Subject: SMML VOL 2652 Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2004 03:28:31 +1000 SMML is proudly sponsored by SANDLE http//sandlehobbies.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS INDEX 1 Re Railroad Prop Question 2 Re Railroad Prop Question 3 Trouble in Trinco (3) - HMS Valiant & the Floating Dock break-up 4 Liberty Ships 5 Easy Way to Simulate Water? 6 Japanese Destroyer Classes ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From "Les Pickstock" Subject Re Railroad Prop Question The model railroad scene is so big that it's hard to give a quick and simple answer. So I hope these few recommendations will suffice, although it's pretty much off topic for this list. Find your local RR club and go along to some meetings. Most Railroad/Railway modellers can't help themselves when talking about the hobby. Also check out the internet newsgroups and websites, a simple web search will find you more sites than you'll ever be able to look at. Your local Model shop will probably have books on modellling the scenery, also laying track, wiring it all up, etc, etc. Check out the modelling magazines as well they have great layouts in them and useful articles Most importantly have fun with it, The real serious RR modellers concentrate on a particular Railroad or modelling a real location. For my money the great fun is to run trains. The good thing about RR modelling is you can do as much or as little as you want. From a simple 4x8 baseboards right up to filling the basement. I hope this helps P.S. Mountain scenery can be acheived by building up a stack of plastic foam around the pre-laid track and carving the mountain out of it or you can use a wooden framework covered in wire mesh and coated with plaster. It depends on how much room you've got and if it need to be portable, so you can put it away. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From Ned Barnett Subject Re Railroad Prop Question >> My son and I are just getting into this together. I have seen some great model railroad layouts. My question is... where does one begin in learning how to do it right? I have seen models with mountains where the train is passing through the tunnels. What material/technique is used to make these mountains? This subject is truly fascinating to me. << Russ This is a ship list, not a railroad list. However, Kalmbach puts out books on scenery that are useful, and Woodland Scenics offers not only the products, but a print guide and a video that cover these questions. Best of all, you can put ships and boats in your layout, as I'm doing (there's so much water that I barely have room for the trains). Ned ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From "Tony Ireland" Subject Trouble in Trinco (3) - HMS Valiant & the Floating Dock break-up The din of alarm bells awakens me a little after midnight. Surrounded by the other 50-odd midshipmen, I hastily pull on my tropical white shorts, shirt & shoes. We are in a wide flat two decks below the battleship's quarterdeck, flanked by officer's cabins, where we camp beside our sea chests using hammocks and stretchers. We dash up the stairway, through a similar flat flanked by Admiral Somerville's quarters, and cabins for the captain and other senior officers, and jump out onto the quarterdeck. Half a mile to starboard an unbelievable theatrical scene is bathed in the glare of a dozen searchlights from our ship, several cruisers and destroyers, and 'Renown' and the French 'Richelieu'. We see the bridge and funnel of our sister ship HMS Valiant rising above the long slab-like outline of Admiralty Floating Dock 23. But the aft 25% of the dock's length has vanished and I can see the ship's propellers and rudders under the stern - poised above the black water. We hear the shouted order "Clear away all boats and stand by Valiant to pick up survivors!" Running forward to the boat booms we drop down the rope ladders into our half-dozen boats. I board a large motor launch with other 'middies' and we circle clear of the 'Queen Elizabeth' and head for the stricken floating dock. Nearing it, we see that the propellers are now almost touching the water as the battleship's stern settles. However, as we circle around the stern I'm alarmed to see that the dock is listing over to starboard about ten degrees, with the 32,000 tons of the ship being held upright solely by the score or so of large hardwood timber props angled up on each side. If the list keeps growing even these 12-inch-sided baulks are bound to give way, the huge ship will capsize above the sea, crash over into the dock's side air tanks and possibly turn turtle. We circle around Valiant's starboard side, keeping further away, and then around her bow which is clearly rising as the dock keeps sinking by the stern. We motor slowly past the port side of the sinking dock. Its top