Nearly everyone has some sort of hobby, and for some it's building model submarines. Submarine modeling is much like building model automobiles or model airplanes-it involves a lot of skill, precision and patience. Some persons prefer rc (radio-controlled models), while others prefer just a regular standard model submarine. This article is about standard model submarines.
It usually consists of a kit that comes in a box with all the accessories or parts needed to put together a replica of an actual submarine. It can take hours or perhaps even days to finally construct a model submarine depending on its style, name brand, size, model or the number of parts required to build it as well as the cost. But once you get started and really get into it, submarine building can be a joy indeed.
It can also be relaxing and stress-relieving; being away from the hectic pace and demands of society, in the quiet and intimacy of your own home, slowly constructing a model submarine gives one a sense of serenity and personal satisfaction beyond compare.
As indicated earlier, there are various or different models of replica submarines that one can choose from. Which submarine models are right for you? Well, that depends on your level of experience or expertise. Are you an expert model builder or just a beginner? Can you get a model submarine kit that fits your budget? What are the most popular brands? The following price considerations may be helpful to you, the consumer:
Most Popular Model Submarines and Their Price Ranges: As alluded to previously, there can be differing price ranges of model submarines as well as the most popular brands. Model submarines can cost as little as $18 or even less or as much as $600 or more, depending, of course, on your budget. You know what you want-or don't want.
But the most popular-brand model submarines are in order, and they are:
The Revell (Revell models have always been popular models for years) Vii C Wolf Pack U-Boat for $119 or the Revell 1/72 Gato Class Submarine for $107.48; then there's the Seawolf Class Submarine for $199; and another Seawolf model for $299.
If you really want a museum-type model submarine, then perhaps you can go for the Gato Classic Submarine Wood Model (which consists of pure mahogany wood) for (are you ready?) $750 (I warned you!), or another model just a little more, for $799. And mind you, these are standard model submarines, not radio-controlled.
This is just a suggestion. Again, it depends on what you think you can actually afford.
But if you're just a beginner, then it's usually best to stick with the basics until you understand what model submarines are like and you're absolutely sure you know what you're doing. It's basically best to start with a cheaper model at first, just so you can get the feel of it. Low-cost model submarine beginners are:
The Futura Warship 5" Wwii I-58 Japanese Submarine for just $12.95; Bronco Model 1/350 Chinese 039g Attack Submarine for $19.95; a 1700 Aoshima IJN Submarine, $26.95; a 1700 Green Hobby Boss Model Submarine for just $5.99; Lee3402 Stingray Atomic submarine models for $24.95; Bronco 1350 Model Hms, Vanguard S28 Ssbn for $23.49; or the Model Kit from "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" Flying Submarine for only $15.75.
So there you've have it, a host of model submarines you can choose from. Again, it depends on what you want and what you can really afford. But whichever one(s) you choose, enjoy! For building model submarines can be a truly satisfying and fun hobby.
About the Author
Frank Catamon is an expert submarine model enthusiast which began when he was 14 years old. He have built over hundred submarines now and offers a couple of these submarine models for sale. He loves to give his nephew some submarine models building tips.
How much is my Yamaha Recording Custom 9000 drum set worth?
it has all the original hardware from 1982
5 Tom Stands with the 3 tom holders on them
and the double braced snare stand from 1982
1984 BD924 24x18 The Yamaha rep said this model was a combo of some exotic wood, cant remember what it was with birch and mahogany.
The rest are all 1982 100% birch concert toms
906- 6 inch rack tom
908- 8 inch rack tom
910- 10 inch rack tom
912- 12 inch rack tom
914- 14 inch rack tom
915- 15 inch floor tom ( mounted on a Stand )
916- 16 inch floor tom ( mounted on a stand)
And finally I have a Tama 12 x 3 snare from the same era
and a DW5000 double pedal from the same era ( the on with 2 floor pieces connected to the bass drum.
I know that Recording Customs are good sets and can be pricey, but this set is pretty old, but sounds and looks spectacular. Very awesome. Any help on the value would be great though please.
Respectfully,
dub
I did a search and found one person selling a kit for about 2 grand.
