25 2 February 2016

A Community Group Proudly Supported by the City of Whitehorse

Volume Issue SUN BR UE

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A SE

Sbca ulle C M go nid lle

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Feb 2 Aug 2Mar 1 Sep 6Apr 5 Oct 4May 3 Nov 8*Jun 7 Dec 6Jul 5 Feb 7 (17)

Jan 27 Jul 26Feb 23 Aug 30Mar 29 Sep 27Apr 26 Oct 25May 31 Nov 29Jun 28 Jan 31 (17)

President:bigspin1@bigpond.net.au

Secretary: Michael Howe 9874-5702essmc@ozemail.com.au

Treasurer: Frank Spinosa 0418 555 324bigspin1@bigpond.net.au

Newsletter: Michael Howe 9874-5702essmc@ozemail.com.au

Frank Spinosa 0418 555 324

Editorial

So begins ESSMC’s twenty-fifth year.

Those who attended the dinner at La Porchetta enjoyed a convivial, if somewhat noisy, night on the 23rd.

I have made a point of attending the Users Forum meetings at the Box Hill Community Arts Centre recently (so you don’t have to!). It’s pretty much as boring as you might expect but I think it might help at least to give ESSMC a ‘presence’ in the minds of the staff and also serve to protect our interests if any changes to hiring conditions is proposed.

Further to that; the centre is again running an Emergency Evacuation Training session on February 8th from 10:00am to 11:00am at which it is compulsory that at least one member of every group using the facility attend. I know you will all be clamouring to be included so please form an orderly queue at the Secretary’s table during February’s meeting and I’ll attempt to fit you all in.

All is confirmed for our Swap & Sell on March 6th. It will be held, as last year, in the Arbour Room with the barbecue in the courtyard. The room will be available for setting up at 8:30am and the event will officially end at 12:30pm - the latter gives us half an hour to clear away. For late bookings contact Roger on the number at left.

At the time of writing this I hadn’t heard from Gary Zimmer. I understand he’s on a trip somewhere.

Michael

EVENTS & INFORMATION

*Note; Second Tuesday

Tuesday, 2nd February 2016ESSMC Annual General MeetingBox Hill Community Arts CentreElections for President, Treasurer, Secretary & Committee for 2016Subscriptions due. Presentations of Clubman of the Year & Modeller of the Year.

6th March 2016ESSMC Annual Swap & SellArbour Room, Box Hill Community Arts CentreCnr Combarton Road & Station Street, Box Hill10:00am - 12:30pmTables & details; Roger 0439 650 800

Events Calendar

PresitorialHappy 2016

Welcome all to the New Year, hopefully with plenty of new gifts from the Christmas tree. I've been slack since I hurt my back last year only completing a Darth Vader kit which was great fun.In the coming weeks we will have the AGM in which I would like to see new people put up their hands for the committee positions as every year it seems like the same people get the job.

Also in March we will be having our annual Swapmeet which I would like to see everyone attend and help out to make it our greatest event yet.

Hope to make this year bigger and better but only with the help and contributions of all the members.

ThanksThe Model Fuhrer

Frank

Reply to Gary’s ‘Furious’ movie critique.

Movie definition (Oxford English Dictionary); noun mov·ie \ˈmü-vē\ : a recording of moving images that tells a story. Yes this was a STORY, NOT A DOCUMENTARY. While I know Gary definitely knows more about WW2 machinery and tactics than I will ever know he must remember this was a Hollywood dramatisation, not real, made up! Do you take the same attitude to all movies you watch? It must be fun watching Dr Who with you...

I love Star Wars, always have, but even I know it is not real! I mean we would all love an X-Wing to get to work but anti-grav generators are still fiction. Plus I suspect an X-Wing would be a bugger to park. Another movie I love is Bullit. Steve McQueen is fantastic but there is NO WAY he could hide a body for two days. And in the famous car chase, the Mustang would have run out of brakes after the first two minutes. But I suspend disbelief and enjoy it for what it is; a movie, a made up work of

fiction. I hope you can watch some movies this summer Garry, just remember, it’s not supposed to be real!

