SHOW AND TELL

June 2005

PHOTOGRAPHS BY DON DRESSEL
Clyde Emerson's  restorations

Clyde Emerson does restorations for Vallejo Gallery, and he showed us two of his current projects. An antique tea caddy in the shape of a side-wheel steamer has a wooden hull and decks that conceal lead tea containers. Atop the decks are a tall turned-brass funnel and a whistle pipe. The hull has iron paddle wheels with missing wood covers, which Clyde is recreating. He also made a bone knob replacement on one lid. The piece is said to be Chinese from the 1820’s, made to celebrate the opening of trade on the Pearl River, which, as we all know, runs from Canton to Hong Kong and Macao. My own opinion is that this piece is an early Japanese import item, with lacquer floral decorations like Imari porcelain, probably inspired by Commodore Matthew Perry’s fleet with its big side wheel steamers, which opened trade with Japan in 1853. Tea caddies were used in Europe in the 18th and early 19th centuries when tea was expensive but they disappeared as trade made tea cheap and plentiful. (I guess you can tell that I watch the “Antiques Road Show” on TV.)

Clyde’s second item is a Boucher Polly Wog live steam pond model from the 1920’s or ‘30’s, which looks like an open speedboat. Inside the hull is a boiler for which Clyde has made a brass fuel tray. He also replace the slat bench seat and a prop blade on the outboard steering and propulsion system. He made a display stand for the model, which will require a little more height to accommodate the propeller. Vallejo is lucky to have a talented artist/craftsman like Clyde on the job.
Fred Shaffner's  clipper brig

Fred Schaffner is working on an original 5/32”=1’ (1:77) scale 1820’s clipper brig of the type used in the opium trade. He had previously built a model of the opium clipper FROLIC, but felt he could do something with more interesting lines. Starting with a Diker hull for the revenue cutter ROGER B. TANEY (pronounced “tawny” for the Supreme Court Chief Justice who handed down the infamous Dred Scott decision, a leading cause of the Civil War) but I digress, where were we? Fred took this bulkhead hull and inserted foan and balsa fillers, planked it and coppered the bottom. Documentation in the Rhode Island Mariner showed that the clipper ANN McKIM had similar lines, although she was larger and three-masted. With a little ingenuity and extrapolation, Fred recreated his clipper brig’s deck arrangement and furniture. All that remains is the rigging, which is a snap for Fred.

Sean Fallesen's "DREADNOUGHT"

Sean Fallesen showed us a 1:700 scale Combrig designed HMS DREADNOUGHT, the 1906 British battleship that revolutionized warship design. The Russian manufacturer has supplied some really fine resin parts, including five turrets with ranging guns on top, and other parts that fit together well and have astonishing detail, probably done with pressure casting. Combrig will soon release its version of HMS AGINCOURT, a monstrous battleship with 14 each 12-inch guns in seven turrets. Sean is making his careful modifications to the dreadnought model. The wooden deck is simulated by spray-painting sand color and texturing it with a dry brush. He said that it is possible to apply a wooden deck and even plank it to 1:350 scale, but the effect is not worth the effort. He is replacing some parts with photo-etched brass, because the resin masts are too flexible, and also because some parts are so tiny they are just gone with the wind. Being myopic or near-sighted, Sean uses no magnification for his work, which makes it doubly amazing.
 

Ron Perkins'   "VOLUNTEER"

Ron Perkins has built an original 1:48 scale model of the Sea Scout ship VOLUNTEER with deep sentimental ties and an interesting history. Built in 1945 as an all-wood 40’ harbor fire boat, she carried seven fire monitors for the US Coast Guard. Subsequently she became Navy property and was leased to the Long Beach Fire Department which added a pilot house to the boat. In 1954, she became Sea Scout Ship #73 and her skipper took sea scouts around the Channel Islands and Catalina, and as far south as Mexico and north to Alaska. Sadly, the Sea Scouts lost their charter and their boat, probably due to legal liability problems unless I miss my guess. Ron’s model has solid basswood keel and ribs covered with balsa sheets that are molded using rubbing alcohol to make them flexible. Deck and pilot house are bass with balsa trim, and finished with water-based paints using hand and air brush techniques. Hand rails required some experimentation but were nicely achieved using colored plastic rod. Ron worked from simple plans and photos of the vessel, and built a second model for her skipper. Handsome work and wonderful mementoes of the good times. 

Steve Lund and Bill Hathaway's  "USS MONITOR" turrets
 
 Steve Lund and Bill Hathaway brought in turrets for their ongoing large-scale monitor models. They also showed ship’s boats and scale Civil War era musical instruments made by Bill Meusch. They will also make Dahlgren deck howitzers that all monitors carried to repel boarders. The turrets are fully detailed, painted and weathered. Steve went to Norfolk and mapped the eight dents on USS MONITOR’S turret, accurately reproducing them on his model. Shells made seven of the dents from CSS VIRGINIA (she carried no solid shot, only shells for use against the wooden Union fleet), and one of the dents (the eighth one) was probably made by friendly fire from USS MINNESOTA. The turrets have curved stanchions and fabric awnings, with a railing of photo-etched brass mesh. Inside, the working guns have a fire control system with Nichrome wire loop igniters powered by a 4.5 volt NiCad battery. Steve muzzle loads the guns with fire a noiseless flash of flame and smoke (Steve found that the “bang” noise, when set off on the lake in a park, resulted in police activity that should be avoided if at all possible.) Steve indicated that for the Norfolk exhibition, the guns will have a compressed air firing system which is currently being developed. You can not help but be impressed by Steve and Bill’s craftsmanship, ingenuity, depth of research and teamwork.

Burt  Goldstein's "HMCS AGASSIS"

 Burt Goldstein brought in his 1:100 Modelik cardstock design HMCS AGASSIZ, which now flys the Canadian flag made by Jim Nunn. Notwithstanding the limitations of his materials, the full-hull model is as authentic a portrait of a WW II Flowerclass corvette as one could wish for.
Randy Biddle's WWI Subchaser

Randy Biddle brought in a Glencoe Models design kit for a WW I sub chaser. It is an early plastic kit for a 1:73 scale model (“box scale” meaning that the model was scaled to fit the box) which, according to Art Herrick is grossly inaccurate. Now it seems that Randy built a highly authentic model of the dragger-fisherman RITA B., and the owners of RITA B. once bought an old WW I surplus sub chaser called ALERT, and they then converted her to a draggerfisherman.
Sid Siegel's Dutch frigate "SCHAGER ROOS"

Sid Siegel’s showed his 1:64 scale model of the Dutch frigate SCHAGER ROOS, a reconstruction based on Van de Velde drawings and photos of contemporary ship models. Many guesses and extrapolations go into the production of a model like this, which can In no way be called an accurate ship model. Sid has commenced rigging the lower shrouds. He makes his own blocks of pear wood in all the sizes and peculiar shapes of 17th century Dutch usage

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