Do you enjoy the beautiful model aircrafts that are sold in the toy shops and on so many sites online? Of course you can just go to a shop or click on a site and buy the ones you like most. But besides the fact that buying ready models costs you money it's just not as cool as building models yourself.
What kind of models could you build yourself? Almost all. Here are some ideas:
Paper airplanes. Who has not build one as a kid? Building paper airplane can be as simple as getting a sheet of paper and making few folds. But there are also flying paper aircrafts with an engine and remote control or others which are exact scale models of existing real aircrafts. Some enthusiasts build even paper helicopter which can fly.
The main disadvantage of the paper aircrafts is that they easily get damaged - especially the really flying ones.
Free flight aircrafts. There is a category of model airplanes called "free flight" which means they fly without any attachment to the ground or even to your hand. Most free flight models are simple - just like the simple paper airplanes that we build as kids (they are in fact free flight airplane models too). Free flight helicopters are much harder to build than the airplanes for obvious reasons, but there are people who build them - with self rotating propellers or "charged" by a rubber band mechanism.
The free flight airplanes are great enjoyment and fun. They are easy to get lost which is their main disadvantage.
RC Aircrafts. Remote control aircrafts are very cool toys but they really require technical knowledge about electronics and similar stuff. You will not save money by building such models yourself - the ready RC airplanes and helicopters are pretty cheap compared to the efforts to build yourself. But if you can build an RC aircraft by your own hands you will really have something to be proud of.
You may build RC aircraft much easier if you buy a kit or at least a package of remote control and engine.
Static Scale Models. Sounds simple? Actually this is the heavy artillery of the airplane modeling. Making scale models is hard exactly because you have to keep the scale of the real model. This require high preciseness and skills to work on very small parts.
The static model aircrafts can be made of wood, mahogany, plastic or even clay. If you are scarified to do everything from scratch you can buy almost ready static models which require only painting. This is a good way to start.
Most fans of the model aviation sooner or later want to build their own models in addition to the ones they buy and collect. You may decide to start by building yourself - there is nothing scary and it's a lot of fun.
About the Author
If you want to know more about the different types of model aircrafts and how to build them check out my site about model airplanes and helicopters - http://modelsaviation.com
what kind of wood were the flight decks covered with on WW2 Essex class aircraft carriers?
some aircraft carriers had wood covered flight decks in World War 2, I'd like to know what type of wood was used, they did use a mahogany stain at one time but I don't know if the wood itself was mahogany
Hard teak!
In the flight-deck’s wood make-up, a layer of teak covers a softer layer of fir underneath. The hard teak prevents splintering.
Sikorsky S-35: The plane that should have beat Lindberg
Driving into Millville Airport, currently a general aviation facility in Southern New Jersey, is like entering a World War II time portal: several cinder block buildings and barracks, characteristic of the war, stand eerily silent and vacated, as if the area had once provided the stage for some vast performance, but its players had long since departed. The runways still routinely field take offs and landings, but mostly of single-engined Cessnas and Pipers. Yet, the location had been an integral part of World War II and therefore remains historically significant.
Sparked, like numerous war-necessitated air fields, by the prospectively destructive capability of the advancing airplane design, as evidenced by German and Japanese combat missions in Europe and Asia, it had been one of 900 defense airports ordered by the US government to be strategically located round the country in order to be immediately convertible from civilian to military application and to train counterforces in the event of war. Unlike the others, however, Millville Army Air Field had been the first one and therefore had been dedicated as “America’s first defense airport” by local, state, and federal officials when it had opened on August 2, 1941 amid a 10,000-strong ceremony.
Still in a spartanly constructive state, it had only featured a few runways from which civilian aircraft operations had been conducted, but the December 7, 1941 Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii had rapidly ignited its transition to military status, the 56th Fighter Squadron of the 33rd Fighter Group temporarily relocating from Philadelphia Municipal Airport for a three-week period to commence Curtiss P-40 Warhawk training, at a still nascent facility only able to accommodate its crews in tents.
