Greetings all,

Thanks to everyone who was able to participate today.  Sorry we had some audio problems with our monitor which made it difficult to hear everyone not at the meeting.  We were able to fix it later but honestly we don't know how it was fixed.  

Here's the link to the recorded meeting:  Ship Club Recorded Meeting 

We started off with a salute to Ukraine.  You're likely familiar with the Ukranians defending Snake Island and their last act of defiance against the Russian Navy in the Black Sea.  PC 10 is an American Patrol Craft that has been performing duties in the Persian Gulf.  It was retired just a few days before the attack on the Ukraine.  Some enterprising person decided to update the crest of this craft to the USS Snake Island, PC 10.  Our thoughts are with the people of the Ukraine and that's as political as we're going to get in our club.

Rob Weilacher wasn't able to attend the meeting today, but sent in a photo of his Trumpeter USS Colorado.  Rob used his airbrush to provide a base coat for the model and then hand brushed the rest of the camouflage pattern.  We'll come back to this at the next meeting and give Rob an opportunity to give us his impressions of the Trumpeter kit.  She looks good Rob!

John Widmar shared photos of his HMS Queen Mary which is a Combrig kit.  John mentioned that he enjoyed the WWI ships as they are less complicated and enjoyable to build.

Next up from John was the USS Wright from Doggy Industries in 1/700 scale.  John mentioned that the large aft platform was a little too long and suggested that it be shortened at the forward end so that it would be correctly aligned with the stern.  A very interesting and unique model.  

John had some other photos that he sent to me that I somehow missed.  I'll be sharing those during the next meeting.  

David, Jerry, Brian, and Sam gave an update on the USS Cimarron project.  This has really been a labor of love.  David and Brian have done some very nice drawings for the many 3D printed parts.  Jerry and David have worked about the packaging so that it's affordable and well protected in the shipping box.  

Below Jerry showed their pick list process to make sure all the parts are included with the kit.  

Here are the parts in their individual packages ready to go into the box.  So far they have sold 20 of these kits and more to come.  If you are interested in seeing the finished model, take a look at the previous couple of meeting recaps.  The team is working on several more oilers of this class.  Stay tuned for more updates.  

Next up was my tugboat parade.  I'm sure everyone is tired of hearing about them.  The majority of these were created by David Angelo.  They are the ones with the green deck.  David's design and print were superior.  If you're interested in them check with Jerry Beasley as he has David's file.  FYI, no photo etch.  The red hull tug came from a company called Youfeng.  The casting is not as good as David's, but it does come with a complete photo etch set and life raft canisters.  The masts on these are a fidely pain in the back side.  David's mast is superior and stronger.  The Youfeng kit is available on eBay now at $16 plus shipping.  There are two in a package.  Youfeng has a couple of other tugs available now and they are also available on eBay.  

To finish these after being painted, I gave them a good clear gloss finish.  I then used light gray, dark gray, and rust oil paints to weather them.  This leaves them with a flat finish except where you need them around the windows.  

Time for me to finish up something these little gems can shove around.  

For tool time this month we came back to an old friend, Gator's Grip.  There was/is a strong rumor going around that Gator's Grip was no longer in business.  In fact they are very much alive and well.  Kenny Loup contacted the podcast I originally heard it on and advised them that they are shipping.  You can buy directly from Kenny through his web page at Gators Model Studio. You can also find them at Michigan Toy Solder web page at this LINK.

For something a little different, I shared some photos from my wife's recent trip to the Leeward Antilles in the Caribbean.  She started sending me photos of military patrol ships cruising around the islands.  This first ship is a Dutch Holland Class Frigate.  Their mission is to divert drugs and human trafficing from the Dutch islands, not necessarily to stop it.  

This model is available from a Dutch Cottage Industry called NNT Models.  It's available from them direct for 85.6 Euros, with is about $94.  

Another ship they saw was French.  It is a D'Entrecasteaux-Class Patrol Ship.  Not well armed but carries troops and well suited to provide relief.  They are used to protect the French islands and interests as well as keep drugs, human trafficking, etc. from moving through their islands.  I could not find a kit for this one though.  it's a pretty obscure subject.  You can probably make out the large crane and the landing craft that is normally carried on the stern.

