Rcboater Bill

This is an “opened for inspection” copy of the lovely kit of the Mary Byrne, an Australian Colonial era brig from 1826. The kit is laser cut, with high quality fittings, and comprehensive plans and instructions. (There are a few build logs here on MSW showcasing this fine kit!) The kit sells for about $235 plus shipping new. I am selling my copy for $130, plus shipping from New Hampshire. I have only sold a few books here on MSW, but I have great references from Hyperscale, RCGroups, and Ebay I can share with anyone interested. I’ll take Paypal, venmo, etc.. I’ll use Pirate Ship to keep shipping costs down. Why am I selling it? Simple reason, I’ll never build it, and I want to buy a laser cutter! If you want any other photos, or me to check something in the kit- please ask. -Bill

Sale pending….

This is the 2000 reprint of the book. The entire book, including the dust jacket, is in very good conditions. No handwriting in or on the book. The going rate for this book seems to be in the $40-$60 range— I’m selling it for $30, plus shipping from New Hampshire. (I’ll do what I can to keep the shipping cost down.) Prefer paypal, but a USPO Money Order is OK too…. I’ll look for PMs here, and reply with my contact info… -Bill New Hampshire (This just my second time selling something here- I sold a trio of books here a few years ago with no problems.)

Another model built for a friend- this time a former crew member on the USS West Virginia (SSBN -736). Built from the Dragon 1/350 USS Florida kit- which is a modified Ohio class, but the kit still has all the original Ohio parts in the box. I made a custom wood base, and added a West Virginia Challenge Coin with the ship’s motto and a simple brass nameplate. I topped it off with an acrylic cover. The 1/350 scale model is about 19” long, and the base is 24”. Ohio class subs are huge!!! I am very happywith how it turned out, an my friend loves it!

Thanks! There are sites online that sell modern hats with whatever ship name you may desire-- but finding an original Duane hat may be a challenge. Maybe try one fo the USCG veterans groups on Facebook?

When underway, you always use the ratlines on the windward side to go aloft- when ship is sailing into the wind, and heeling over, the ratlines become less steep, and the futtocks are closer to vertical, making them easier to climb… (Former Eagle sailor)

I’m always glad to see another USCG subject as a new kit! But at the same time, I am also a little disappointed that we’ll have yet another USCG subject in a one-off scale that is different from the common scales you find modern boat and aircraft models in. Personally, I would be much more likely to buy the kit if it was in 1/72 scale, so I could display it with my collection of other USCG helicopters and other similarly-sized boats. (PT boats, landing craft, RNLI lifeboats, Swift boats, Vospers, etc.) This is only my opinion, and you folks certainly know your potential market better than I do. No matter what the scale, I hope you sell a zillion of them, which leads to the release of more USCG subjects. “More USCG subjects as model kits” is always better than “ less”!

Do you mean “Matchbox 1/72 Flower Class Corvette”? ( I never heard of Minicraft also releasing the kit.). When Matchbox got out of the plastic model business, Revell bought all the molds. The kit has been released by Revell a couple of times since, as “HMCS Snowberry”. There is LOTS of info online about the kits….

That model is clearly the Revell 1/305 scale USCGC Taney. (Not a Lindberg kit!). It was originally released as USCGC Campbell, a sistership. Built as kitted, it is a model of the Campbell in her Korean War-era fit. (The seven ships of the class went through a lot of changes over their 45-50 years of service!) I built that kit as the USCGC Duane, as she appeared ca. 1981, for an old friend and classmate who served on her. I documented my build here: FWIW, The Destroyer Escort kit looks like Revell 1/240 scale USS Buckley class.

That’s actually what I was trying to do when I got the error. It seems the software won’t let you include a string that looks like a URL unless it ends in .jpg ( or one of the other supported image formats.). A string ending in .mp3 is rejected. I was hoping there was a trick that I just wasn’t aware of- hence my original question.

I think that’s it! As a former ship driver, “Boats underway” = moving through the water. ”Project or build underway” = Construction has started. I personally have way more projects underway that I do boats! 😀

That is very true- I see it in a number of modeling forums- especially older ones. Fifteen-plus years ago, many forums required you to use an external hosting site for photos. For example, there are now lots of useless threads out there, ones that now have no photos, thanks to the whole Photobucket debacle. But if the site didn’t allow/support native hosting of images back then, you can hardly blame people for using 3rd party hosting for images. (And the gallery still supports using them to this day!)

Sorry, I’m not following this line of reasoning at all…. how does a video of an RC model underway make it not a “Completed Model”? (But an action shot photo of the same model in the water is OK??) Plus, your response isn’t answering my question at all. Pretend for a moment I took a video that slowly pans around a completed static model, showing it from all angles. As I said in my original question, I know the gallery only accepts certain types of files. (Images only). I understand why - videos can really eat up storage space. That’s why I asked if there is a way to use an external link….

I know that the Gallery is only for photos, and limits the types of files that can be uploaded. Is there a way to link to an external site for a video? I have a short video (30 -60 seconds long) of my model underway. It is hosted on my (publicly viewable) Smugmug page. I tried to add a link in the description of the album, but it won’t let me- I get an error “There is no image at that URL”.