One of World War II’s most effective fighter-bombers, the aircraft, based upon the P-36, had been intended as a modernized successor which had initially appeared with a 12-cylinder, V, inline, liquid-cooled Allison V-1720 piston engine, but high-altitude operations had quickly dictated the need for the gear-driven, supercharger-equipped V-1710 version. Although the Army Air Corps had hitherto used its fighters for coastal defense and ground attack missions, it had nevertheless evaluated the aircraft because of its superior performance, the prototype, a converted P-36A airframe redesignated XP-40, first flying on October 14, 1938 with the modified powerplant.
The low-wing monoplane, powered by the single, 1,160-shp Allison V-1710-19 engine and equipped with two 0.50-inch Colt-Browning M2 guns in its wings, had been flown by a single, canopy cockpit-accommodated pilot and could climb at 3,080 feet-per-minute, attaining 342-mph speeds. Featuring a 6,787-pound gross weight, it had a 950-mile range.
The initial contract, for 524 Curitiss P-40 Warhawks, had been made by the US War Department on April 26, 1939, and the Eighth Pursuit Group, based at Langley Field in Virginia, had been the first to transition to the type.
Production, which had subsequently included progressively higher gross weight variants with upgraded engines and increased armament and protection, had ceased in December of 1944, at which time 13,738 P-40s had been made.
The type, however, had only provided interim equipment at Millville Army Air Field, which itself had virtually blossomed from the ground: sporting a “mini-city” of permanent, cinder block structures by September of 1942 and a fleet of convoy trucks from Langley the following January, it had featured full-scale mock-ups of trucks, trains, tanks, ships, and bridges south of it for aerial target practice.
The 58th Fighter Group, the first unit to have been based there, had quickly discovered that the newly-acquired P-40s had been incompatible with northeast winder conditions and the type had been replaced by the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt when the 353rd Fighter Group had relocated to the New Jersey base. The aircraft was soon to become synonymous with Millville.
Succeeding the Seversky P-35, it had been the result of Army Air Corps requirements, which had included a 400-mph airspeed, a 25,000-foot service ceiling, at least six .50-caliber machine guns, armor plating protection, self-sealing fuel tanks, and a minimum fuel capacity of 315 gallons.
Designed round the new 18-cylinder, two-row, 2,000-hp Pratt and Whitney Double Wasp XR-2800-21 radial engine, then the largest, most powerful of its type, it had been intended to offer ultimate, high-altitude performance partly attained by its tail-installed turbo-supercharger, which had considerably increased its power production in rarefied air.
The XP-47B prototype, for which a contract had been awarded on September 6, 1940, had first taken to the skies the following May and orders for 171 P-47Bs and 602 P-47Cs had been subsequently placed, the latter of which had featured external, range-increasing fuel tanks and a longer fuselage to improve maneuverability.
The P-47D, numerically the most popular version, had had a 36-foot, 1.75-inch overall length and a 40-foot, 9.75-inch wingspan which had resulted in a 300-square-foot area. Powered by the 2,000-hp Pratt and Whitney turbo-supercharged R-2800-63 piston engine, whose four-bladed, 12-foot-diameter propeller could only be given sufficient ground clearance with a nine-inch telescoping, retractable main landing gear, the 19,400-pound aircraft, armed with eight .50-caliber, wing-mounted machine guns and 2,500 pounds of bombs, could cruise at 428 mph at 30,000 feet, yet attain 42,000-foot maximum ceilings. Range had peaked at 1,700 miles.
The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, which had dwarfed all other aircraft, had been the world’s largest, heaviest, single-engine, single-seat strategic World War II fighter, offering unequaled dive speeds.
First entering service with the USAAF in 1942, the type had been deployed in the European theatre the following April, initially performing high-altitude escort and flight sweep missions in skies whose only other counterpart had been the single-pilot, radial-engined Focke-Wulf Fw-190A. The aircraft appeared in the Pacific theatre two months later, in June.
The final version, the P-47N intended for long-range bomber escort sorties, had featured extended wings, an additional 100 gallons of fuel, and a 20,700-pound gross weight (or more than double the weight of the P-40s the type had replaced), and had been deployed in the Pacific late in the war.