Karen Murray In a galaxy far, far away...

Do you ever feel like it’s hard to get up in the morning? Like something is… weighing you down? Like you need a bit more ‘get up and go’? Well perhaps you need to shed a few kilos…

Demonstrating their ability to “get a lift” on the Bell Model 30, Ship 3 (left), Bell Helicopter aviation pioneers pose for this 1946 photograph at the Bell Plant in Niagara Falls, New York. This was a test machine in the program which lead to the Bell 47 (right) of M.A.S.H. fame. In the end 5,600 of these helicopters were built.

Cheers; Andrew (The Riddler) Riddle(I suspect the reason that no-one below is looking worried is that they were hovering about 6" from the ground! Ed.)

TAKOM 1/35 SKODA TURTLEOn to the kit, it consists of four

TAKOM are part of the fast expanding new breed of main sprues,

manufacturers to hit the shelves in the past few years. the main hull

They currently have on release a range of WW1 British section, four

tanks and have just recently released some Chieftain tanks tyres and clear

in various Mks for the modern British armour fan. Soon to lenses for the

arrive will be some French AMX13 tanks (reverse gear will h e a d l i g h t s .

be worn out just like the real thing) and also some modern There is also a

Russian subjects.s m a l l d e c a l

s h e e t w i t h

I saw this little gem at Metro in Box Hill and it appealed to me marking options for four different vehicles. The instruction

because of its quirky looks and non main-stream subject booklet is printed like a CAD drawing with relevant part

matter. The box artwork reminds me of something like a numbers very clearly labelled. Depending on whether you build the radio antenna or not there are only twelve steps to the construction from go to whoa. Fit of parts is generally good although the "turret" assembly is done in quarters and the location tabs aren't exactly the best, but with a bit of work and some filler it gives a good result when assembled. The radio mast and it's mounts leave a bit to be desired with no locating points for the mounts on the vehicle and this is really my only criticism of the whole kit. A separate full colour painting guide is provided with five different options given. I decided to use some poetic license with mine and went with something which I don't think is correct but I like it. Anyway, I wasn't there to see a real one so who says it wasn't painted this way?

All in all a fun kit of a different subject that has actually got me interested in modelling again, so it must be good !! By the time the February meeting comes around it should be weathered and grimier looking than it is in this photo so stay WW1 tank would have worn, though this vehicle, tuned.nicknamed the Turtle, was a 1920's production and three

saw service as a police vehicles in Vienna and then in the Happy glueing;late 30's another nine were used by the Czech police. Then

when the Germans annexed Czechoslovakia in 1939 they Kenwere pressed into service as radio cars.

Kit Review

Elvis Has Been Seen!

The other day I happened to be driving along Camp Road in Broadmeadows when the tyre recycling plant was on fire. I thought I'd take a look, just for the gig factor, and it turned out to be quite a show. There were 2 foam trucks from Tullamarine airport along with numerous other appliances from the MFB. But the pick of the bunch was Elvis and Elsye, the Erikson Skycrane helicopters. At first only Elvis was on the scene, dropping water that he had picked up from a nearby lake next to

the Western Ring road. But after a couple of hours Elsye joined the party and the 2 choppers were doing a relay run between the lake and the fire. Each circuit was only taking a couple of minutes and it was an impressive sight to see Elsye filling up with Elvis hovering a few hundred metres behind. They sure attract a crowd these 2, must have been 50-100 people watching them refill at the lake. If you get the chance to see these choppers in action up close then pull over and watch, they're fantastic to see in action.

