June 2023 Ship Club Meeting

Thanks to everyone who was able to attend our June ship club meeting via Zoom.  We had a great turnout and it was nice to have Kenny Loup join our group and share his 5in/38 twin mount from Takom that he's working on.  Our next meeting will be coming up quickly on July 1st.  

Let's get to it!  You can view the meeting recording at this link:  https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/MrkefqYvNYcNfJGPvHuSrWndAdaQWNxN9aqDiaREJCJK9ppgR9h53bglqYgMxBFu.4RTQ9ABFV8rn7zfJ?startTime=1686444706000

Passcode: =0*TphGb

We got started following up with John Widmar on how he uses his Dspiae vise to secure his models.  John uses a narrow board with double sided tape that he gets from Harbor Freight.  

John later describes how he uses a a socket to make adjustments while he's working.  

We then followed up on why dive planes on modern submarines were originally mounted on the sail, but later moved back to the hull and how they operate.  

Another meeting follow up was a discussion on modern Photonics on submarines and how they replaced the optical types we came to know on early submarines.  

Modern periscopes do far more than they could ever have imagined back in WWII.  Today this high tech periscope is controlled with a gameboy controller which is cheap and provides quick training to our modern sailors who were raised on them.  

Rob shared with us his progress on assembling and painting his air wing for his current carrier project.  Rob had his friend Mike cast individual wings which made the process much easier.  Rob says this is his last aircraft carrier, but we'll see.  😎

  

David Angelo shared his latest project which is the USS Neosho (AO-48) oiler that was also a Pearl Harbor survivor.  Better yet I finally got the names right!!

David also shared his 1/700 USS Guadalupe loaded down with 77ft Elco PT Boats.  If you've seen the movie "They were expendable", these boats were the subject of that show.  Nicely done David!

If that isn't enough, David continues work on his big HMS Victory.  

Our meeting was delayed as my wife and I were on vacation in New York along the Hudson River in Dutchess County.  While on a river boat tour I realized I had stumbled upon the famous.. or rather notorious Fleet Obsolete where an attempt was made to restore old PT boats.  This has been going on for some 20 plus years and little if no progress has been made.  They have the only remaining 78' Elco PT Boat.  Unfortunately they are not making any progress.  It was interesting to see these old historic boats, and sad that nothing is happening with them.  You can still see some excellent restorations of Higgins PT boats at the WWII museum in New Orleans, and Save The PT Boat in Portland, Oregon.  

While there I did find a hidden gem.  The Kingston Maritime Museum.  I only had a few minutes to walk through before they closed so I took photos of all the wonderful models.  I'll definitely be going back.  Here are some period tugs they had on display...

Here are some of the many models on display there...

Passenger ferries were quite the show on the Hudson River back in the day.

Examples of Hudson River Sloops.

There was a special display to a ship modeler named Charles Niles.  He had a basement workshop and gravitated towards making models of ships and boats that worked the Hudson River.  

The information indicated the models were close to 1/350 scale, but they seemed smaller than that to me.  All scratch work of course. 

For Tool Time I discussed my favorite hobby knife, the NT Cutter which I use for all my general work.  John Widmar mentioned scalpel blades, and I have to admit that I'm starting to use those for my photo etch.  But this is my daily driver.  In the past you could only get them from Japan, but now you can buy them for good prices on Amazon.  Kenny mentioned that in his sign making business, this is one of his two go too knives.  Highly recommended.  

Breaking news!  You herd it here first.  Brandon Lowe from Squadron/Free Time acquired Flagship Models from the family of Rusty White who created this brand.  Rusty passed away a few years back and the family wished the brand to continue.  Brandon is taking the molds to the next level with 3D printed parts as shown below in this USS Choctaw sample.  Brandon has worked out a deal with the photo etch provider who Rusty worked with.  Expect to see the brand continue with upgraded parts for modern and improved detail and quality.  Thanks Brandon!

An interesting subject from Takom gun turret from the HMS Hood.  This is well done but what is curious are the rockets on the top of the turret.  We're going to talk more about those at the next meeting.

Another interesting naval subject from Border Models is the bridge and flight deck from the Akagi.  Border is focusing their aviation efforts on 1/35 scale and this looks like an interesting way to display your IJN Kate.  But does the bridge have mattresses?  Hmmmm

Here is the CAD drawing for the kit.

And of course the 1/35 Kate that you can display on the base.

Last this week, Starling Models has announced that they are finishing up work on a new release, the Country Class Guided Missile Cruiser, HMS Kent in 1/700 scale.  Look for this to be available in the next couple of months.  

That's all for this month.  I look forward to seeing you at our July meeting.