lmagna

Stands to reason when at least on paper this single ship carried the ability to take out or even sink a battleship if used properly. Think what could have happened if instead of the USS Johnston and Taffy Three vs. the Japanese it had been this ship maned with the same determined and trained crew under the same conditions in the battle of Taffy Three off Samar! In fact if the US had had a torpedo as effective as the Long Lance going into WWII the entire war would have been over in very short order even after the losses at Pearl Harbor. 

Here's a more recent update. To build the Rodney with the Admiralty camouflage dating 1942 and beyond, the Pontos set is essential, since it incorporates all of the changes made to the ship. For example, around this time she had 17 20mm Oerlikon cannon, but the kit only provides 13, as well as the quad 0.50 machine guns which were deleted. There were also changes made to the bridge structure, and more pom-pom directors fitted. While the Pontos set is expensive, I figured that since this is going to be my one large battleship build, I might as well go for it. Hope you like her so far!
 
Cheers,  Tom




 

Here is my in progress build of the 1/200 Supermarine Walrus by Trumpeter, with some help from Pontos...and yes there is a battleship attached!
 
Cheers,  Tom
 
 
 

Amazing work Tom, wow!  You are a master at PE.
 
I didn't think about Future for PE parts.  I've just been using medium CA and occasionally white glue (Gator Glue).  I recently saw a video on youtube where a 1/700 modeler was using Tamiya X-22 as an adhesive for very small parts.  I was going to try that out sometime, but will also try out Future.  Thanks for the tip!
 
By the way, I have a 1/48 Walrus in the stash and I hope it comes out half as nice as your 1/200 version!

Thanks Mike, you are very kind! I have a feeling your Walrus build will be the better of the two! I do love the versatility of using Future (I actually use an equivalent called "Quickshine"), whether for a gloss coat, filling small gaps, as an adhesive, and to simulate glass. There's probably other applications out there!
 
Cheers,  Tom

She’s an interesting fish, out of water; I had no idea how full she was below the waterline.  The ship looks so sleek in period footage.  I will gladly follow along on this one, as you are doing some really nice, clean work.

Another update, mostly concentrating on the rear mast:
 

 

 

 
Getting a tripod mast to look aligned and vertical can be tricky, so I'm pleased with the result!
 
Cheers,  Tom

Thank you very much! After working extensively with 1/350 photoetch, it’s easier (many parts are larger) and harder (there are more subassemblies)!
 
Thank you!
 
Cheers,  Tom

Another update:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Cheers,  Tom

That is some questions i can only partly answer Mike.
 
Yes you can use the red car to build any of the three 1969 team cars as in fact it IS car #1 with the wing mounted in a lower position in order to make it legal for the 1970 Can Am season. By the same token,  you could in theory by slightly modifying the rear deck and eliminating the wing all together make it into a 1967 M8A team McLaren car. This is possible because the 1968 #1 car was built from the two 1967 cars in 1968 and then sold and had the wing lowered in 1970 but was otherwise the same car driven by team McLaren in 1969. Is that confusing enough?
 
The part I don't know is if the kit that you and Craig have has shortened wing struts to reflect the 1970 car or if as a kit maker they just kept the taller struts of the orange 1969 team cars. My kit has long struts for the orange 1969 cars. If they kept or supplied the taller struts then you can easily build either car by using the taller or shorter struts. If they only supply a tall or a shortened strut then you will have to lengthen or shorten the struts depending on the car and what part was supplied. How is that for confusion?  You can also build the 1970 team McLaren M8D just by adding wing supports on the rear fenders!

 
One of the reasons McLaren was so successful in Can Am was that unlike Jim Hall, he didn't show up each year with a new car design that was so innovative that it needed a full season to get the bugs ironed out. He showed up each year with an improved version of the car that won the year before with just enough modifications to keep it at the top of the completive pile. So with basically two bodies, a M6 and an M8 you can pretty much build any Can Am McLaren from their most winning years.
 
The spoilers on the cars were at a fixed height. Jim Hall had brought the innovation to racing three years earlier with his Chaparral 2E, (Along with a few other innovations that were not as noticeable) and they were adopted by almost everyone both inside and outside Can Am racing. The struts were fixed in height and were mounted to the rear wheel hubs rather than the body like prior wings. McLaren was one of the few who avoided the concept until in order to remain dominant he decided to mount the high wing concept in 1969. The wing angle could be adjusted in the pits but unlike Hall's Chaparral it was not adjustable by the driver while being driven. Because of wings flying off of cars while racing, (Mostly F1 cars) the FIA, ( Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) made both the movable wing AND the raised wing illegal and after 1969 no car would be able to run them. These rules also applied to the Can Am series of races by default. So in short high wing or low wing is a matter of years not an adjustment system.
 
One of the things that still concerns me is the decals supplied for the Accurate Miniatures kits for Team McLaren. I have already discussed this with Craig. All of the pictures I have been able to locate for the 1969 team cars shows the numbers in the roundels a being black. Both the kit and the aftermarket sets of decals use blue numbers. I know that after Bruce died Denny ran most if not all of the team cars with blue numbers but I am not certain this was the case prior to 1970. I have seen a picture that if memory serves, shows all three team cars lined up side by side with blue numbers but I am not certain what year the picture is from or which book I have that I saw it in! Fine researcher I am!
 
Of course, after spending FOREVER typing this up, (I am not all that fast at typing) I at last find the picture I was looking for of the three 1969 team cars in the same photo. Looks like my memory was wrong on the numbers as well. They are clearly black.