The P-47 Thunderbolt which, with 15,579 built, had attained the highest production total of any previous US fighter, had flown more than 546,000 combat missions and destroyed some 11,874 enemy aircraft, 9,000 locomotives, and 6,000 armored vehicles and tanks between March of 1943 and August of 1945. The first piston aircraft to exceed 500 mph in airspeed capability, it could outdive any allied or enemy aircraft and is considered the forerunner of today’s multi-role fighter.
P-47 Thunderbolt pilot training at Millville Army Air Field had entailed two types of units. Operational Training Units (OTU), the first of these, had been created in accordance with Air Corps standards to prepare qualified pilots for newly-formed combat units or fill vacancies in existing ones. In 1939, the number of such authorized Air Corps groups had been expanded from 25 to 84, and the 33rd Pursuit Group, the first in the Millville area, had initiated an uninterrupted flow of combat unit-fed pilots to all four branches of service.
The Replacement Training Unit (RTU), the second of these, provided replacement pilots for those killed, captured, or returned after a 12-week curriculum taught at a Combat Crew Training Station. The 327th Fighter Group, located in Richmond, had been the first to transition to this status in the fall of 1943 when it had been directed to supply personnel to the 87th Fighter Group, whose 536th and 537th Fighter Squadrons had relocated to Millville the following January, bringing their P-47 Thunderbolt fleet with them. By April 10, 1944, all units had been amalgamated into the newly-created 135th AAF Base Unit and the advanced portion of the Replacement Training Unit had been taught at Millville, entailing navigation, formation flying, and aircraft recognition.
With the German and subsequent Japanese surrenders, World War II’s curtains had been effectively closed, obviating the need for Millville Army Air Field and resulting in its temporary closure in October of 1945. It became permanent the following month. Nevertheless, more than 10,000 men and women had served in both ground and flight operations capacities here, of which some 1,500 pilots had received advanced fighter training in Curtiss P-40 Warhawk and Republic P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft. Fourteen had perished during airborne training, along with another five enlisted men.
II
After the facility had been declared excess in 1946, its ownership had reverted to the City of Millville, and 128 of its buildings, attempting to alleviate the area’s housing shortage, had been concerted into 102 apartments. The 887-acre field, along with some 30 structures and ancillary equipment, had been sublimated to civilian use in June of the following year, at which time its gunnery range had been acquired by the state of New Jersey for hunting and its runways had been periodically used by nearby Naval Air Station Atlantic City Navy pilots for carrier landing practice.
A $2.5-million federal grant, received in 1974, had enabled the airport to draft a master plan, entailing runway repaving, taxiway construction, and field lighting installation, and a subsequent rezoning, occurring a decade later, had enabled it to create a 100-acre Airport Industrial Park.
The current, 923-acre Millville Municipal Airport, New Jersey’s second-largest general aviation field, sports an instrument landing system (ILS) and an FAA Flight Service Station (FSS), the City of Millville leasing its administration to the Delaware River and Bay Authority.
Today, the airport echoes of its World War II role. Of the 100 buildings occupying the site during the four years between 1941 and 1945, 20 remain and constitute the world’s largest collection of original, war-era structures, and the preservation, of the core acreage, two hangars, and 18 buildings, has been ensured by their inclusion on the New Jersey and National Registry of Historic Places.
The Henry H. Wyble Historic Research Library and Education Center, one of them, is located in one of the base’s original warehouses and sports an extensive, war-related book collection, videos, historic documents, and aircraft models, and serves as a large-screen theater. The facility, which opened in 2007, features two eight-by-ten foot, “faux,” partially-opened door murals painted by local artists on its façade.
The Link Trainer Building, hailing from 1942 and requiring two years of restoration, houses one of only five still-operational link trainers. Designed by Edwin Albert Link at his family’s organ-building business in Binghamton, New York, to provide instrument training to World War II pilots during poor visibility and night conditions, the device, borrowing the organ bellows to simulate climbs, descents, and banks, had accounted for 6,271 sales to the Army and 1,045 to the Navy and is presently available for visitor usage for a small fee.
