Subject: SMML VOL 2425 Date: Fri, 06 Feb 2004 00:28:09 +1100 SMML is proudly sponsored by SANDLE http//sandlehobbies.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS INDEX 1 Dutch monitor Tyger, launched 1868 2 Pearl Harbor Narrow Gauge RR 3 Re Photo quality in Squadron/Signals Pub Warships Number 20 "US Destroyers in Action Part 2." 4 County class DDGs in 1982 5 Re Model Ship Journal subscription demise 6 Royal Navy Pennants 7 Missouri Decks 8 model ship journal 9 Kormoran's Displacement 10 Re Colours for RN Decks & Ladders 11 Re HMS Invincible 1/600 12 Re Help with resin kit painting please 13 Revell Germany Type VII U-boat surfaces in Japan! 14 New Book on German Sub Hunters in the Med 1943-45 15 New Soviet Destroyer book -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADERS, ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTICEBOARD INDEX 1 Quick Scale 2 Task Force Hobbies New 1/350 ISW kit Releases 3 NEWS FROM WHITE ENSIGN MODELS..TIGER and SOVREMENNY ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From "David Hathaway" Subject Dutch monitor Tyger, launched 1868 Fellow SMML-ies After coming across a set of drawings for the dutch monitor Tyger/Tygre/Tijger (I have seen all these spellings) launched in 1868 - I would like to know something of her history and operational life. I know she was built in Scotland at the Napier and Sons yard (in Dumbarton?), carried two 9" MLR's and her dimensions were 187'x44'x11'6" - but nothing else. Can anyone give me any history for her and also tell me her displacement and likely crew size? Many thanks for any help. David PS Hope you feel a lot better very soon, Shane. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From AFisherJr@aol.com Subject Pearl Harbor Narrow Gauge RR The Oahu RR Company (I'm not sure of the exact name) was a narrow gauge railroad that was running on the island of that name during the 1940s. Many of the passenger cars were second hand, purchased from what I think was the old Boston & Lynn RR. Surprisingly, the cars and perhaps the engine were up in a transportation museum Griffith Park in Los Angeles last I knew. My dad rode the cars both in Boston pre-WW II and in Oahu during WWII. Pearl was my home port from 1957 to '59, but I don't remember a rr on the naval station ... but there could've been one over near West Loch. Al Fisher ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From SteveWiper@aol.com Subject Re Photo quality in Squadron/Signals Pub Warships Number 20 "US Destroyers in Action Part 2." >> To whom do I complain?!!! Since you guys & gals are out there, I guess you will serve as my sounding board, and this message will serve as a warning. Do not waste your money on the new Squadron/Signals Publications Warships Number 20 "US Destroyers in Action Part 2." I just received my copy (copyright 2004). Hot dog!, photos and info on the little-covered 1930s US DDs! Oh, NO! Those bums at Squadron used digital photography on every photo in the book! Every image is a digitized mess, with that poor resolution "pixelated" look you get when you magnify/minify a digital image by an odd size. Unsharp edges, NO resolution in any rigging, the ghosting off high contrast edges you get from highly compressed jpg files. The same poor contrast definition you get when the pixel depth is insufficient. This is a travesty. SQUADRON/SIGNALS PUBLICATIONS SHOULD BE ASHAMED. Am I upset? You bet. What is the publishing world coming to? Doug Simpkin p.s. Looking through last year's Warships Number 17 "WWII US Landing Craft in Action" (which I also just received) I see they pulled the same crap on about a quarter of its photos... << Doug, I brought the matter to the attention of the owner of MMD/Squadron Mail Order. He was completely unaware of the problem. Later that day I got a call from the Editor of Squadron Publishing. That person was very standoffish with me, even after I told him I had told the owner I had good intentions for my call. They know I am a competing author/publisher, but I made sure they knew from me that my intentions were to help them better the product, egos set aside. This person was, how shall I put this, very arrogant. Personally, I think he was pissed at me for talking to the owner, because he, as the editor, in the end is the one responsible for the books and their quality. I hope the owner chews him out for this debacle. All of the photos in that book were pulled from the Internet, either from the US Naval Historical Center web site, or the NAVSOURCE web site. For printing the quality is way to low and is known by anyone in the printing business as a major "No No". There is no excuse for this. I have not read the book, actually did not bother to because the author, Al Adcock, is in my opinion a hack. He does no original research, only copies out of other books, and bad ones at that. He repeats all the mistakes in those and then makes plenty more himself. I also