CMMS Newsletter = January, 2016

The Connecticut Marine Model Society = CMMS Newsletter = January, 2016 DUFFISMS son and with input from sev - Member’s Gallery, so please We had 15 members attend the eral other members. Dave is take a look at the site and let January meeting, and two still uploading data for the him know what you think. guests (see next page, Sec - We are just beginning a retary’s Notes ). One of the new year and, as everyone guests found us on the knows, time flies. The an - web. Our hope is to attract nual joint clubs Northeast more folks through our Ship Model Show and Con - website. ference is just around the Which leads me to ap - corner this April, an event plaud the efforts of our you won't want to miss. webmaster, Dave Dinan , Keep building and above ably assisted by Ron Neil - all, have fun! Duff www.ctshipmodels.org Secretary’s Report, January 9, 2016 next calendar year. Those mem - bers who wish can mail their dues payment directly to Pete or bring them to the next meeting. A brief announcement was made to correct the faulty im - pression that our Newsletter was the creation of the club’s Secretary (namely, me). Sev - eral members have been com - plimenting me on our Newsletter, which is nice but completely undeserved. All the kudos belong to Ron Neilson who has done an outstanding Duff Griffith job of producing our newsletter James McGuffick and clearly deserves our thanks Duff Griffith called the meeting Neilson. Besides Dave Dinan serving and appreciation for his work. I’m to order and welcomed James on the committee was Bob Marvin, merely the “postal service.” Thanks McGuffick who just joined our club. Jim Zilvitis and myself. Dave did all also goes to Dave Dinan for the John Elwood introduced his guest of the programing, content upload - beautiful job he’s done on the web - and friend, Rick Abramson, who ing and layout for the website, which site. The website development proj - brought in his outstanding model of is a major undertaking that is very ect was the effort of a committee the Queen Mary 2 (see page 7) . Also much appreciated. appointed by Duff and led by Ron at the meeting, Bruce Fogwell was a Duff was presented with his guest who learned about our club framed Wiser Award for Le Superbe, from our website; he found us with a his 18th century 74 gun French war - Google search. Our new website at ship that was scratch built at a scale www.ctshipmodels.org has just offi - of 1/75. Congratulations Duff on cially gone on line and is now up and your outstanding model! running. Obviously - the web works! Our next meeting will be February Pete Carlin gave his Treasurer’s 13, 2016 in our regular location; in Report that begins the new year with the meantime, be sure to check out a very good report on our healthy our new and seriously upgraded treasury. Club dues for 2016 are be - website! ginning to come in and Pete asked that everyone who has not paid their Respectfully submitted, past year’s dues to get them to him as Al Saubermann soon as possible. The dues are $25 Secretary, CMMS and payable in December for the Al Saubermann 2 Good Stuff From The Bench January 2016 Once again we were treated to another of Ed Petrucci’s excellent models. Ed talked about his work on the Cabot , a 1/8” scale, Revolutionary War era brig. The model he’s holding here was built in 2013. Like other member projects, Ed bashed a kit of the model and added extensive scratch work — like turning the cannons out of solid birch. He also re - minded us of how practical and easy it is to use plas - tic for particular build components that are difficult to make, especially in smaller scales like the ones Ed likes to work in. Specifically, he gave (another) shout-out to Evergreen Plastics (www. evergreenplastics.com ). The company’s products are carried by any good hobby store. Like most of us, Ed uses “CA” glue (cyanoacrylate “SuperGlue”) for many tasks. A member mentioned that it isn’t an approved material for museum-quality models because a desired 50-year “shelf life” of the adhesive isn’t proven. “Woody” ( Bill Neligon ) added that those of us who do use the glue needn’t worry about any of our models falling apart during our lifetimes. 