1/32 USN 26' Whaleboat--musings

Just crusing thru an old Taubman catolog and remember your musing. Wondering if you were refering to the SB Series SB-1 26' Motor Whaleboat MK 1, 1937. Don't know about the kit, do you know who made it? I was not aware that Taubman produced kits.

CapnMac82 , your comment triggered a memory. Digging through old FSM magazines, in the March-April 1985 issue there is a review of a 1/32 scale 26-foot motor whaleboat, kit no. 2632.

Manufactured by Staubitz of Buffalo, 105 Hollybrook Dr., Williamaville, NY, 14221, for $14.95 back then. I have no idea if this company still exists, but it's a lead.

Staubitz of Buffalo went out of business in the late 1980's or early 1990's.  Some of the molds were bought by MicroGlass.  MicroGlass produces the Navy whaleboat .  Taubman Plans went out of business as well.  Loyalhanna Dockyard now owns the Taubman Plans catalog.  On the Loyalhanna site, look under "kits", then "Dean's Marine", then "DUKW"; there are some pictures of the USCG DUKW I built from the Dean's kit.

I have an extremely vague recollection of a motor whaleboat kit (I don't recall the scale, but it was fairly large) that was advertised years ago in the Floating Drydock catalog.  The one thing I remember about it is that it had a vac-formed styrene hull and cast metal fittings.  I think there were several other vac-formed kits in a series from the same manufacturer.  I remember thinking that sounded like a reasonable way to reproduce that particular hull form - but I never saw the kit and don't remember anything else about it.  Maybe the guys at the Floating Drydock could help.

You may be talking about Masterpieces in Miniature

http://www.minmbox387.com/k96.html

They offer several 1:96 scale vacuformed kits including a 26' MWB.   I have one in the stash.   I've not gone beyond fingering it -- I need to find a cigar brand which comes with a thin verneer mahogany wrapper to construct the seats.   Painted plastic & wood decals have just not made the correct impression.

I have made their vacuformed LCVP and it makes into a very nice kit - more detailed than the Heller/Airfix offering in 1:72 scale

They also offer some 1:192 scale kits and details

 

 

That's the one I remembered, all right - though I thought it was bigger.

Tip:  you might want to consider either cherry or pearwood veneer, rather than mahogany.  Mahogany has a pronounced, open grain that a 1/96-scale sailor would be in danger of tripping over.  The grain can be filled, of course, but sailing ship modelers are in the habit of using finer-grained woods for such purposes.  Firms like Woodcraft ( www.woodcraft.com ), Rockler ( www.rockler.com ), and Constantine's ( www.constantines.com ) offer nice selections of veneer in reasonable quantities. 

I need to find a cigar brand which comes

Partegas Humitubes come with that paper-thin slice of spanish cedar you are likely thinking of.  Spanish cedar being the prefered aromatic of humidors.

There's a brand I want to say is called Robert Burns which was a decent enough smoke--but was much more valuable for the s.c. from the tubes.

I cannot remember is the "tubed" Macanudos have a cedar veneer in them or not--might be a reason to stop by the store for a Robust in Maduro <g>

Yeah, mfsob hit what I was trying to remember, that it was Staubitz.

I'm going to have to actually dig through old mags to go and read the review, too (gotta love that "I'm only going to read the one . . ." famous last words <g>).  I want to remember that the review panned them for something, I jsut can't remember what.

I may break down and get the microglass kit just to see what comes in the box.  If it's a smooth-cast hull, that could be cool, too--I could knock together the gig/barge my dad's old ship, DD-554, USS Boyd.  Boyd had a Commodore refit, which put a cabin on the 01/0100 portside abaft the bridge.  This meant not having a portside MWB, and also that the remaining MWB rated a blue stripe, even without a commodore on board.

Now, to muse on whether I'm tough enough to make 1/32 sennit . . . <g>

That is, unless the Boat Book I just scored off of eBay does not distract me with it's very nice photos shoing the insides of plane arming, fueling, and personnel boats (1/32 Kingfisher?  A Seamew, why, of course I must have one . . . <g>)

MicroGlass provides a fiberglass hull and usually plans (depends on the hull) - it is not a kit.  You must provide the prop, shaft, rudder, and all the other bits and pieces to scratchbuild the rest of the boat. 

As stated on the MicroGlass site:  "Please keep in mind that our offerings are HULLS ONLY, accompanied by general arrangement drawings where noted. There are no materials, fittings or instructions included, as these units are intended for reasonably skilled modelers. These are not recommended for the novice builder."

CG Bob wrote:

These are not recommended for the novice builder."

LoL!  I'm a "hack" builder, not a novice--I'm likely safe <g>.

Thinking about it from a kit manufacturer's POV, it'd be a bit of a pain to kit up, as the bulkheads, floor boards, etc., all have differences between the clinker, carvel, and FG hulls--while having nearly identical lines.  The sun shade has some variety, too, running from canvas over bows to sheetmetal to FG, and IIRC, a very short-lived thermo-formed styrene.

Oh well, maybe the LCV(R) project wants to be sooner rather than later <g>.

I have a MicroGlass S-100 hull in 1/32 scale, and it's a beauty. Karl at MicroGlass does excellent work, the hull is perfect thickness, not flimsy, and the outside of the hull is perfectly smooth. A nice set of plans were included but as mentioned, that's all you get, you need to scratchbuild the rest.

I'm friends with Abe Taubman, he was a founding member of the Ship Model Society of Northern NJ, which I was president of for a term before moving to Wisconsin last year.

Abe is sadly deaf as a board, and after his wife of 60+ years passed away last year, he lost interest in the plan service which he ran for decades.

At least on the East Coast, Abe is a legend amongst ship modelers.

Jeff