mentioned the huge mistake about that authors continued use of the FS color system, a system that did not exist at the time period of the subjects of the books. The response from the editor of Squadron was that no one makes model paints that are correct! Talk about tunnel vision! The combination of the author and the editor is a disaster. No wonder the recent Ship in Action books are getting worse! I usually say buy these books for the photos, but not this time. I do have to say the most of the drawings are good and the art work by Don Greer is spectacular, as always. I would suggest that everyone on this list contact Squadron.com and send a complaint e-mail. Maybe this will stimulate some positive action. Steve Wiper ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) From "Robert Lockie" Subject County class DDGs in 1982 Hi all Devonshire was not involved in OP Corporate but two of her sisters were, HM Ships Antrim and Glamorgan. The latter had a lucky escape when hit by a land-based MM38 Exocet towards the end of the conflict and quick thinking had her turned stern-on to the missile when it arrived. Apparently it went across the flight deck and demolished the hangar but the blast went outwards and the ship survived the experience, albeit with some casualties. Robert Lockie Swindon UK ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) From LHDockyard@aol.com Subject Re Model Ship Journal subscription demise Gene I am not entire certain of all of the business reasons behind this decision but I know Victor did a lot of thinking, research and head scratching before making this decision. Anyway, we are in negotiations with Victor to offer subscriptions to help fill the void. If we can get the details worked out you will be able to order subscriptions through Loyalhanna Dockyard. Thought this might help to cheer you up. Regards Don Spielberger Loyalhanna Dockyard www.loyalhannadockyard.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) From brownatfareham@surefish.co.uk Subject Royal Navy Pennants Alright, I know this is a simple question - or at least I thought it was until I tried to find out the answer! We all know (don't we) that the RN use D for destroyers, F for frigates, A for auxiliaries etc. But what does R stand for when referring to aircraft carriers? Les Brown ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) From SCALSHPYRD@aol.com Subject Missouri Decks After the surrender, the Missouri went to Pearl Harbor where she entered the Navy Yard there for what is termed a Restricted Availability, during this time several small modifications and upgrades were performed on her, this included the removal of the 20 mm guns and tubs that were on the main deck just forward of the superstructure on either side of Turret II as well as the removal of several other 20 mm guns but their foundations remained. The ship was also repainted and the hull above the boot top was painted Navy Blue. After the Missouri's brief stop in Pearl Harbor, she was ordered to the East coast for the Navy Day Celebrations and her new Homeport of Norfolk Va. When the ship returned the body of the Turkish Ambassador to Istanbul in 1946 she was still painted in this MS 22 Modified, it was sometime after her Med. cruise that she was repainted into Navy Standard Gray. I have seen several times where Navy Blue has been referred to as Navy Gray. It should also be noted that they did not paint the teakwood decks, they stained them, Teakwood has a lot of silicone in it and paint does not stick very well to this for any good length of time, even the stain would leach out of the wood rather quickly. W.L. Upshaw The Scale Shipyard www.scaleshipyard.com Largest Selection of quality fiberglass model ship hulls. Now Accepting PayPal for in stock items ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) From Shirley Sachsen Subject model ship journal >> What a shame to drop the subscription option. Perhaps I have missed similar comments on SMML due to other commitments, but I believe that when my current subscription expires I will no longer be seeing the magazine. I seldom go to hobby shops, and much less to book stores. I don't understand offering single issues via orders to Victor Baca, but not providing the convenience of a subscription. << say it ain't so! to be only available at retail, but not via subscription? that's not what I saw in the original note, but if that's the case, it doesn't make sense. I've always heard that periodicals make more off of direct subscriptions than via retail individual sales and that they depend on the advance sales a subscription represents. to have to order individual copies instead of receiving them via an annual subscription isn't going to work... it means remembering when an issue is supposed to be available, or, if in the case of a retail outlet, having to depend on availability. magazine distributors are notorious for haphazard stocking of the