A vintage aircraft collection, privately owned by Thomas Duffy and stored in one of the two historic hangars, includes the P-47 Thunderbolt “No Guts, No Glory,” one of only ten still-airworthy aircraft and the very type for which the air base had been created.
The original Pilot Ready Day Room, constructed in 1943, now houses the Ops-Air Crew Lounge of Big Sky Aviation.
Nucleus of the historic field, however, is the Millville Army Air Field Museum housed in the original Army Air Force World War II Gunnery School Administration Building used between 1943 and 1945 and restored in 1988. The museum, founded by Michael T. Stowe to preserve US military aviation history, mostly displays artifacts, equipment, photographs, and engines contributed by air base veterans.
A Pratt and Whitney Double Wasp twin-row radial engine, which had powered the P-47 based here along with several other Army and Navy designs, emphases the sheer power of this mighty engine and is a highlight of the displays. A ceiling light had measured cloud height, while a directional gyro had served as a pilot navigational training aid.
The metal, interlocking Mardson Mat, designed by the British, had facilitated take off and landing operations at ill-equipped locations. According to George Canning, a current Millville Army Air Field Museum affiliate who had enlisted in the Army Air Corps in December of 1941 and had served in the South Pacific, “it’s the best invention of the whole war. Put it together and you have an instant runway!”
The Philadelphia Seaplane Base Museum, founded in 1915 by the Robert Mills family and relocated to the current site in 2000, displays aeromarine wings, struts, and pontoons.
A Nordon bombsight, the mahogany nose of a Curtiss Flying Boat, an aircraft model collection in memory of Robert Wilinski, photographs, a uniform collection, and a typical Army barracks set up complete the internal displays, while two aircraft are featured outside. The first, an A-4F Skyhawk, had been assigned to Attack Squadron 192 aboard the aircraft carrier USS Orskary in 1968 during its Vietnam War combat tour, while the second is a Short Brothers SD3-30 named “Kwajalein Atoll.”
The paltry collection, according to museum Administrative Assistant Joyce Lazarcheck, is one of the museum’s deficiencies. “I would love to have more planes!” she had wished, and eagerly looked forward to the realization of that goal.
Aside from the exhibits, the museum fields World War II pilot reunions, films, school educational programs, aircraft fly-ins and air shows, and veterans’ events.
Millville Army Air Field, time portal to World War II and once a significant gunnery pilot training facility on the east coast with a fleet of P-47 Thunderbolts, is a living history experience which transcends the past and tells its story to the visitor in the present.
About the Author
A graduate of Long Island University-C.W. Post Campus with a summa-cum-laude BA Degree in Comparative Languages and Journalism, I have subsequently earned the Continuing Community Education Teaching Certificate from the Nassau Association for Continuing Community Education (NACCE) at Molloy College, the Travel Career Development Certificate from the Institute of Certified Travel Agents (ICTA) at LIU, and the AAS Degree in Aerospace Technology at the State University of New York – College of Technology at Farmingdale. Having amassed almost three decades in the airline industry, I managed the New York-JFK and Washington-Dulles stations at Austrian Airlines, created the North American Station Training Program, served as an Aviation Advisor to Farmingdale State University of New York, and devised and taught the Airline Management Certificate Program at the Long Island Educational Opportunity Center. A freelance author, I have written some 70 books of the short story, novel, nonfiction, essay, poetry, article, log, curriculum, training manual, and textbook genre in English, German, and Spanish, having principally focused on aviation and travel, and I have been published in book, magazine, newsletter, and electronic Web site form. I am a writer for Cole Palen’s Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in New York. I have made some 350 lifetime trips by air, sea, rail, and road.
Let's take the popular wood used to construct model boats and airplanes, remember what it was called, yes, Balsa wood, one of the softest and lightest timbers available. Balsa is a hardwood. The Yew tree produces an incredibly tough wood, in fact yew is probably as hard as one of the hardest hardwoods, but actually Yew is a softwood. You are probably wondering how or where did these terms confusing terms originate? Well usually hardwoods come from broad-leafed trees and softwoods are associated with fir trees.