3 Good Stuff From The Bench Things are really coming together for member, Jack Dillon, who showed us his significant (and impres - sive) progress on his scratch-built armed sloop, Providence . The 1/4” scale model is typical of the Revolu - tionary period commercial ships that were quickly converted to warships to fend off the invading Brits. This particular ship was Captain John Paul Jones’ first full command ( see rear page for more on JPJ ) and car - ried 10 cannon. Jack has been attempting to find accurate, detailed plans for the ship’s rigging, his next and final step. The ship is sloop-rigged with only one mast. A couple of members had research suggestions in - cluding a check with the National Archives (Washington, D.C.) and even going to a dedicated Facebook page for John Paul Jones! 4 Good Stuff From The Bench Duff Griffith - has nearly completed his scratch build of the 1609 Half Moon . He’s begun the rigging and done the attractive hull painting. Duff has used a selection of fine hardwoods throughout and I’ll guess he’s planning to show this nice build at the Northeast Conference in New London next April. Brad Wells is also building the Half Moon from the Corel Kit. Ron Neilson is also building a 16th-C ship. The Halve Maen (Dutch pronunciation; English: “Half Moon” ) was a Dutch East India Company caravel that sailed into what is now New York Harbor in Sep - tember, 1609. She was commissioned by the Dutch Republic to covertly find a western passage to China. The ship was captained by Henry Hudson , an English - man in the service of the Dutch Repub - lic. In 1909, the Kingdom of the A 16th-Century engraving of the Half Moon, showing native Ameri - Netherlands presented the United States cans paddling their canoes out to the Dutch ship in the Hudson River. Half Moon background continued on page 11. 5 Good Stuff From The Bench John Elwood’s guest, Rick Abramson, brought in his model of the Queen Mary 2, a Revell of Germany in 1/400-scale plastic kit of the famous oceanliner. Rick and his wife took a 12 day cruise on the real ship last year; they enjoyed it so much they’ve booked another trip later this year! The model consisted of 550 pieces and believe it or not- Rick built it in one month. He explained many inter - esting details about the real ship.For example, it is an English ship built in France that carries 2,600 passengers. The ship also has no rudder; instead, 360 degree ad - justable “azipods” (side thrusters) are employed to change direction. Rick also spoke with the ship’s designer about it’s unique design, in - cluding its lack of significant sheer. We were all impressed with the high-quality model, including Rick’s excellent work. Anyone for a stowaway on Rick’s next voyage? 6 Good Stuff From The Bench Brad Wells showed us progress on his Half Moon kit build. For the waterline-to-keel paint, Brad decided to use the same white paint that he’s used on the rocking chairs on his front porch. He’s built his model with four gunports which Duff explained isn’t completely accurate ( check out page 5, only two gunports ). Brad wondered aloud if he could just fill in with some putty to make his two errant gunports disappear. Why not? Brad likes to keep things sim - ple. He spends his Big Bucks on car models. Right, Brad? I agree that a man’s got to have his priorities. This month’s riddle is: “Do two Half Moon models equal a Full Moon ?” 7 Good Stuff From The Bench Ron Neilson - has been beavering away in his basement on his “ Revenge .” The unique POB ship model kit incorporates numerous new design approaches for high-end models, including the entire upper works of the bulwarks pieced to - gether with thin (.040) plywood sections that feature all the ship’s gunports, the extensive head timbers (small topside openings ), doorways and the ship’s raked and gently curved tumblehome, a feature of warships of the Tudor era. Ron plans to plank the entensive hull in Swiss Pear strips from Crown Timbers and to hand paint the ex - tensive hull and bulkhead’s colorful decorative fea - tures. The principal warships from the Tudor Navy featured very high fore and aft decks since much of the warfare was presumed to be conducted by fight - ing from castle battlement walls, not just cannon salvos! Yep. Longbow arrows, small personal arms, cutlasses, catapults, rocks, rats, etc. You name it. A profile drawing of the 1577 ship has survived; it clearly shows the detailed and ornate painting of the original flag - ship. The drawing is attributed to the ships’s builder, Matthew Baker. 8 Good Stuff From The Bench Bob Siegler - told us about a vendor he’s recently discovered on the internet: Cast Your Anchor (www.castyouranchorhobby.com ). The Canadian online retailer/distributor has an extensive range of hard-to-find fittings. Bob told us that he needed a tiny brass bell and he was able to find it - as well as other small com - ponents.

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