shelves--in fact, I know of two periodicals who failed when their distributor failed--this after they'd gone 'public' after years of subscription only. so I hope this is merely a case of misinterpretation and subscriptions will still be available. s ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9) From Joel Labow Subject Kormoran's Displacement >> KMS Kormoran - Auxiliary cruiser converted from merchant ship Steiermark Displacement 19,900 tons The displacement seems to me way too high, none of the German raiders of WW2 that I know of was so large << Enrico, The data in my posting was taken from a table on pages 48 and 49 of "German Raiders - A History of Auxiliary Cruisers of the German Navy 1895-1945" by Paul Schmalenbach (US Naval Institute Press 1979). In this table Kormoran's displacement is given as 19,900 tons and her GRT as 8736 tons. I confess that I am not familiar with how merchant ships are rated...I assumed that displacement was displacement and GRT was Gross Registered Tons = cargo capacity? Kormoran's dimensions are given as 164 meters (538 feet) and her beam as 20.2 meters (66 feet). By way of comparison the USS Card (CVE-11) which was based on a comparable merchant hull (496' long x 69' beam) displaced 16,620 tons. In the previously mentioned table Pinguin's displacement is given as 17,600 tons (7766 GRT) and Atlantis as 15,700 tons (7021 GRT), so Kormoran seems to be in the same general range. I would welcome an explanation of the difference between displacement and GRT from a knowledgeable source. HTH, Joel ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10) From M Brown Subject Re Colours for RN Decks & Ladders >> Were all RN ladders bare metal? The “step ladder” sort seen on the front of the Types 41, 61 & 81 frigates all have timber handrails. Does anyone know if the treads were either timber or timber overlay on metal? << The green decks were Epigrip which the RN stopped using in 1978. The colour was BS4800 14C39. They then switched to using either BS381C 632, Dark Admiralty Grey, or 638, Dark Sea Grey. No idea why the RN had the 2 colours listed as they are very similar shades. To differentiate between the deck & flight deck may be? The anti slip treads were a slightly lighter shade of green. Think 40 grade grit sandpaper painted green. That is what the one I have looks like. They are still in use. I know some ex Chatham Dockyard maties who use them for sanding. I’m told that they stick very well to the bottom of orbital sanders! Not all decks were green, I’ve attached a colour photo of Puma with red decks. Michael Brown ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11) From "Geoff Baker" Subject Re HMS Invincible 1/600 >> My memory is poor on this but I don't recall the Devonshire or any of its sisters being active during the Falklands..... As for a 1/600 Invincible, Airfix Magazine ran an article some 10 years ago with full scratchbuilding details, plans and sketches. I had a go at this but (frankly) my scratchbuilding skills at the time sucked. I abandoned the project and - since I focus on 1/700 - was rewarded by Revell releasing kits of all three in the class. << Firstly the County class Destroyers Antrim & Glamorgan D18 & D19 which are included on the Decal sheet served in the Falklands task group, Antrim being the Flagship of the Operation to retake South Georgia and Glamorgan being the ship that survived an Exocet hit. Secondly the other 1/600 ships for the Falklands War are HMS Fearless, Canberra & Q.E.II. Thirdly - An article on scratch building the HMS Invincible CVS in 1/600, has anybody a copy of it that they could send me. Cheers Geoff Baker ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12) From Bill Weckel Subject Re Help with resin kit painting please >> I have found that using my usual acrylic based paints causes problems, you are ok if you put one coat on quickly but if you brush too much the previous coat lifts off. I have tried a light sanding to provide a key for the paint but this does not seem to work I am left with the only conclusion that I should perhaps undercoat with enamel. << Allen, I have found that priming with Tamiya "Fine" spray primer is a good fix for this problem. IIRC it's laquer based so will not interact with your acrylics or enamels, and the pigment is extremely fine so you won't loose any detail. Hope this helps... Bill ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13) From SteveWiper@aol.com Subject Revell Germany Type VII U-boat surfaces in Japan! I was sent this e-mail by a person in Japan. The hobby shop he mentions is a very popular ship model, among others, store. >> Dear Steve, I do not know how to post this on SMML but if you could help me....... I am living in Tokyo, ,and my local hobbystore (Yellow Submarine) already has the 1/72 Revell U-Boat. So I do not imagine it will take too long before these hit the stores stateside. kind regards, Adrian Koh T.H. Country Sales Manager, Japan BEHRINGER JAPAN KK Visit us at Subject New Book on German Sub Hunters in the Med 1943-45 At last- a good book on something other than the Kriegsmarine's anchor swinging capital ships or boring U-boats http//www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/381320801X/qid%3D1075869870/302-2069788-4454404 This book covers the 22 U-Jagd flotilla, made up of ex- French and Belgian yachts, fishing trawlers, Italian Gabbiano corvettes and French Navy sloops. A few were sunk by US PTs and British MTBs, British subs and even an Italian torpedo boat. It lists 133 photos - Ohh-la-la. Mine is on the way so help yourselves, everyone Dave G http//ptdockyard.tripod.com "New projects on the horizon, sir." