Got me a 1/96 scale model of the C.S.S. Arkansas from Cottage Industries. Too COOL! Wife got her miniature house and daddy got his ship. Life is good.[:D]
Gift money, some of which I’ll be plucking down on the Trumpeter USS Pittsburgh.
My wife got me some nice tools and a Trumpeter 1/700 USS Yorktown. I want to build it for my late grandfather (sniff). The kit is freaking amazing. It’s my first Trumpeter and, as usual, I want it to be perfect… On another note, my mother in law got me a Monster truck model (The Gravedigger) and said, “I thought this looked like you…” Normally, we get along smashingly…I think I made her mad! I have heard others on the forum discuss kits they got as gifts, add this one to the list… So my wife walked into our local hobby shop with my MicroMark catalog all marked up with the stuff I could use and she got to talking with the owner’s wife. The owner’s wife thought that was the coolest thing ever…My wife got me just the tools I wanted, granted not all of them, but that would cost me a fortune…! Merry Christmas to all! Big Daddy Brucesquatch
Finally got a good quality digital camera so that I can take much better photos and log my builds.
I got the premium version of Dragon’s 1/700 Arizona as well as some DVDs and Clothes. I was hoping for a couple other DML Armor kits, but I’m grateful I got anything at all.
1/700 Trumpeter Abe Lincoln. I’m pumped, but I’m also nervous, I gotta do a good job on this one! My second non-Revell kit, it’s quite a change! I’m planning on putting it into a waterline dio with a Tico class cruiser. Anyone built the Trump Lincoln yet? Let me know!
Well, my wife (with a little advice from the “Wishlist” at the B&H website) got me three-way reflector and an LED ringlight for my DSLR camera - especially for taking pictures of models. And my stepson got me (drum roll, please) an Estes model rocket, complete with a 110 camera in the nose. He says he remembers my giving him one for Christmas (when he was in middle school), and wanted to return the favor. The next warm, windless day, in the vacant lot behind Lowe’s…sheez, I can hardly wait.
Well, I guess dropping hints during the year finely paid off, my son got me the Heller 1:100 Victory, and my wife got me the Heller 1:100Le Soleil Royal, along with a few smaller ships, and a good friend of mine sent me from NYC the 1:96 Revell CSS Alabama, I think I’ll start with the Alabama and slowly work my way up to the Victory, and along the way maby get to tackle the 1:96 Cutty Sark and the 1:96 Constitution, only one problem…where to display them, and oh yes, some of the books mentioned in this forum as well.
Question…how does one keep sailing ships …including the larger ones safe while moving ? I don’t think I’ve seen this problem mentioned on this board. Karl
Well…I’ll pass on the solution I heard from a guy who’d just finished scratchbuilding an O-scale steam locomotive, and then got transferred and had to move. When I asked him how he was going to move the locomotive, he replied: “It’s going to ride on the front seat beside me. My wife is taking the bus.”
My Mother got me Hasegawa’s Mikasa. Money given by others is going towards Tamiya’s Missouri.
Let’s see…I got “Rigging Period Ship Models”. This book is cool. Nothing but diagrams. I also got “The 100 gun ship Victory”, another valuable book. And I finally got my copy of Anderson’s “Ship Rigging in the day’s of the Sprit Sail Top mast.” This last one is my bedtime reading. And JTilley, thanks. I did find the Lateen Parrel in the book… Also got painting supplies for my Oil painting hobby, and the normal “dad” stuff (new beard trimmer, shoes, shirts, etc…) As for the post that mentioned moving with ships. A friend of mine PCS’d to Germany, and decided to take his Heller Victory with him. No way was he going to leave 2 years of work behind. It wasn’t cheap, but he built a wood-reinforced, double layer cardboard box. He then fabricated a mounting-jig for the model, essentially securing the ship in the center of the box. He also secured hand-made covers over all the gun ports to keep barrels from snapping. Then, rather nervously, he poured in styrofoam peanuts. He did not push them down. He would fill the box. Then shake the box in order to get the peanuts to settle. He did this for about three hours, finally closing the box and securing all the seams with heavy duty tape. I think it cost him a couple hundred bucks to ship it (he didn’t put it with his household goods). I got an email from him a few weeks ago. It took him 3 days to unpack it. Everything was in tact except for a couple of running rigging lines that had come loose, but were easily fixed. The only major problem was the extra 2 weeks he spent picking tiny bits of styrofoam off the model and the rigging. But all in all, he said it was all worth it. Victory made a journey across the atlantic in tact! Grymm
I had to buy it but the cash was from X-mas[:D] I picked up the Revell US Gato Sub lets just iam impressed with the size but not the kit. heres some picks.