deck is clearly now tilted down more towards the rear where the complete breakage occurred. Suddenly an incredible scene plays out. A large crane on rails that run along the dock's port side begins to roll down the incline. It gathers speed and plunges into the sea above the rails dangling over the clean break across the dock where the rear air tanks had been torn away. As we continue to circle the sinking dock we stay further out, for safety. I notice that the list to starboard has not increased, fortunately, and seems even to be decreasing. The ship's bow also seems to be settling slowly. The huge propellers have stopped sinking into the sea. We continue to circle the dock for some time, but nothing seems to be happening. Eventually a lamp signal orders all boats to return to our ship. We are told to turn in again and get some sleep - a disappointing anti-climax. At dawn I quickly nip up on deck and stare across to our sister-ship. She is afloat, but well down by the bow with her housed anchors partly under water. There's no sign of the floating dock. Later that morning we're addressed by the Commander (E) who explains exactly what has happened - a talk made memorable by the fact that we had been due to make use of A.F.D.23, following 'Valiant', in a few days to clean our badly fouled hull. We learn that the dock had been built in Bombay not long before, and designed to lift 50,000 tons. The break-up was most likely caused by an uneven pumping out of water from the numerous separate tanks comprising the dock. The weight of the ship was concentated in the centre of the dock, but the aft tanks must have been too buoyant without the corresponding weight of the ship's raised stern. When the dock's aft part broke off it surged upwards, smashing into the four propellers and wrecking them and the rudders. So, for 'Valiant', the war is over... A far worse disaster was averted by counter-flooding the port side dock tanks to stop the dangerous list to starboard - also by flooding the forward tanks to ensure that the dock sank more on an even keel. Even so, the big ship had holed her bow when she finally slid sternwards out of the dock. I'm disappointed not to have witnessed that. During the hour or so spent slowly circling the dock I kept seeing the appalling explosion that had destroyed her sister-ship 'Barham' which capsized in Nov.1941 after three torpedoes fired by U331 in the eastern Mediterranean. A similar blast in the enclosed Trincomalee harbour would have created a catastrophic tsunami. Not to mention 'Valiant's crew of over 1,000 who would have stood little chance. It only needed a single 15-inch shell to topple off a rack and fall into the handling room below a barbette to explode. The year before, in June 1943, when moored in Hiroshima Bay, the 16-inch gun I.J.N. battleship 'Mutsu' had blown up inexplicably. In Scapa Flow on 9 July,1917 at 11.20p.m on a calm summer's night the battleship HMS 'Vanguard' blew up, killing all but two of the 806 men aboard. Another lucky 95 officers and ratings survived by being ashore at a concert. One of her 400-ton twin 12-inch gun turrets was hurled nearly a mile before landing on Flotta Is. And flaming debris started fires on the decks of nearby warships. In the same way, in August 1915 at the fleet's base at Cromarty, the cruiser HMS 'Natal' was destroyed. And, of course, in Havana harbour in 1898 the USS 'Maine' suffered an explosion in a magazine - with far-reaching consequences. So we really had a lot to be thankful for. But Admiral Somerville must have had a deja-vu feeling, from that night in Alexandria harbour in Nov.1941. The prodigious weed growth in the warm enclosed waters at Trincomalee had badly fouled our hull. Without AFD-23, close by, the nearest dry dock was now Durban - roughly 3,500 miles away. We would need to take three destroyers for an a/s screen from the already inadequate flotillas at Trincomalee as these handy vessels were needed to cope with new type U-boats in the Western Approaches. In the same way as the British 14th Army in Burma nicknamed themselves the 'Forgotten Army' during their two years slog southwards towards Rangoon against stiff opposition - our Eastern Fleet in Trincomalee seemed almost a forgotten fleet. Admiral Somerville had spent two years at sea in the Mediterranean defending that vital life-line to Malta and Alexandria - out-foxing the Italian fleet, attacking Rommel's supplies and fuel, and aiding the allied landings in North Africa, Sicily and Italy. The R.N. lost 45 submarines there, mainly based in Malta; our own fleet lost three, operating out of Trinco. Now his flagship lay in Trincomalee just as she'd done in Scapa Flow during W.W.1 - after her initial spirited but ineffectual action at the Dardanelles. Whenever I trod the quarterdeck it felt like a ghostly time-warp. Rear Admiral De