Subject: SMML Vol 3120 Date: 29 Apr 2006 16:04:35 -0000 The Ship Modelling Mailing List (SMML) is proudly sponsored by SANDLE http//sandlehobbies.com For infomation on how to Post to SMML and Unsubscribe from SMML http//smmlonline.com/aboutsmml/rules.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS INDEX 1: Re Help needed with Dutch post-war colors 2: Re SS United States as a Troopship 3: Re s/s United States ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: Robert Burgerhout Subject: Re Help needed with Dutch post-war colors Falk, The best mix for the Dutch Light Navy Grey (KN103) should be 60% Humbrol 64 with 40% Humbrol 22. The best color for the Dutch Black Grey (KN108) for the decks including the flightdeck is Humbrol 67. There are no FS equivalents. For the light grey FS 36463 is near, but not exact. For the decks the same with FS 36081. When you want some aircraft on the flightdeck you can take the Fairey Firefly IV & V, the Hawker Seafury and the Sikorsky S-55. When you want more info about the ship and individual aircraft on board, please ask me off-line. Greetings, Robert ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: "Randy Lee Anne Ward" Subject: Re SS United States as a Troopship As I recall, the Smithsonian plans catalog lists, among SSUS plans available, a plan (I forget how many pages) for the troopship conversion. 'Probably involves removal of walls, rigging of bunks, etc. I can imagine her painted gray, sides covered in life rafts, in the style of the WW2 greyhounds! Somehow, I think that the time factor would preclude that. Still, it would make an interesting model! Cap'n Randy Lee Anne ----- Original Message ----- >> Date Tue, 25 Apr 2006 210940 -0400 >> From Joe Poutre >>Subject SS United States >> >>Speaking of the SS US, does anyone know of information on how she was to >>be converted into a troopship? I thought that might make an interesting >>conversion of the Revell model. >> >>Thank you, >> >>Joe Poutre ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From: Jodie Peeler Subject: Re s/s United States hello all -- Vince wrote > As I recall, the SS U.S. was actually built with navy involvement as > a fast reserve troop transport, with a classified top speed. I don't > know if it's still classified. Probably, knowing the workings of the > Pentagon. Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, who was CNO at the time, formally declassified the information on the s/s United States on July 20, 1968. It's probably no coincidence that it happened less than a year after the ship's chief designer, William Francis Gibbs died in 1967. There's a story here.... While the United States was basically built as a thinly-veiled naval auxiliary (and as a result came across as cold and austere compared to the Cunard or French Line ships), that's the way Mr. Gibbs was able to get the ship built that he'd wanted to build since he was a young man. He came to realize that since the American merchant marine didn't help fund big liners the way the British or French did, the best way to get a super-fast, thousand-foot American liner built was to get support for it as a naval auxiliary. By the time the ship was built, that's basically what it was. Mr. Gibbs was able to get this done in part because he was *very* well connected politically, and also because of the incredible reputation he'd built working on countless projects for the government. He was able to sell it both as a project for national pride and as a military asset. Aside from getting it built, the military involvement gave Mr. Gibbs the ability to guard the ship's "trade secrets" by citing national security considerations. Mr. Gibbs knew that the steamship lines and naval architects engaged in industrial espionage (he himself had done it, as John Maxtone-Graham tells in "The Only Way To Cross" about the Normandie's first visit to New York), so the classification scheme let him protect secrets about the ship's hull and propulsion systems. Of course, the sad part of the whole story is that by the time Mr. Gibbs finally got his thousand-foot liner built, the era of the steamship as a means of transatlantic transportation was about to end. Plus, had World War III broken out, even a 40-knot troopship would have been a sitting duck in an aerial or atomic attack. There's some pretty incredible stories behind the story of the s/s United States -- the stories about the Duke and Duchess in the Duck Suite, or Margaret Truman opening the porthole on the maiden voyage, to me can't hold a candle to the story of how Mr. Gibbs got his ship built. He was an excellent naval architect, but he was also a man with very keen political instincts and very powerful friends. The highest speeds I've seen anywhere state that, on her sea trials, the United States hit almost 43 knots. Bill Kaiser, who was her chief engineer, told the New York Times in 1967 that the ship could make 22.7 knots going astern. BTW, I have yet to see any pictures of how the ship would have looked outfitted as a troopship. According to legend, Gibbs and Cox's model shop built a model showing how the ship would have looked as converted, but I've never seen a picture of it. I'd love to, though. Apologies for rambling, but having studied the story of this ship off and on over the last 15 years.... ) jodie ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Check out the SMML site for the List Rules, Reviews, Articles, Backissues, Member's models & Reference Pictures at http//smmlonline.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of Volume