We had a follow up on the upcoming kit from Tiger Models.  

We were discussing the gun turret at the previous meeting.  It comes from a Soviet amphibious tank called a PT-76 first put into service in 1951 and carries a 75mm gun.  

We next talked about when references go bad for a modeling company.  The example I gave was Revell's recent announcement to release a 1/72 PT-160/PT-559.  These are two very different designs that they should have picked up on if they had done just a little more research.  It's easy to see where they made their mistake.  Navsource and HyperWar both have a picture of PT-160 listed on their PT-559 reference page.  The photo they have of PT-160 is her testing a new gun platform called the Thunderbolt.  This test system contains four 20mm Oerlikon Canons plus two .50 cal.  It was placed on PT-160 just long enough to test it.  In fact the production gun system omitted the .50 cal guns completely and retained only the four 20mm Oerlikon Canons.  So Revell is putting into production a kit that was only a test for a few days.  

Here's the photo of PT-160 incorrectly listed on the PT-559 page.

Here is the actual PT-559 which was deployed to the Mediterranean with the production version of the Thunderbolt gun system.  Two very different versions of the 80 ft Elco

I have sent a polite message to Revell advising them of the error.  They have not responded.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out.  

On the other hand, Italeri responded positively to my offer to help them with their PT-122, so we'll see how that turns out.

Martin shared an example of Tamiya producing a Gloster Meteor kit which included the wrong wings for that particular airplane.  To their credit they provided correct wings to anyone who wanted them. 

So be careful with references.  There's a lot of misinformation out there.  And it's not just a new thing either.  The above PT Boat issue was started when a publisher made an error in their publication many years ago.  They corrected it in subsequent releases, but the mistake transferred to the internet.  An honest mistake but it just snowballed.  

We then took a look at some new kits being released that are all available from Freetime Hobbies.  The first was from Combrig of the HMS Inflexible.  

Next group of kits if from AJM Models.  Note the rap on the bow of the ship.  

The rest are a variety of seaplane tenders which are all interesting.

Finally AJM Models offer a variety of 1/350 and 1/700 detail parts that can be used on a variety of subjects.

There was a surprise announcement from ICM, whom we all hope makes it through the war in the Ukraine.  This is a 1/350 German WWII gun boat that was converted from a fishing boat design.  We have seen this recently at the last IPMS Nationals as a scratch built model.  But this will be quite small in 1/350.  I wonder if they got the scale right?

I recently visited Battleship Cove in Mobile Bay, Alabama.  This is an incredibly well preserved battleship and museum.  It's a city on the water and it's interesting to see how much they could cram into this vessel.  She is a South Dakota Class battleship and home to 2500 sailors during the war.  If you get a chance to go down and visit her you will not be disappointed.  Check out their WEB SITE for more detailed information about what all is available at this park.  

Another key feature was the USS Drum, Gato Class submarine.  She was was in the water but a hurricane relocated her to land.  She was subsequently placed on a permanent concrete stand and is once again open for visitors.  

While visiting the aviation building which you can see behind the stern I came across a beautiful RF-8 Crusader.  I sent a photo of it along with the BU number to John DuGene who I knew had flown this model.  He checked his log books and found he had flown it back when it was operational.  It was fun to find an old ride for a good friend.  

While in Mobile my brother-in-law took me over to Austal who is an Australian company that specializes in catamaran style boats and ships.  They started with an Latoral Class Ship and now are making what is called an Expeditionary Fast Transport (EPF).  Number 13 is out of the building for final fit.  It's an aluminum hull ship which can carry a variety of land vehicles and has an exceptionally large flight deck.  

I found a kit of this homely little transport.  There is a model kit available made by EV Model which can be purchased from GlobalToy on eBay.  It has the vehicle ramp which can be modeled open or closed and looks to be an accurate representation.  

Last on our subjects for the day are three electronic publications coming out of the UK.  Most of us are familiar with ESCORT which relates to small ships.  It turns out there are two others.  One is Flightdeck which is all about aircraft carriers modeling, and the other is Dreadnought which is all about battleship modeling.  These are excellent publications and if you write them and provide an email address, they will start sending them to you.  All the information is listed below.  

That about does it for March.  Looking forward to seeing you all again on April 2nd!