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15) From "Harold Stockton" Subject New Soviet Destroyer book Aviapress, at http//www.aviapress.com/viewonekit.htm?OTH-198 , is selling a new book on Soviet Destroyers for $29.99. According to Aviapress "Soviet Navy Fans can find out a lot of more detailed information on Soviet ships in this rare and very interesting publication Soviet Destroyers book is available for online ordering (price $29.99). The history of creation and battle usage of Projects 38, 40, 42 and other (including famous Semerka - Project 7) ships represented in this book. 88 pages, 80 photos, drawings and illustrations. Highly recommended!" (sic, HS) Other related subjects on these vessels are listed as - COM-70214 1/700 Tashkent destroyer's leader model kit ($41.95) - COM-70212 1/700 Soobrazitelny destroyer Pr.7U model kit ($36.95) - COM-70203 1/700 Sibirskiy Strelok destroyer model kit ($11.95) - COM-70136 1/700 Boevoi destroyer model kit ($11.95) - COM-70134 1/700 Bditelni destroyer model kit ($11.95) - OTH-129 The Ships and Boats of the USSR Navy, The Period of 1939 - 1945 book ($39.97) - TPH-200204 Typhoon N4 2002 magazine ($5.97) - MKL-199706 Morskaya Kollektsia N6 1997 Soobrazitelny and her sisters (Soviet destroyers of project 7U class) magazine ($7.97) - FTM-200102 Flotomaster N2 2001 magazine ($6.00) And the photographs and drawings do not look pixelated as some of Squadron Signal naval books have appeared recently. Harold Stockton ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADERS, ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTICEBOARD ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From Mike Subject Quick Scale Hi Lorna, I am the author of 'Quick Scale' - software designed specifically for the scale modeler. Quick Scale calculates various scale-related problems such as scaling up and down, finding a scale, changing a scale and more. Quick Scale was developed by a modeler, for modelers! The software is shareware and is free to download at www.quickscale.net Best wishes, Mike Ristuccia (Sydney, Australia) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From Billgior@aol.com Subject Task Force Hobbies New 1/350 ISW kit Releases Hi Everyone Commanders Ironshipwright new kit releases, Part #4-116 USS Oklahoma, Part#4-115 USS Nevada, and Part# 4-145 USS Michigan. I am taking orders on all three of these beautiful casted kits you can e-mail me at billgior@aol.com our you can phone in your orders at (313)295-0293. If you order now you will receive 10% off retail prices on all three of these kit releases, So check us out. Sincerely, Bill Giordano www.TaskForceHobbies.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From "WEM" Subject NEWS FROM WHITE ENSIGN MODELS..TIGER and SOVREMENNY Hi Everyone, Well, a huge box of COMBRIG 70285 HMS TIGER kits has turned up here today ;^) The kits will start to ship tomorrow. Price is 27.19 Pounds. Shipping is 3.00 Pounds to North America and Europe. and 4.50 pounds to the Far East and Australasia. We have around a dozen spare, so get yours now! We don't know how long these will last.. Combrig has already run out of 70289 King Edward VII kits (we DO have a few 70290 BRITANNIA left though). Order securely online right here http//www.whiteensignmodels.com/acatalog/1_700_Scale_Kits.html We have also just got the artwork in from Peter Hall for the PE 3560, 1/350 SOVREMENNY CLASS DESTROYERS. The set will consist of TWO sheets of etched brass (different thicknesses), with the usual array of stunning instructions. This has even more parts in it than the 1/200 scale set, believe it or not, thanks to some very useful input from Guido Hopp (Cheers Mate!) Price will be 25.49 Pounds with post free shipping worldwide. http//whiteensignmodels.com/brochure/images/wembrass/wempe3560a.jpg and http//whiteensignmodels.com/brochure/images/wembrass/wempe3560b.jpg You can order this set from us, securely, at the link below. http//www.whiteensignmodels.com/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_1_350_Scale_Photo_Etch_40.html Cheers! Caroline Snyder, Director,White Ensign Models Ltd http//WhiteEnsignModels.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