Popular hardwoods used in DIY and construction projects include mahogany, birch, ash, oak, and teak. Oak is synonymous with furniture manufacturing and is a popular choice material amongst professional carpenters & joiners for floors, doors and timber frame construction. Oak is incredibly tough wood and for that reason would not popular choice for novice DIY enthusiasts. Ash on the other hand is hard, strong and elastic, which is why it is extensively used for handles, sports equipment. Ash veneers (thin sheets of wood bonded together for strength) are widely used in the manufacture of office furniture. Birch veneers would be popular in the manufacture of residential furniture, musical instruments. Teak is hard and durable and closely associated with furniture, doors and window frames. As our knowledge and awareness of the importance of sustaining our natural resources, iroko being a more sustainable resource has largely replaced teak. Mahogany the quintessential timber choice with its red brown hues used so extensively in period furniture including dining suites, cabinets and ....
Of the soft woods, pine because of its durable nature, fast growing and relatively inexpensive is without doubt ubiquitous in use. It is commonly used and closely associated with diverse product categories including furniture, window frames, panelling, flooring etc. Spruce is to be found in garden furniture, decking, and musical instruments. Larch because of its hardwearing and water resistant qualities is another popular softwood choice used in the making of fence posts, boat building, and structural cladding.
Finally remember wood is available in a range of sizes and formats (boards, planks, sheets etc) to suit particular applications. So understanding the qualities of the various woods available will hopefully assist you through the woods and trees to making the right choice.
About the Author
The Author is a professional garden designer and owner/manager of award winning Dublin based landscaping company: 'Owen Chubb Garden Landscapes Limited'. The company has extensive experience of designing and constructing stunning gardens in a range of sizes and styles. Featuring natural paving (sandstone, limestone and granite) and mature planting, it's attention to detail that has built the company's reputation and the practical know-how that has created many stunning compositions.
Mahogany, a tropical kind of hardwood, is a durable hardwood used to make fine furniture. This wood is considerably known for its beautiful grain, reddish-brown color, and high-quality for craft. It also responds well to hand or machine tool which make the craftsmen or wood artisan easy to work with.
Basically, mahogany wood is fine material worked as furniture, deck, and acoustic musical instrument, such as drums or guitar. Beside that, it is built as decking or rail road material. And now, this hardwood sought by people as indoor or out door furniture to fill at any living space.
Back then, mahogany furniture is frequently made in classic traditional style, but these pieces can complement any decorating style. Nowadays, mahogany suits with modern contemporary style of furniture. Adding a few mahogany accent pieces at the living space will create another beauty of elegance and sophistication atmosphere.
Furniture like, chairs, tables, cabinets and other home furnishings crafted with mahogany will last years to come and should be considered an investment. But since the massive exploitation for a century or more, the natural rainforest of mahogany is decreasing. In South America, or Asia, it is substituted with the harvest plantation of mahogany to keep the supply of wood as furniture.
Later, many manufacturers decided to change their solid mahogany furniture to sell into particleboard or veneers. There are many reasons that many of them did that move. One is for preservation of natural and plantation of mahogany in order to of course preservation and the good human kind.
I am replacing my wood exterior door with fir or pine. I can't afford oak or mahogany.?
I want a wood exterior door because I like the look and I want to stain it. I do not like the steel or fiberglass doors. There are so many manufacturers in this area (Rhode Island); Amherst, Simpson, Epscon or Brosco Ponderosa. Is anyone familiar with any of these. Is one better than the other? How do I make a decision as to which to go with? Also, since I cannot afford oak or mahogany, I have to go with fir or pine. Does anyone know how these stain? Is anyone better than the other? All suggestions appreciated!
I personally think pine looks better than fir, hemlock or poplar when stained. You can buy a mahogany colored stain that would look really nice along with the piney grain of course--not trying to fool anybody anyway. Hmmm? Mahogany doors are great looking for sure, but they don't hold stain or clear topcoats any better than pine. You'd save $$$ too. Just look at the door (pine) good before buying. Make sure that it does not have finger joints showing on the panels or frame. That is more for paint grade wood.
US $88.99