Ken

had fallen and the British Purchasing Commission took up Special Hobby 1:72 Northrop the order. The British named the A-17A the "Nomad", but it was deemed to be obsolescent by the RAF and it was never Nomad Mk.I "RCAF, RAF and put onto operational duty. Some of the RAF machines were transferred to SAAF training units and thirty-four of the RAF SAAF Attack Bomber" machines were sent to Canada to serve within the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan in training and target-In the 1930s, the Northrop Corporation was the leading towing duties.company in the field of aviation design, mainly thanks to

phenomenal designer John Knudsen "Jack" Northrop, who The Kithad worked for several other companies and had designed Two frames of the model's styrene parts are accompaniedmany of their most famous and successful aircraft. Having by a clear injected canopy and resin parts of the propeller established his own firm, he introduced a range of all-metal hub and the long exhaust tube with a heat exchanger. The

aircraft named with letters of Greek alphabet. To US Army decal sheet provides for two RCAF machines in black and Air Corps requirements he developed an attack bomber yellow livery (one of the machines can be modelled with two aircraft, first version of which, the A-17 had fixed different styles of marking), there are also two RAF planes undercarriage and the later version, known as the A-17A wearing standard Green and Earth camouflage, first of was equipped with a retractable one. The first machines of which was test-flown in the RAE and had its undersurfaces the A-17A type were delivered to the USAAC in the in Sky, while the other had black and white underneath) and beginning of 1937 and this type's production was finished in finally two SAAF aircraft, one of them in Green and Earth September 1938. again, the other with its yellow undersurface colour drawn

up to middle of the fuselage height.The Northrop Corporation, as a subsidiary of the Douglas Aircraft Co. Inc., became El Segundo Division of the One of the Canadian aircraft was recovered from a lake in Douglas Company on August 31, 1937. Thus, export Canada in 2014. Ontario Provincial Police divers versions were designated Douglas DB-8 subsequent to this discovered the wreck of RCAF Nomad #3521, along with date. In 1939, following the German attack against Poland, the remains of its crew, in 2010. It crashed in 1940 during a the French Armée de l'Air sent a Purchasing Commission to blizzard after a mid-air collison with another A-17A whilst the USA to buy aircraft. Permission was given for the searching for a third, missing, machine. One other aircraft French to buy 93 of the redundant A-17A's, but by the time survives in the US and another in Peru.the aircraft had been refurbished and re-engined, France

New Kits

A pair of Northrop Nomad MkI (A-17A) Nomads painted in standard target-tug livery formate over a English landscape.The aircraft’s service in the UK was brief as they were considered obsolete and were farmed out to the Empire Air Training Scheme.

lighter and packet of 'T' For 2(+1) cigarettes ('Kent' -

remember them?) – Building the Midori (et al) 1:16 1912 Ford T the definitive 'trophy'

model. The kit was What do all the kits pictured on the front of SeamLines marketed under the have in common? Yes, they’re all 1:16 Model T’s, but Entex banner in the what else? Give up? They’re all the same kit! mid-seventies but was

still manufactured by The KSN Midori Plastic Model Company of Japan is Union (Scalemates long extinct, but like stablemate Gakken*, its legacy lists it as a new tooling lives on. As happened with Gakken, their tooling by Entex but this is passed on to other manufacturers and some of their obviously incorrect; all kits have had a long life. This 1:16 1912 T Model Ford Entex kits at this time were purchased from the Runabout is a remarkable example; it was produced original makers and re-boxed). Around 1980 the kit around 1968 as the first kit in Midori's 'Classic Car turned up under the early Minicraft label and, in 1986 Series' which included a 1904 De Dion Bouton and a it was part of Revell’s “Automobil-Museum” series

(alongside Gakken’s 1886

Daimler) followed in 1987 by a

Testors release, but still, at this

time, made in Japan. Then in

the 90's Academy/Minicraft

released it and in about 2000 it

reappeared under just the

Academy name, but now the

steering mechanism had been

dropped and the tooling

revised. The plated silver

sprue for the running boards

was gone and those parts,

along with the wheels, were

included on the plated brass

sprue (brass-plated wooden

wheels?). St i l l the ki t

continued to be swapped back

and forth, and in 2011 Revell

(G) was selling it as part of their

“125 Years of Automobile”

series. Now, finally (?), it's 1904 Wolseley. The original box-top painting set a

back in an Academy box. All but the Midori and much-copied style showing the subject car set against

