JTilley, Your Monitor paper model seen at the IPMS Nats

That's really wild. That thing is close to thirty years old now. It was intended for kids, rather than serious adult modelers, but we tried to make it as accurate as we could on the basis of the information available at  the time.

We wanted it to be within the capability of a 12-year old with a little help from an adult. My wife helped my stepdaughter with one of the "test shots." It came out fine. Then I gave one to the senior professor in the ECU History Department. When he failed miserably to get it together, I figured I had the difficulty level about right.

I'm not an IPMS member and I don't like model contests, but I'm driving up this afternoon to admire the models, chat with folks, and maybe spend some money. Got some cash out of the ATM last night for the occasion.

Is that "kit" commercially available, or available for download somewhere?

Not as far as I know. It was copyrighted by the Mariners' Museum and the Monitor Marine Sanctuary; because I was paid for it by the federal government, I can't sell copies. The last time I went to the MM I casually inquired about it at the gift shop; the clerk had no idea what I was talking about. I'm surprised I turned up at the IPMS convention.

It really isn't much of a model by serious modeling standards. I believe there are other paper Monitors around.

I believe there are other paper Monitors around.

It seems to me that the Monitor & Merrimack were both on the back of cereal boxes a loooong time ago. Gee whiz, I'm getting old, so, please correct me if I am wrong.

Speaking of Monitors, I see a reasonably priced model of it advertised by Bluejacket.  Anyone know how good of a kit it is?  I do wooden hulls all the time, so that doesn't bother me.  Quality of fittings and such are more important to me.

Point of sale museum models deserve a thread unto themselves.

There's been plenty of discussion about things like the Campbell drawings, the Tilley model and so forth. Arizona. The Soya, The Mikasa. A good Gato model is sold at the USS Pampanito museum, although shes a Balao; here in SF.

I bought my copy of USS Arizona by Stillwell from the national monument site online from a very nice lady with whom I exchanged Mahalo and Aloha greetings. Now for sale on Amazon, not mine but others, for a little less than I paid.

The point is that it makes a lot of sense, and is a good donation, to look at the various museum sites and buy from their online stores. A good way to make a donation and get a bona fide copy of what you want,

Apropos of nothing, and in particular everything:

I (maybe we) were intrigued/ invited/ galled by seemingly too good to be true ads for models in the back covers of the magazines we read as boys.

BTW John, HMS Atropos was my first kit bash model

I made it up the the IPMS Nationals on Friday, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. There were some superb warship models on display in the contest room, and a staggering number of vendors in the vendor room. I walked away with several useful little tools, along with some Apoxie-sculpt, a brand of epoxy putty that I hadn't tried, and an Eduard 1/48 Spitfire. (The quality of that kit is...indescribable. It deserves all the rave reviews the magazines have been giving it.)

I didn't see any paper Monitors. I suspect the MM found a box of them somewhere, and used the convention as a means of getting rid of them.

I only saw two sailing ships in the contest room. One was a really nice scratch-built partial model of a British bomb ketch. I couldn't identify the other one.

Lots of companies had their wares on display - especially the aftermarket folks. But I only saw two new plastic ships. The Revell 1/144 LSM looks excellent - complete with WWII tanks. And Tamiya's 1/700 Saratoga looks very nice indeed. Its hull is split into port and starboard halves, with considerable raised plating detail. It looked a little heavy to me, but I'll reserve judgment till I see one finished. Personally (as I've noted earlier in the Forum) I like that way of producing hulls.

Tamiya's behavior at such shows is...interesting. Its table had a number of well-done finished models on it, and some samples kits available for inspection. (That new WWI tank almost stole my heart - especially when the cordial Tamiya guy turned on the motor and it went clanking across the table on its individual-link tracks. Then I found out that it costs almost $100. But I'm gonna have to try one of those wonderful, tiny 1/48 armor kits.) The two gentlemen manning the table were friendly and courteous. But none of the merchandise was for sale.

