been given its go-ahead well before the release of the S-boote, so commenting on the sales of the latter is irrelevant. 4. If the S-boote has sold well, maybe more warship kits will come. But do sales of 1/72 motor boats translate into sales of 1/700 warships? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) From: Masashi Ito Subject: Re: Superb destroyers Hi, I am quite interested in the dicussion about the IJN destroyers on this list in the past few days. Actually, I am a bit critical of the IJN destroyers (I am Japanese, by the way), or more precisely of the high command of the IJN then. (I may be a bit inprecise in what I write below since I don't have at hand now any sources to check with.) Yes, their oxgen torpedo was good weapons. (However, their "outrange" tactics with which I think the oxgen torpedo had something to do had a negative side effect too. That is, the IJN ships sometimes if not always kept a distance from their enemy ships, which rendered their guns and probably torpedoes too less effective.) But the IJN destroyers were utterly inferior in their screening capabilities. One of the (Japanese) books I have said western navies were struggling to balance two different tasks of their destroyers, that is, offense and defense. And the IJN almost neglected the defensive tasks of their destroyers, saying that offense is the best of defense. The consequence was, for instance, as you all know, that the IJN ships became more vulnerable to attack from the air, and the IJN destroyers were almost useless in protecing their other ships. Yes, there were the Akizuki-class destroyers. But actually one (Japanese) source explicitly wrote that their fire control systems were so ineffective that it was very difficult to score hits. There are in fact more to say about the stupidity of the IJN (leadership), but let me stop here for now. Lastly, about the atrocities committed by the Japanese, I agree with John Snyder saying that it wouldn't be a topic on this list. But if anyone would like to talk about it more, e-mail me off list. It is not for me to defend everything the Japanese did but simply to know more. Thanks, Masashi Ito ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) From: "Pwesty" Subject: Come soon a Discovery Channel near you, The Dkm Bismark Hi List I found this today, thought you all would like to know about! http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/bismarck/bismarck.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) From: "Erhardtsen" Subject: Re: Tsushima or Yalu??? D.Przezdziecki wrote in SMML VOL 1836: >> After all "Iron Duke" "took part" in WWII too, but just how many people are prepared to choose her 1939 appearance as their modelling project??? << I made Iron Duke in her WW 2 appearance. Being in use after she was sunk makes it a rather interesting ship. If Seals Models want to release Itsukushima and Hashidate as part of a Tsushima fleet, it is there choice. - you can disagree, but it is not open fore debate. They made the model - they choose the period. At the moment I am making Wyoming, and as some of my friends has shown interest, I am making resine copies of the most important parts. I make the ship as in 1944/45, and if my friends donīt like that choice, - it is there problem - not mine. If they want a copy of the parts, they must take what they can get. Erik Erhardtsen ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) From: "Andrew Jones" Subject: jap destroyers Maybe go for the second option & se what the response is..anyhow GO FOR IT! cant wait..anything in English would be a great help! ( I work in a japanese company and sometimes I have to get translations in case the particular staff's fathers was in the war as I know 1 or 2 were) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9) From: "Andrew Jones" Subject: RE: LPD 1 RALEIGH Maybe try WWW.FAS.ORG OR WWW.GLOBALSECURITY.ORG Or even the US Navy wb sites stuff. They might have have a whole lot of photos of the ship in action for the placement of trucks & stuff. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10) From: "Mike C" Subject: IJN Destroyer Books Here's a suggestion, Chris: Draft two versions of the histories, general and specific. The general one would be a history following the chronological development of Japanese destroyers with chapters on each class. The specific histories would concentrate on one class with weapons specifics, deployments, improvements, etc. Then you could do a series of books on Japanese destroyers. Each would have the general history with the specific history replacing the appropriate chapter for that destroyer class in that volume. The weapons systems could be compiled as individual sections and mixed to be included in each volume as they apply to a particular class. That way, if someone were to buy only one book, they would have an overview of how the particular class fit into the developement of IJN destroyers in general, but still have a detailed treatment of a particular class. Each book would stand on it's own, but the collection would be worth more than the sum of its parts. You'll still be doing the same amount of work as you would for one huge tome, but you'll be able to break it into workable segments. Not only will buyers find them easier to budget for, but you'll see an earlier return for your work. Any in-depth treatment of IJN destroyers will be welcomed and I, for one, look forward to what you release. Have fun, Mike C ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11) From: Andreas Bergauer Subject: Re: Revell Bismarck >> In examining the kit, the wood planking seems way out of scale- way too wide. Any opinions about this, and any suggestions about how to fix it (other than buying the Tamiya kit!!) << I would recommend sanding down the planking completely and paint the deck in teak. because the planking is far to wide and also the part of the deck at the bow where the anchor chains run was planked with wood. Other errors which I found: Both spills turned counter-clockwise when hoisting the anchors and the anchor chains from Revell are to big, too. The aircraft catapult sat below the deck and was covered with sheets of metal. So there should be more errors in this kit which are not so easy visible (these were found by simply viewing at the photos in the book by Robert Ballard). Hope this helps. Andreas Bergauer Mannheim, Germany ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADERS, ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTICEBOARD ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: Derek Wakefield Subject: Captain Harlock Books 4 Sale This is a stretch, but I know there are some Space Battleship Yamato/Star Blazers fans on this list; and some of those might also be Captain Harlock fans (pirate ships in space, so it sorta related here). I managed (through mega teeth gnashing) to list two old (sorta hard to find) Japanese Captain Harlock books I have on ebay this morning. If anyone wants to take a look, the URLs are... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1552569699 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1552568994 I'd tried to sell these through other means but didn't make one iota of headway, so this is my last ditch effort to sell these. Derek Wakefield ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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