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Lack of Supply and Refueling vessels in various scales .

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  • Member since
    August 2008
Lack of Supply and Refueling vessels in various scales .
Posted by tankerbuilder on Thursday, January 8, 2015 8:01 AM

HI ;

   I have to write this . After seeing the U.S.S. Sacramento  AOE-1 In my latest Squadron Catalogue I got to thinking . Why haven't the unsung supply and support vessels of our NAVY gotten a fair shake in 1/350 ? A great  Dio - Rama opportunity is missed here !

       Having to modify the Revell Hawaiian Pilot to a freighter moving goods between ships is NOT the answer .These ships many times , were purpose built for REPSEA work . Tankers too .

   Now that said , How about the tenders that patiently stayed on station for subs , tin cans and other fleet units   .Without them W W 2 would've a longer , harder fight to all concerned .

     Now granted , in 1/700 the model of the Sacramento is 13.5 inches long in 1/700 scale . So what ? She's modern  .I am talking about those lightly armed , stoic vessels and crews from the middle forties to at least the late eighties .

 I think they deserve their place in our pantheon of vessels . Besides , I am tired of turning liners into tenders and repair ships , or Freighters into APA'S and AKA'S for my fleet .Revell used to have to nice ones , even if they were not all that accurate .

     Who cares ? If you are doing a Dio about Replenshment or Refueling at sea , you will put the work into them anyway . Besides a Dio or such an operation at sea in force one or two would be awesome .

    When drawing fuel from the Midway , I can remember Big waves crashing back and forth between us and then the sea we were in anyway . A Tin - Can feels awfully small when the flight deck overhangs are almost over your head five or ten decks up !

       It is also weird when you draw from a Tanker and her decks are awash with waves from the op , just like and at the same level as yours .The term  " Island " fits these old ship's structures well !

      Just a thought . Hey ! Trumpeter and Revell and the rest . Read this . I think I render a good sentiment among model Warship builders . Tanker - Builder

  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: EG48
Posted by Tracy White on Thursday, January 8, 2015 11:45 AM

I wonder how well Trumpeter's two 1/700 AOE's sold. If they sold enough to turn a profit I imagine we'll see more....

Tracy White Researcher@Large

  • Member since
    September 2005
  • From: Groton, CT
Posted by warshipguy on Thursday, January 8, 2015 12:03 PM

I would also like  to see the various tenders. My father served on the USS Frontier (AD-25), and I served on the USS Howard W. Gilmore (AS-16).  Without the tenders, especially those forward deployed, it would be much more difficult to operate the rest of the fleet.

Bill

  • Member since
    June 2004
  • From: 29° 58' N 95° 21' W
Posted by seasick on Thursday, January 8, 2015 11:33 PM

Some stuff is out there in resin.

Link one

I've had to resort to making them myself:

Chasing the ultimate build.

  • Member since
    August 2008
Posted by tankerbuilder on Friday, January 9, 2015 8:17 AM

Okay Now !

   Those look pretty fair .You have the idea .Why the brighter than normal colors though  ? I would expect that on cruise ships  . Either way you have a nice start to a fleet of working ships

  • Member since
    November 2009
  • From: Twin Cities of Minnesota
Posted by Don Stauffer on Friday, January 9, 2015 9:39 AM

I think it is the same reason there are far fewer kits of civil aircraft or military ones.  Things that shoot and bomb just seem to be more interesting than ships other than warships.  No one seems to want to build a trainer, or private plane, either.  While I do build warships also, I really love building civilian ships, and treasure the civilian kits that mfgs do offer

Don Stauffer in Minnesota

  • Member since
    November 2009
  • From: Twin Cities of Minnesota
Posted by Don Stauffer on Friday, January 9, 2015 9:43 AM

I just had another thought, looking at today's threads in this forum.  Count the threads about warships and figure the proportion of those to total ship posts.

Don Stauffer in Minnesota

  • Member since
    August 2008
Posted by tankerbuilder on Friday, January 9, 2015 2:25 PM

Hi Don;

  Sadly I know you are right . Back in the fifties though Revell had a good number of ships , the Oriana/Canberra twins and the Moore Mc Cormack Brasil/Argentina , the ubiquitus Hawaiian Pilot and a tanker as well as an APA and AKA that could be converted to civilian use .They also had a neat harbor tug that could bear a lot of conversions .

   In this same period Pyro had the Tuna Clipper , Shrimp boat and North Sea trawler ( not to be confused with Revell's " Spy Trawler " ) and the Shrimp Boat , and the S.S. President liner , Later to become Lindberg products.

   Revell again had the S.S. United States, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, and there were others .Otaki had the "Shell Welder " offshore transport tanker , which can now be found out of Russia .

    Otaki had some small forty foot Coast Guard types too . Even back then those were hard to find along with Aurora's " Wheeler Cruiser " .

  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Friday, January 9, 2015 3:57 PM

Well the AKA was probably the Renwal one. I bought the Shangri La recently when it was reissued and am reminded that Renwal made really nice models.

I had to move this year and got rid of a lot of stuff, including a cruddy old version of the Texaco North Dakota. I had planned to clean it up, replace the missing parts etc. but never got to it.

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

  • Member since
    November 2009
  • From: Twin Cities of Minnesota
Posted by Don Stauffer on Saturday, January 10, 2015 9:33 AM

Revell (G) released the Columbo container ship awhile ago.  That was a terrific ship, as nice as any warship kit.  Only failing in my book is that there was only one container logo- I had to make inkjet logos of other container companies.  There is a PE set for it that is very nice too.

Don Stauffer in Minnesota

  • Member since
    August 2008
Posted by tankerbuilder on Monday, January 12, 2015 9:08 AM

Ah DON ;

   My dear friend The ship is nice , BUT , it's 1/700 . I have to build bigger than that !