My observation for a long time has been that Tamiya behaves like it enjoys some truly special status in the industry. Selling kits at an IPMS convention seems to be beneath its dignity. In fairness, it should be noted that Revell wasn't selling anything either. Eduard, on the other hand, had stacks of kits for sale - at discount prices. So did most of the resin companies.)

Tamiya is certainly a good company; its best kits are among the best anywhere. But I don't think it deserves the kind of worship that it seems to expect. I'm still mad about that 1/700 Yorktown (CV-5), which is just a jumble of parts from the forty-year-old Enterprise and Hornet kits. And Tamiya kits have mistakes in them just about as often as Hasegawa, Trumpeter, and Dragon kits do.

I'm sure I bumped into some Forum members without knowing it. The names on the name tags were too small for my 63-year-old eyes to read at any distance (and a 63-year-old man who gets up close to people and stares at their chests in the hope of reading name tags is asking for trouble - especially if the wearer of the tag is female). If I inadvertently offended anybody, I certainly apologized.

It looked like a well-run event in a nice, well-lighted venue, and I certainly enjoyed myself. Congratulations to the folks who organized it.

Keep in mind that manufacturers often come to shows for public relations purposes. I work in the model railroading industry and our company never sells product at the shows we attend. Why? It has nothing to do with the company feeling that they are above all others, rather it has to do with how the company's products are distributed. Most manufacturers do not want to put themselves in direct competition with the retailers who are selling the manufacturers products - in other words they come to the show to talk to you the consumer and to support the retailers who are selling their products. I give kudos to Tamiya for coming all the way to Virginia to promote the plastic modeling industry - and I personally feel that Tamiya was, and is a true pioneering company in the plastics industry. I grew up building Tamiya kits and they directly influenced the career path I ended up choosing. So don't think it is condescending for a manufacturer not to be selling at a show instead take advantage of the opportunity to meet them and discuss how you feel about their products and what you would like to see from them in the future (and grab some free literature!).

GMorrison, thank you so much for posting that pic of the "Polaris" ,that's the only pic of one I've ever seen. I remember how bad I wanted  one as a kid,but seven dollars might as well have seven million back then. Ha

Point well taken, Bucksco. I guess Tamiya's advertising just isn't to my taste.  And I'm still torqued about that 1/700 Yorktown. The reissues of those forty-year-old 1/350 battleships in flashy metallic boxes, with sky-high prices, didn't impress me either. But plenty of other companies pull stunts like that.

Regarding Monitor kits - there have been quite a few of them. I remember taking a look it the Bluejacket one; it struck me as sound and accurate, though pretty basic. And I have to question whether a solid wood hull is the best basis for this particular model. But to each his/her own.

I'm impressed by the web photos of the resin Monitor (and other Civil War ships) by Cottage Industries Models: http://cottageindustrymodels.com/?page_id=124 . CIM was scheduled to have a table at the IPMS nationals, but apparently had to cancel. (At least I couldn't find it.) Verlinden also used to make a nice resin one, and one of the French companies (Mach 2?) did a plastic one fairly recently. And Flagship Models has one: http://www.flagshipmodels.com/zencart/index.php? .main_page=product_info&cPath=7&products_id=46

The Monitor kit to avoid like the plague is the one originally released by Pyro, and later sold by Lifelike and Lindberg. One would think the basic shape of that ship was so simple that nobody could possibly mess it up, but the Pyro designers managed to make the biggest goof conceivable. They put the turret in the wrong place. (Lindberg itself did one that was better - back before Pyro products started appearing in Lindberg boxes.)

Was that "submarine" made of cardboard?

I spent some time talking to the guy at the Tamiya booth. Explained my philosophy about the 'learner' ship kit as a less expensive intro to modeling as opposed to the 'grand' Enterprise kit which will cost you a couple of hundred out the door. I complemented the Fletcher which can be done for less than 75 (YMMV).

He asked what I would like to see and I told him of a Four-pipe destroyer. WWI tie-in, Lend-Lease, various modifications, etc. Opportunity to make money hand over fist. He invited me to fill out a survey form and said that Mr Tamiya reviewed them. I wrote down what I told the guy on the back of the form. I hope Tamiya-san does not have too much problem with my handwriting.