Union versions are still freely available and a new a vague architectural structure, in this case a wrought

Academy kit can be picked up on eBay for about $42, iron gate with stone pillars. The kit was moulded in

postage included. dark green, wood brown, black and clear with plated

silver and brass, and a passable model could be built Despite its nearly fifty years this old KSN Midori

without painting, featuring operating steering and offering virtually holds the fort for large-scale Model

opening doors. The model was described as a “1912” T's. There is a Lindberg 1:16 1910 Tourer of similar

car but several features, including the front cowl and vintage which was re-boxed a couple of times, but

the louvred bonnet, were apparently not introduced by that's it, unless you stray into hot-rod territory. It's

Ford until 1915.amazing that no-one has produced a modern,

definitive kit of what is regarded as an important When Midori closed down the Classic Car tooling was

milestone in the development of the automobile. taken up by Union, whose first box shows the built

model on a desk-top juxtaposed with an ashtray,

The Kit Collector

*Gakken still exist - they just don’t make plastic model kits anymore, concentrating on science/electronic kits instead.

There are a couple of minor mysteries associated with around the lenses and even painting the radiator cowl.

this kit too. Midori designed it as a right-hand-drive I don't build for realism however; I like to build models

vehicle, and thus it remains. Academy deliberately straight from the box as an example of the kit-maker's

misled buyers in presenting it on their 90's box-top as art, so I left most of it untouched. The exception was in

a LHD by the simple expedient of inverting all the those locations where they would obviously use wood,

photos of the completed model (anyone for a droF?) – like the canopy framing (and the wheels if you're

and they still do. Revell's box-top painting showed it building the Academy kit!), which I felt was too

in an 'American' street setting but, more honestly, as distracting in solid brass, so I scraped the brass from

RHD. The other, possibly related, incongruity is that the arms, leaving it around the joints, to represent the

Airfix released a 1:32 Model T Roadster kit, also in original wood held together by brass brackets. I didn't

1968, based on exactly the same prototype, similarly even bother to paint it as the underlying plastic is the

described as “1912” with the same 1915 same wood-brown as the wheels.

characteristics as well, of

course, as RHD and in the

same dark green finish. It

seems logical that Midori

had access to a real car - T

Models were assembled in

Yo k o h a m a a n d t h e

Japanese use RHD - so

perhaps Airfix got hold of

M i d o r i ' s k i t a n d

pantographed it down to

1:32. It's just a theory, but

the aforementioned 1915

cowl on the Midori kit is the

wrong shape, and that on

the Airfix is identical.

The Build

First impressions suggest

that this should be a

relatively simple build – first

impressions can be so

misleading! Fit of parts is…

well, OK, but there's a distinct lack of locating pins, There is no engine, just an oddly-shaped lump that fits

holes and ribs, the instructions are vague, despite under the chassis and also houses the steering gear.

having English translations, and drawings are This consists of a metal crown gear and Pitman arm

imprecise. The finish of some parts, mainly body pressed onto a brass bush which is turned by an eight-

sections, is quite rough - the clear windscreen was toothed pinion gear on the steering column. The drag

pitted and scratched too. On the other hand the link and tie-rod are all linked by the time-honoured hot

textured fabric roof and seats are quite convincing. screwdriver – crude, but it works.

Pin marks are pronounced but mostly out of sight.

