Does anyone know where I can get plans for a riverboat from that era ! I have exhusted my options .I want to take a hull from the " NATCHEZ/ROBT.E.LEE. river Steamer and convert it (the hull looks almost right ) .This is something I’ve wanted to do for the longest while .Well , ever since the " SAND PEBBLES " -STEVE McQUEEN movie. That vessel was neat .I have seen articles about building a wood one , but this I don’t want to do .
I know I can create it out of plastic and I’ve found the large open guns in a U.S. ARMY train in H.O. in a drop side boxcar ! Talk about a " Q " ship ! The old type machine guns I have too .They are NOT QUITE 1/96 scale . I think they are closer to 1/60 scale . So there’s part of the possible parts list .I still need a couple of good pictures to go by .Thank You in advance for your help . MODEL ON ! Tanker-Builder
Have you checked out the Taubman catalog? Also, I see that Loyalhanna has indeed picked up the Dromedary plans. Don’t know if either has a China station gunboat, but I am sure I saw plans for some river gunboat sometime in past.
The Floating Drydock ( http://floatingdrydock.com/MasterPlan.htm ) offers a set of plans for the most famous of them all, the Panay. I imagine the structure and details in that set would be helpful, at least.
I’m a big fan of The Sand Pebbles too. When people ask me to recommend a movie that really discusses what it means to be an officer, I say "watch 12 O’clock High. If they want to see a movie that really discusses the military enlisted experience - and a lot of other stuff besides - I recommend The Sand Pebbles. The book, by Richard Ketchum, is even better.
If I recall correctly, in the production company had a replica gunboat built for the film (possibly in Hong Kong), so it is likely that plans for the “San Pablo” exist somewhere.
There was a very detailed article in Scale Ship Modeler, Vol 19, Number 5 (Aug / Sept 1996) (you can probably get a reprint from Challenge Publications in California - I have a copy somewhere in my files and can scan it as long as you are not in a rush) about building a 1/48th scale model of the USS Panay using the Floating Drydock Plans and the “bread and butter” approach to build up the hull in layers. The completed model was very detailed and impressive.
My sense is that the Robert E. Lee / Natchez hull is probably too wide.
The movie is one of my favorites also. I thought Richard Crenna did a great job of portraying the angst of a CO trying to reconcile his orders and the rapidly changing political environment in China between the World Wars.
Well thank you For offering to do that .The boat will be an odd scale because I realised the width discrepancy thing . The general shape was what I was going for . I still would have to build up the hull about an inch actually . When you are ready , then you can contact me offsite through this site’s list of e-mail address listed for me . The " SAN PABLO " has always fascinated me .I do appreciate this . MODEL ON -Tanker-Builder
Also it’s a pretty good ode to the operation of the Springfield 1903 .30 caliber rifle.
I’ve owned three of them, and they are without parallel. Sorry Soul Crusher- thats a fact.
A current ship (actually a boat) project includes a rack of Carcano rifles in the officers mess, but that is a story for another day.
And in the movie “The Bedford Incident”, there’s a rack of Lee Enfield .303 rifles in the mess of the supposed USN Destroyer (in fact the HMS Troubridge). Which also figures in the original “Lord of the Flies” movie.
Actually I would only say that my favorite war movie about the plight of the enlisted man is “From Here to Eternity”. At least in the modern era.
I’m currently about 75% of the way through “Potemkin”. The model.
The movie was filmed on a cruiser of roughly the same design.
Which leads us back to the Moisin Nagant, but that rifle is yet another good reason to go to the range.
All of which is to say that early last century is a great era for modelers.
Did a little research last night and it looks like the San Pablo was not really based on a specific USN river gunboat but is more of a compressed version of the Panay / Luzon class gunboats, with one funnel instead of two, and shortened deck houses. There is quite a bit of discussion, model builds, and some plans on the message board at thesandpebbles.com which may be helpful.
Thinking that building up the hull in layers may be easier in the long run than trying to adapt a Robt E. Lee / Natchez hull. If you want to go to an earlier era, say 1870/1880, you might be able to cobble together a “double ender” USN gunboat from a steamboat hull.
Hope to scan SSM article this weekend and get it off to you.
DANKESHOEN , mine frent ! Dis is VAT you call ze cat’s meow , right ? HE.HE. Thank you , my modeling friend .Model On ! Tanker-Builder OOPS , Away from ze schnapps I should stay , YA !
In zat case I vill haff to get ze case YA ! He! He! Zis iz se most fun how you say YIPPIE ! YA ! OOPS I zinc I losted ze model somethingwhere Hmmm ! He! He ! Tanker-Builder