I told him that I'd like to see more World War I stuff. He said that Tamiya was "testing the waters" with the British tank and British infantry set. I told him that if Tamiya did a 1/700 HMS Iron Duke, well, I'd certainly buy one. He nodded solemnly, but didn't write anything down.

He offered an interesting piece of trivia. He claimed - and I don't have reason to argue - that Tamiya "invented" 1/35 scale as a standard for military vehicle kits. In those days (the 1950s and early 1960s) it was taken for granted that all Japanese-made kits had to be motorized. AA-size batteries weren't available in Japan, so the model had to be big enough to hold D-size ones. 1/35 was just about right - and made sense in a country that's on the metric system.

I started turning up my nose at motorized models a long time ago, but I have to admit that watching that WWI tank clank across the table on its individual-link tracks was really impressive. My big question: where's the on-off switch? He turned it on so quick that I couldn't see it. (I guess it's on the bottom.)

Unfortunately that kit costs about $100, which is way over my budget for such things. So I contented myself with an Airfix 1/76 MkI "Female" tank, which was on one of the vendor tables. It's actually quite a nice kit for its size and age.

With the engine, guns, and enemy machine gun bullets, can you imagine what the noise inside one of those beasts must have been like, as it clanked across the Western Front at four miles per hour?

To all manufacturers: MORE WORLD WAR I STUFF!

Dr Tilley- although I'm not a ship modeler per se, I enjoy reading your posts when I click on a thread of interest. I spent all four days in Hampton and thoroughly enjoyed the experience as it was my first Nationals, but I'm sorry I missed the opportunity to meet you in person.

My point here is in response to your assessment of the Tamiya Mk IV (with apologies to the ship forum for posting on an armor subject): Pacific Coast Models had a 'middle-ish' spot in the vendor room and at one point was wheeling a cart loaded with the Takom Ml IV, both male and female, in the direction of their vendor spot. The gentleman wheeling the cart said he never had to unload it, however, because demand was that intense. I picked up a copy of the male for $57.95. I thought that was quite reasonable, and the contents on the inside justify the cash in my opinion. With all due respect to Tamiya, the Takom edition has some very good detail but no funky motorization parts.

On a ship-related note, I live in southern Maine and have driven past Blue Jacket innumerable times going north on Rt 1 (or Rt 3, whichever you prefer) and have told myself almost as many times that I absolutely must stop in.

Dave  

Jtilley

 You just needed to look across the table from the Bomb Ketch and down a little.There were 5 sailing ships in a row.a 1/100 scale la sirene which the builder took a soleil royal and highly modified it to the la sirene. His Rigging was outstanding.My catalan,a mayflower, a roman warship, and a viking ship all very well done. I wished I would known you were coming I would like to meet you,

Rod

I sure didn't see those other sailing ships. I wonder if they got there after I left.

Sorry we missed each other, Rod. Maybe we didn't, though. You could have been eight feet away and my poor old eyes wouldn't have been able to read your name tag. Note to the IPMS: next time make the name tags at least a foot tall.

John no they were there from Thursday until Sat. night. I'm sorry you miss them. there where a lot of ships to look at over 140.

Rod

Regarding the paper Monitor... One is being "sold" .

 

I think I found a "Listing" http://www.ebay.com/itm/Paper-Model-USS-Monitor-Scale-1-144-By-John-A-Tilley-The-Mariners-Museum-/142230173495?hash=item211d943737:g:NcMAAOSwiDFYNjfb

 

The above link is gone.  If intested in Dr. Tilley's paper monitor, PM me.

 

     Nino

Don Stauffer

Is that "kit" commercially available, or available for download somewhere?

 

 Hi Don,

     I was going thru some of Prof Tilley's old posts (2014?) and came across the one about his Monitor paper model. I read you were a bit interested in where to get one.
I have a copy of this free build and will PM you and email.  Hopefully PDF attachment will work.

        Jim.

edit:  PDF atachments do not work on FSM posts or PM's