Your absolutely right, and I apologize to Mike for straying off the topic....
This isn't the place for a discussion over torpedo effectiveness and reputation.....
 
Sorry...

Main decking completed. 

With plenty of targets and almost 15,000 torpedoes fired from submarines, sinking slightly more than 1300 ships I still have some questions about  that claim, but have no interest in crunching numbers for the next few months. It is true that in the Pacific the US submarine effort cost the Japanese well over 50% of their losses and combined with their losses from aircraft and other torpedo launching platforms caused the virtual destruction of Japans nautical abilities by 1945. By that time there were virtually no Japanese ships left large enough to warrant the use of a torpedo.
 
This is really Mikes build log not a history debate and he has not really given permission to treat it as such. So I am done. Thanks for the reading. I will certainly look it over.  

They are very well made and bend up very easily (luck for me) 

Wow, nice work Greg!  Those louvres must have been fun.

First stack done, dryfitted so it can be punted properly later

October 25th 1944 The last torpedo fired by Dick O'Kane of the US submarine Tang.
 
A MK18 electric torpedo, the American copy of the German G7e torpedo that had been copied from German torpedos that had been recovered after running aground in 1942. It was the last torpedo onboard the Tang. It broached and curved to the left in a circular run. O'Kane fishtailed the sub under emergency power to clear the turning circle of the torpedo, but it struck Tang abreast the aft torpedo room approximately 20 seconds after it was fired. The first MK18 was fired under war conditions by Mush Morton in the Wahoo and Eugene Sands of the Spearfish in September of 1943. Sands reported that he "experienced enough torpedo problems to drive an ordinary man berserk": one sank, one broached and ran wild, three fishtailed at launch and hit the outer doors before disappearing, and seven missed astern
 
Either O'Kane was a very bad shot or the torpedo guidance system on the MK 18 was still having issues in 1944 just like the MK 14.
 
Suggested reading,  Clear the Bridge!: The War Patrols of the U.S.S. Tang by Richard O'Kane.

Stands to reason when at least on paper this single ship carried the ability to take out or even sink a battleship if used properly. Think what could have happened if instead of the USS Johnston and Taffy Three vs. the Japanese it had been this ship maned with the same determined and trained crew under the same conditions in the battle of Taffy Three off Samar! In fact if the US had had a torpedo as effective as the Long Lance going into WWII the entire war would have been over in very short order even after the losses at Pearl Harbor. 

I think the current manufactures of the old Blue Water Navy kits is The Iron Shipwright. 
http://ironshipwrights.com/ships_350.html
 
Even though they no longer offer the Arron Ward or even a Benson/Gleaves-class destroyer, it is possible they still have copies of the instructions.
Give them a call and ask. the worst they could say is no. 

I think the current manufactures of the old Blue Water Navy kits is The Iron Shipwright. 
http://ironshipwrights.com/ships_350.html
 
Even though they no longer offer the Arron Ward or even a Benson/Gleaves-class destroyer, it is possible they still have copies of the instructions.
Give them a call and ask. the worst they could say is no. 

Letting the 2 coats of grey washes dry. I learnt that if the paint is soaked in while spirit too long and gets a good scrub then it’s quite easy just to strip all the paint back to the plastic! So I give it plenty of time to recover between coats! While they do that I did a dark green wash below the waterline to grubby it up. Just enough to blend in the old look with the rest of the ship.
 

Since there is not an up detail set for Mikasa in her early years from Pontos, hoping this will change 🤞just have to go for my preference. Starting with decking, the lower bridge and boat deck should be wooden decking, if it comes out later I’ll live with my impatience to get on with the model. Have opted for a dark green for metal decks, Model Air 71.012, green seems a common colour for decks anyway, will be a nice contrast with light grey, handrails and such will stand out. Decided the bracing supports for mast stays were over thick so trimmed them down with my craft knife, scraping away the plastic both sides as much as poss whilst maintaining surface details, roughly 0.5 a side. Pain in the bum but worth it I hope. This also meant I had to trim the photo plate down in size on three sides, great fun. Also did not want to use brass etch plate on front bulkhead, felt the tiny brass rails awnings would not bond well just sitting against it, a knock off for sure, opted to drill and glue to plastic. Used a 0.3 drill , sometimes it looks like the holes are out a mile, so finger with etch on it puts things back in perspective. 😂

Now you can see were all my hours are going, the racing snail.👀 Shall see if I can get time tomorrow to update. 🤛

October 25th 1944 The last torpedo fired by Dick O'Kane of the US submarine Tang.
 
A MK18 electric torpedo, the American copy of the German G7e torpedo that had been copied from German torpedos that had been recovered after running aground in 1942. It was the last torpedo onboard the Tang. It broached and curved to the left in a circular run. O'Kane fishtailed the sub under emergency power to clear the turning circle of the torpedo, but it struck Tang abreast the aft torpedo room approximately 20 seconds after it was fired. The first MK18 was fired under war conditions by Mush Morton in the Wahoo and Eugene Sands of the Spearfish in September of 1943. Sands reported that he "experienced enough torpedo problems to drive an ordinary man berserk": one sank, one broached and ran wild, three fishtailed at launch and hit the outer doors before disappearing, and seven missed astern
 
Either O'Kane was a very bad shot or the torpedo guidance system on the MK 18 was still having issues in 1944 just like the MK 14.
 
Suggested reading,  Clear the Bridge!: The War Patrols of the U.S.S. Tang by Richard O'Kane.

Awesome work!
 
Cheers,  Tom