  • Member since
    February 2014
Posted by Mr2bill4 on Tuesday, March 10, 2015 10:19 PM

I'd like to see a T2 as they were configured in WW2, like the one I was on, the USS Sabine A0-25. It was called the Esso Albany before the Navy pressed it into service back in 1939. I've seen those, but not configured like she that was. I did see one, probably 20 yrs. ago and it was a big model, but not since then. I guess if they're not a fighting ship, then they don't make them. Just sayin'.

  • Member since
    January 2013
Posted by Souda99 on Tuesday, March 10, 2015 10:26 PM
I agree. I would love to see more supply ship models. My first ship in the Navy was the USS Merrimack AO179, and I docommissioned her. I also served on the USS Arctic AOE8 as well. I have only found one kit by JAG of the Cimmarron Class Oilers and its missing some vital details of that class after their post jumbo ization. I would love to write to one of these companies but I know it would most likely fall on deaf ears.
  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Wednesday, March 11, 2015 12:34 AM

Well yes but cant the Revell San Juan Capistrano/ J.L. Hanna/ Esso Glasgow be made to work?

Mine: AO-87 Sebec

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

  • Member since
    August 2008
Posted by tankerbuilder on Friday, March 13, 2015 1:10 PM

Now : See ! That's nice .

     A little light it seems .I remember the Oiler we went alongside of and it seemed like her decks were almost awash.

    She was odd in that the bridge and deck-house structure were rounded on the forward ends . I do wish I could remember her name . She operated out of Pearl !

  • Member since
    June 2012
Posted by arnie60 on Friday, March 13, 2015 4:29 PM

GM;

Are there more pics of that Sebec somewhere?

  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Friday, March 13, 2015 4:58 PM

Sure there was a thread about T2's a couple of years ago.

 http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm150/6134rdm/DSC_0372.jpg

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

  • Member since
    February 2011
Posted by Hokey on Friday, March 13, 2015 5:07 PM

Can you gimme me a recipe for your water diorama? I'm about to try for 1st time!

  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Saturday, March 14, 2015 2:46 AM

Hokey, the most important thing is to get a photo of your ship underway and copy it down to the smallest detail. It's a surprise how much different her wake may be from what you'd guess.

I painted the board black and laid on a couple of coats of clear Acrylic Liquitex.

Then I took a jar of the same, but Acrylic Matte Gel mixed with their Titanium white and globbed it on.

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

  • Member since
    February 2011
Posted by Hokey on Saturday, March 14, 2015 8:09 AM

Thanks!

  • Member since
    June 2012
Posted by arnie60 on Saturday, March 14, 2015 11:26 AM

Thanks for posting the pics GM. Beautifully done!

  • Member since
    August 2008
Posted by tankerbuilder on Monday, March 16, 2015 6:11 PM

I do like that :

Kin I have her ?  huh ! HUH! LOL. LOL. LOL. Very nice job . Very believable too ! T.B.

  • Member since
    June 2004
  • From: 29° 58' N 95° 21' W
Posted by seasick on Tuesday, March 17, 2015 12:05 AM
The merchant ships I have scratch built are based on sketches I made of actual ships that I researched out of Jane's MERCHANT Ships. (Yes merchants get their own Jane's book too.)

Chasing the ultimate build.

  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Tuesday, March 17, 2015 12:15 AM

Several things I did to the Revell kit.

The stern was round but the ships had a vertical edge. I glued a pice of styrene rod up/down and filled in on both sides with putty.

I used the GMM 1/400 USN PE set for a lot of stuff, Did the Pine Island while I was at it.

Visser

The drawings are from the National Archive.

Civilian ships in the Maritime Association during WW2 actully have a really good record for the fact that they were built and operated in the private sector.

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Tuesday, March 17, 2015 12:23 AM

www.aukevisser.nl/t2tanker

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Tuesday, March 17, 2015 12:26 AM

cs.finescale.com/.../109585.aspx

It took me a while to get this one back, but it was a good one.

Several folks involved who are still around, and a real testament to that old J.L. Hanna kit.

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

  • Member since
    June 2004
  • From: 29° 58' N 95° 21' W
Posted by seasick on Tuesday, March 17, 2015 9:01 PM
Should be easy these days, only three classes of USN support ships: Supply class T-AOE, Lewis and Clark class T-AKE, and Henry Kaiser class T-AO.

Chasing the ultimate build.

  • Member since
    December 2005
  • From: Seattle, Colorado
Posted by onyxman on Wednesday, March 18, 2015 8:54 AM

I've done three builds of the Revell T-2 now, and probably won't get to another one. But it sure would be cool to do a wartime tanker with a meccano deck full of fighter planes. Doing research on the transport of aircraft for my Liberty build has been very interesting. Tankers carried a huge percentage of the single engine aircraft to the fronts. A T-2 could carry 14 partially disassembled planes. The drawback was the storm damage and corrosion inherit in deck transport, and the fact that tanker's primary duty was to carry fuel, so dock schedules were complicated.

  • Member since
    November 2009
  • From: Twin Cities of Minnesota
Posted by Don Stauffer on Wednesday, March 18, 2015 9:41 AM

tankerbuilder

Ah DON ;

   My dear friend The ship is nice , BUT , it's 1/700 . I have to build bigger than that !

But that container ship is huge! It is as big as some of my 1:350 stuff!

Don Stauffer in Minnesota

  • Member since
    November 2005
  • From: Formerly Bryan, now Arlington, Texas
Posted by CapnMac82 on Wednesday, March 18, 2015 9:31 PM

seasick
(Yes merchants get their own Jane's book too.)

Capt. Jame's legacy extends to cover any mode of transportation extant. IIRC, there is a Jane's for satellites and space transportation.

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