Appreciate sources for ship models.
Small scale, e.g. 1:1200 or smaller.

Two good suppliers for 1:1250 scale modesl are

Vintage Limited
Laguna Nigel, Ca

Pacific Front Hobbies
Kirkland WA

They both have web sites, so do a search and you will find them.  If you are
 into naval models, be sure to check out Neptun, the best, and most expensive
 (naturally!) - detail that has to be seen to be believed.  Both companies have
 new and used models from this manufacturer.

Enjoy!

Kurt

Kurt Greiner
SeaPhoto Maritime Photography

Still the same old website:
http://members.aol.com/SeaPhoto/index.html

0]>
: RT commented that  
: >    Tourism related to military-related wreckage is a prime source of income to
: >  the SI.  The shipwrecks themselves are often referred to as "national assets"
: >  or "treasures," despite their still being owned by their respective countries.
: >
: >
: >    If this is an accurate report, one presumes there is more politics than
: >  substance to it.

: Perceptive- Not for nothing is the Solomon Is Prime Minister known as
: the "Machiavelli of the South Pacific" .......
: We need to distinguish between the accessable tourist/diving wrecks, in
: shallow water near the shore (the John Penn, the Toa Maru, the two
: Bonegi's and the Ruanui (their diving names, I don't have the official
: names to hand). I can't speak for the first, but all the rest were quite
: clean when I dived them- they took so many hits that any oil must have
: leaked out years ago. These are the ships that the divers come to see.
: By contrast, a couple of the wrecks at Truk, particularly the upside
: down tanker, are very dirty.
: Apart from (I believe) some supply ships in Tulagi harbour, the
: remaining wrecks in Ironbottom Sound and along the Slot will be DEEP-
: and inaccessible, unless your name happens to be James Ballard.  Hardly
: national assets, or at least not ones that you can benefit from.
:  They may be beginning to leak. Despite the thickness of plating, a
: combination of battle damage and continuing corrosion could now be
: springing seams on previously intact tanks. Another factor that could
: lead to the leakage after all this time is stress/damage from the
: frequent minor earthquakes in the region.

: Has anyone seen an full report of what the SI PM actually claimed? And
: would these wrecks still be owned by their respective countries-
: wouldn't title fall to the country in whose territorial water they were
: lying?

Another point about this is, that it should be possible to estimate an upper
limit on the total amount of oil the could be involved from the known
capacities of the sunken ships. I suspect this is rather small compared to
what's been spilled in modern supertanker accidents and not a matter for
excessive concern.

I recall an urban legend awhile ago about Japanese submarines sunk near
Australia which were supposed to be going to release vast quantities of
mercury when corrosion processes destroyed the containment. What was not
explained was why a Japanese or any other submarine would have any significant
amount of mercury on board. I wonder if this was the impetus for the Solomon
Islands claim?

Mike
--
Michael McGuire                     Hewlett Packard Laboratories
email:xmcgu...@xhpl.xhp.com         P.0. Box 10490 (1501 Page Mill Rd.)
 (remove x's from email if not      Palo Alto, CA 94303-0971
  a spammer)
Phone: (650)-857-5491              
************BE SURE TO DOUBLE CLUTCH WHEN YOU PARADIGM SHIFT.**********

David Menere fingered:

   All United States Navy ships and aircraft lost, for whatever reason, remain
 the property of the U.S. Navy in perpetuity,  Subsequent status changes, such
 as striking, do not alter that.  The property rights extend to the debris
 fields of all such wrecks.  Only by congressional action can government
 property be declared abandoned.  

   The foundations for these claims are based on the property clause of the
 U.S. Constitution, international maritime law, and Articles 95 and 96 of the
 Law of the Sea Convention.  Such claims are generally extended to all foreign
 warships and aircraft.  

RT
"I speak for myself, only for myself, and for no one but myself."

How does this jibe with maritime laws regarding salvage?  I thought that once
a ship was abandoned, it was considered the property of whomever took
possession.

Jeff

--

Rule number 14 of gunfights:
   It is better to give than to receive.

Jeff Crowell fingered:

   This does not apply to "national ships," such as a warship.  

   In the case of the U.S., it takes an Act of Congress (literally) to abandon
 a U.S. Navy ship.

RT
"I speak for myself, only for myself, and for no one but myself."

0]>

: I don't know either, but towards the end of the war, Japan was using
: submarines to carry shipments of tungsten from Europe to the home
: islands because surface ships were too vulnerable. Perhaps they had a
: need for mercury as well.

: M.S.

But their navigation would have had to have been spectacularly bad, if in the
process of transporting tungsten (or mercury) from Europe to Japan, they were
sunk off the coast of Australia. I have heard of one or two German submarines
actually making it to Japan during WWII, but as I recall they were not round
trips and at that required mid ocean refuellings from German support ships.
I have never heard of any Japanese subs making it to Europe. Perhaps you could
supply some references that go into this.

Mike
--
Michael McGuire                     Hewlett Packard Laboratories
email:xmcgu...@xhpl.xhp.com         P.0. Box 10490 (1501 Page Mill Rd.)
 (remove x's from email if not      Palo Alto, CA 94303-0971
  a spammer)
Phone: (650)-857-5491              
************BE SURE TO DOUBLE CLUTCH WHEN YOU PARADIGM SHIFT.**********

Sinnipped a pretty solid description of the New jersey in Veitnam

A battery located somewhere is ready to fire.

A spotter located in that batteries area call for fire.  The fire
mission is routed to the battery (which is ready) and the battery
answers the call.  Depending on the circumastances you can get a lot of
batteries or just one to fire on the target.

In short New Jersey (and everything else) do not answer calls for fire
until they are ready to do so.  They is no delay waiting for GQ,
condition Zebra etc. just as there is no dealy waiting for the US army
arty to unlimber its guns.

By the way the guy calling the fire was very impressed.

I agree that bringing them back is too expensive, just nit-picking your
assertion about fire availablity.

Tom Hunter

1) artillery is a method of stunning an enemy while you prepare and
launch an attack.  
2) artillery is a method for harassing an enemy so he doesn't get any
sleep
3) artillery is a method of destroying pinpoint targets that you have
found, targeted and can hit with enough effect to harm them
4) artillery is a method for interdicting either an advance or a
retreat.  

it only works to bombard an airfield if you can make effective use of
the hours before it is put back in commission.  this fantasy is the same
one that claims the germans lost the battle of britian by bombing london
instead of the SE england airfields.  bombing the airfields is a waste
of time and effrot unles you can do something decisive before it gets
put bakc into shape.  same issue as midway.  carrier bombing of  the
airfield could not have been decisive.  it would have been much more
senible to run a bombardment fleet in to keep the airfield occupied
untill the american carriers were located and sunk. why risk carriers on
a job that coan be doen better by a few ships.  but the effect
terminates when the ships leave.  

vince

Chris Manteuffel