I probably should have been a little more serious with my last post; sorry.
Some years ago I got hired by the Coast Guard Museum, in Connecticut, to do some conservation work on some of its ship models. The CG hired a professional art-handling firm to transport the models from Connecticut to North Carolina.
Those guys really knew what they were doing. The models ranged from a training model of a surfboat to a WWII destroyer escort to a fully-rigged two-masted topsail schooner. The handlers started out by building a cardboard carton for each model, sizing the box so there was about half an inch to spare all around. Then they cut some small slots in the base of the carton. The key to the system was a series of flexible plastic straps (such as can be bought from sewing supply stores - as I found out when I had to ship the models back), with simple metal buckles. Each model got a pair of straps, running through the slots in the bottom of the carton and around the model’s baseboard (or, if it didn’t have one, over the deck of the model itself - paying due heed to any projecting details). The straps were then heaved taut and held in place with the buckles, and the top of the carton was sealed up.
The next step was to build a second cardboard box - this one about four inches bigger in all dimensions than the first one. They dumped some plastic peanuts into the bottom of the bigger box, set the smaller box inside on top of the peanuts, poured more peanuts into the space between the boxes, and sealed the top of the big box. (Note: no peanuts around the model. The air inside the inner box, the straps holding the model down, and the layer of peanuts between the boxes were considered to provide adequate protection.) The models all arrived at my house in fine shape; the biggest problem with the system, from my standpoint, was finding somewhere in the house to keep all those blasted boxes till I was done working on the models - and then lining up a CG van to take them back to Connecticut.
That’s the most efficient system for transporting finished ship models that I’ve encountered. My number one suggestion, though, is to follow the advice I got from the registrar of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. When asked how to prepare Donald McNarry’s model of the U.S.S. Constitution (a masterpiece if there ever was one) for transport between DC and Tidewater Virginia, the registrar’s response was: “My first suggestion is - don’t.”
My wife gave me the 1:96 scale Revell USS Constitution. First ship kit for me and I am a little blown away by the complexity. Don’t know if I’ll ever finish this…
One step at a time, and keep your goal to completing only one step. When that is done, the goal becomes finishing the next step, and so on. I believe it was Underhill who said that building a ship model was a matter of building parts of a ship, and assembling them into a completed model, and that where ever you stop, is a model of a ship in that phase of its construction. In any case, the goal should never be, start, and don’t stop until every line, cringle, belaying pin, caulked seam, and button on the uniforms of the crew are done. Take it slow, and enjoy the satisfaction of completing each small goal in succession.
I guess the best, was “Ship Models How to Build Them” by Davis, and Gene Johnson’s “Ship Model building”. The former, because I want to build the Sea Witch, using the old Marx hull. The latter, for all the techniques, and for some of the photos. It never hurts to try some new how to’s.
Me I got the Heller Victory. It takes intimidating to a whole new level. I remeber when I got my constitution, almost two years ago. Yup it is very complex and difficult. It takes considerable time and patience to complete. I finished mine a few weeks back. If you get a chance you should follow the forum to get lots of tips from others who have done this and similar kits. It was a big help to me. If there is three pieces of advice I can give you they would be:1. put lots of support in the hull to mount the kit on a base, do this before you set the decks in or worse. 2. do everything as perfect as you can. those flaws become real irritating 12months into a build. 3. take your time but keep working on it. This is a fabulous model kit if done well.
I got a 1/350th CV2 Lexington and a U.S.S. The Sullivans, same scale. Trumpeters.
But first I have to finish my Arizona and Tirpitz!
60
I got a Badger 350 from my youngest son. Now I can start modeling and painting a whole
lot better.
Frank Tozier
I picked up Tamiya’s 1/350 scale USS Fletcher destroyer.