The brasswork was generally acceptable but the I assembled the kit in four sections; the cowl/firewall,

sidelights and taillights were assembled from two with the opening doors and instruments, and to which I

halves split down the outside which produces an added the bonnet; the cabin, with seat, pedals and

unsightly join right where it's most visible. It wouldn't steering column; the rear body, basically just a box

have been difficult to split them diagonally so the joint with the “mother-in-law seat” on top; and finally the

was at the corners... There's too much brass (shades chassis and running gear. These were brought

of the 'trophy' model origins); Ford were steadily together before adding all the accoutrements and

reducing the amount of brass on the real car at this brass bits.

time and a more realistic model would be produced by

painting the various lamps black with brass trim

The Kit Collector

©to publication (i.e. committee meeting). Submitted material is accepted in good faith and whilst every effort will be made to ensure accurate reproduction, no responsibility can be accepted for unintentional

errors or omissions. Sources of third-party material should be credited and copyright respected. The Editor may correct, revise, split, hold over or discontinue any item, and/or add, delete, resize, crop or otherwise manipulate any images, without prior consultation. The Editor retains sole discretion on content (subject to committee approval only if deemed prudent) and reserves the right to refuse any material which may reasonably be considered offensive or defamatory to any person or group or is, in the Editor's opinion, of doubtful taste, value or relevance. Contributors of such items may lodge an appeal with the Committee. The item/s will be held over until after the appeal has been heard and the Committee's decision will be final. Disclaimer. Views and opinions expressed in any submitted material or editorial comment are those of the author or editor only; the publication of an article in SeamLines does not imply or suggest that the committee of ESSMC Inc. holds, promotes or condones such views and opinions.

ESSMC Inc. 2016. SeamLines Editorial Policy. SeamLines is published on the first Tuesday of every month except January. Deadline for inclusion of material in each issue is the Tuesday prior

The Back PageAll body exterior body surfaces were sprayed Tamiya windscreen was then dipped in Future. It still has

British Green. The 'wood' flooring was painted with deformities but I prefer to keep it original. Many of the

Humbrol Leather streaked with their own Dark Brown brass parts were also attached with PVA or even CA to

Wash and the leather upholstery a similar avoid damaging the model trying to scrape paint off

combination of Humbrol Scarlet and the same wash. contact points.

The lack of locating pins and ribs made fitting the seat

to the body a risky proposition as the only contact was In retrospect the steering's limited travel wasn't worth

along the thin top edge and to the floor, all painted, so I the trouble and I should have cemented it in the fore-

aft position – but I

did it 'because it's

there'. The driver's

door can't open

because of the

spare wheel and

carbide canister,

so that is fixed.

The final stage was

to fit the canopy.

However, once it

was slotted onto

the top of the

windscreen and

the side frames

were fitted into the

holes in the body

the two lugs at the

rear wouldn’t reach

the sea t back

where there were

t w o h o l e s t o

a c c o m m o d a t e

them. This meant I

had to release the placed a couple of blobs of Tamiya filler inside and

side frames and apply CA to the lugs before clamping pressed the seat into that. The rear body was

them in place. It also means the windscreen is ever so straightforward and I added pieces of type-metal

slightly bent backward and everything’s under (printer's lead alloy) inside the box to add a little

tension. I had to break the rear member of the side weight. The wood floor and upholstered seat were

frames away from the roof to allow them to flex and treated as above, as were the firewall and door

reach the holes. Last came the belts that run from the upholstery attached to the cowl. The chassis and

roof to the chassis - there was absolutely nothing to running gear were completed; pin marks filled or filed,

indicate where they are cemented at either end! No and then painted all-over Humbrol Satin Black

holes, no ribs - nowt. A little touch-up here and there, underneath and Tamiya Gloss Black spray on top.

clear red on the taillights, black instrument faces and Moving parts were lightly greased to repel cement and

pick out the Ford logo on the grille in white (phew!) and paint. Some more type-metal was packed under the

that was it! An attractive model (I think) built from a bonnet for balance. Finally, to add a touch of whimsy,

forty-eight year old kit. the wheels were painted with Humbrol Gloss Yellow

and the fuel can with Bright Red. The roof, cab floor Now, on to the Wolseley...

and boot cover were hand-painted Humbrol Satin

Black. After polishing the clear windscreen it, and the Michael

lamp lenses, were attached with PVA. The complete