Robeck had stood there on 18 March 1915 agonizing over the loss of three of his old battleships to Turkish mines, and the severe damage to the battle-cruiser 'Inflexible' and other warships from gunfire. Realising that warships alone could not force the Narrows, he passed the task on to the army and sailed our ship back to Scapa Flow before the arrival of U-boats. Another spooky bit of history concerned our ship's Captain, and Admiral Somerville. In 1916, when our ship was in dry dock and missed the Jutland battle, the former had been a midshipman aboard her - and the latter had been the Lieutenant in charge of all the midshipmen. Despite their long acquaintanship, or possibly because of it, they did not get along well - as I often witnessed. I think the crew felt as I did that Somerville was a fine man who inspired great loyalty - rather as John Jellicoe was admired and trusted by his crew aboard HMS 'Iron Duke' in particular, and the Grand Fleet in general, in W.W.1 I recall the frank and moving farewell speech our Admiral gave us midshipmen, just before he left the ship later - bound, I believe, for a desk job in Washington, D.C. Curiously, just as Admiral Jellicoe was eclipsed by David Beatty, Bruce Fraser was appointed Flag Officer of the newly-created British Pacific Fleet - fresh from his triumph off North Cape, Norway in December 1943. Of course, I should have mentioned the two brief sorties by the Eastern Fleet in 1944, before I joined the 'Q.E.' In one, the small port of Sabang - on Pulo Weh island off the N.W. tip of Sumatra - was bombarded by our three battleships and HMS 'Renown'. I've never read anything concerning the result. In the other foray, accompanied by the U.S. carrier 'Saratoga' (I believe) plus an R.N. fleet carrier ('Victorious' ?) the big Shell oil refinery at Palembang was bombed, reducing its desperately needed output of AvGas. Isolated as we were in Trinco, none of the many thousands of naval personnel there had an inkling that the greatest loss of life in the wartime British Empire was occurring 1,000 miles or so north of us - in Bengal. The Japanese conquest of Burma in 1942 cut off its large export of rice, especially relied on in India and today's Bangla Desh. This caused famine in Bengal in 1943 & 1944 that killed four million people. Mr Churchill banned all news of this disaster for reasons of morale - as he had done when the liner 'Lancastria' was bombed and sunk in June 1940 off the coast of Brittany and 4,000 troops and U.K. civilians were drowned. It was wonderful to set sail from Trincomalee for Durban. Being stuck in port made our ship feel like a steel ants' nest. She came alive out in the open sea in company with the destroyers 'Rotherham', 'Roebuck' and 'Quadrant'. Sorry this has grown over-long. Please sing out if you'd care to hear more. Cheers, Tony ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) From Skyking918@aol.com Subject Liberty Ships I just got the Trumpeter 1/350 Liberty Ship kit and a Tom's Modelworks brass detail set for same. I intend to build it as a gift for my father-in-law, who was one of the Naval Armed Guard on U.S.S. Frank B. Linderman (hull number 2529) in WW II. What distinguishing markings did Liberty Ships carry? Did each carry its name painted on the bow and home port on the stern, or were these painted out? Did they carry hull numbers like warships? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) From "Dean A. Markley" Subject Easy Way to Simulate Water? Can anyone suggest an easy way to simulate water? Without giving away too much, I want to duplicate the Norwegian Sea in 1/700 scale. Do I place the ship model on a base and then do the water? Or vice versa? What about colors? I am thinking waves about 4-6 feet? Thanks Dean ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) From Tom Saundry Subject Japanese Destroyer Classes This post is intended mainly for Dan Jones, who is obviously expert in the IJN, but all members should feel free to comment. After playing Silent Hunter I became interested in building one 1700 kit for each of the destroyer classes in the IJN, even though many of them are not included in the game. After much research, I find that there is no problem locating the eleven or so classes that I assume comprised most of the IJN destroyers, but there are some gray areas that I would like to clear up by one-on-one communication. A good example is the Watake class that Dan discusses in a recent article. It is not included in most references to the main – line classes. Any help would be very much appreciated, especially about those destroyers built around WW I and the ones that were acquired from the Russians. Thanks in advance. Kind Regards, Tom Saundry Vancouver, BC CANADA ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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