Lindberg ship kits are old, old molds- from the 1960s, primarily. A lot of their sailing ship kits are old molds acquired from long-gone companies, such as Inpact and Pyro. The are basically equivalent to old Airfix kits from the same era. Revell (USA) sailing ship kits are just as old in many cases, but usually with some more detail and parts than equivalent Lindberg kits. In an age of simpler, affordable kits aimed at younger modelers, Revell also offered the bigger, much more involved kits like the big USS Constitution and Cutty Sark. But as the late renowned ship modeler Dr. John Tilley posted on Fine Scale Modeler in the early 2000s, Revell hadn’t done a new sailing ship kit since the early 70s, and had been out of the sailing ship business for longer than they were ever in it…. (and Lindberg is even worse off.) If you are interested in reading quick reviews of the old Revell and Lindberg ship kits, “Rajen’s list” is still a valuable resource. ( You will quickly get a sense of how terribly inaccurate many of the Lindberg kits were!) It was in its heydey in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, but “Modeler Joe” has picked up the torch and updated it somewhat. http://www.modelerjoe.net/shipmodellist.html It may sound like I’m dumping on Lindberg, but as a boy 50 years ago, I built a bunch of them and enjoyed them. Some of the old Pryo molds they acquired still aren’t bad- the Steam Paddle Revenue Cutter Harriet Lane and the Lightship Nantucket, for example, are still decent kits- simplified detail, but the general shapes are correct and a decent foundation for whatever scratch building or other improvements you. may wish to add.

Am I the only one who read the title and thought “29” ? 😁

Nic, That’s a great idea- thanks!

I still haven’t abandoned the build, but it on the back burner. A big reason for the delay is I’m in a quandry- I’m not sure how I should complete the model. I set out to build it as an RC boat, but I’m having second thoughts, for two reasons: 1. The boat isn’t really seaworthy if built to scale. It has that huge cockpit which is open to the bilges. Put the lee rail under in a gust, and she’s swamped (or worse!). A clubmate built one of these kits as a sailing model, but he planked over the cockpit, sealing the hull. His model sails safely, but gives up a lot of realism on the display stand… 2. In order to make it a sailing model, you need to make an extended sailing keel with a lead bulb for stability and ballast. That means making a big lead bulb, which I find a little intimidating. Plus, lead shot is very hard to get these days. I can’t go much further on the build without making up my mind…..

The Lindberg kit is 1/95 scale, and about 18 inches long. I built one a few years ago, as an RC conversion. I can release the anchor line and get under way by RC.

My most recent: The US Coast Guard Cutter Duane, built from the old Revell Taney/Campbell kit. Built as a gift for an old friend whose first duty station was the Duane…

This update is to let folks know the project has not been abandoned- it just spent a year on the back burner! It has been about a year since my last update, but I have done a little bit of work on the model over the summer.... After fiberglassing the hull, I had several rounds of sanding, filling imperfections, sanding, filling, sanding, etc. etc. Finally, in late fall I sprayed a coat of Duplicolor fast fill primer on the hull. Then I screwed up.... I left the hull in the garage, thinking I’d do one more outdoor sanding session before winter settled in, but never got around to it. Today I thought, “I should bring the hull inside- being exposed to freezing temps may not be good for the hull.” (We had already had several days with temps in the low 20s, or -5 C.) Turns out I was right - the hull has a couple of cracks in the finish. My main reason for the lack of progress was that I focused my efforts this year on finishing my 1/144 scale USN Escort Carrier- the USS Guadalcanal, CVE-60. I finished the model’s air wing in October, and had a couple of nice sailing sessions in this fall....

This is a big model- about 20 inches long. Kit is complete, with decals and flag sheet. Note that it is the Japanese release of the kit, so the printed notes on the instructions are not in english. The assembly instructions are pictorial with no text, so the only part you may miss is the names of the colors in the color table. The box had blue paint spilled on it- one end panel and one side panel have paint splashes. I understand this kit is rather rare- according to Scalemates, it was last released in 1980. Recent sale prices on eBay range from $50 to $130, so I think offering mine at $60 ( plus shipping from New Hampshire) is reasonable.

After reading the above, I dug out my copies of the 1999-and-older SíS Disks that I had picked up at an estate sale a several years ago. I assume they are the original ones, as they have the original Seaways labels and not NRG labels. I popped one in my 5 year old HP laptop, and it read it just fine. That PC came with Win8, with a free upgrade to Win 10. So not all systems with Windows 10 have an issue reading the old CDs.....

Thanks- that is exactly what I was looking for!

Is there an index online somewhere for the magazine Seaways Ships in Scale? I googled, and looked on the NRG site, and came up empty. I am looking for a series of articles written by John Fryant on building and improving the Dumas 1/48 scale side wheeler “Mt Washington” kit. I was a subscriber for several years, and I vaguely remember seeing it. I have no idea when it appeared, so I figure a good first step would to (a) confirm it existed, and (b) find out what issues it appeared in, so I can focus my search.... Thanks for any leads.... -Bill