Show us your "other" hobbies in pictures!

[Ura-Ki]

What ship is that? I don't recognize it. Closest it appears to me to be is BB-36, USS Nevada...

Terpitz or Bizmark!

I'm still working on my 1/96th scale U.S.S. New Mexico and my new 1/120th U.S.S. Georgia. Thank God for the 3D printers and CNC Router!
Future ship in the works is the 1/96th scale late war U.S.S. West Virginia, arguably the prettiest of all American BBs!
Also planning a 1/96th scale Allen M. Summer DD late war configuration!

 

[sobo]

Terpitz or Bizmark!

Yup, I would agree. Bismarck most likely. The platforms around the beam gun-mounts appear (see @Pierre's first pic) slightly different on the Tirpitz than the Bismarck (even though they're ships of the same class), based upon the pics I'm finding online.

I made the mistake of focusing solely upon US battleships, and completely missed the mark. The Bismarck, that is...

Geez, I crack myself up...

I'm still working on my 1/96th scale U.S.S. New Mexico and my new 1/120th U.S.S. Georgia. Thank God for the 3D printers and CNC Router!
Future ship in the works is the 1/96th scale late war U.S.S. West Virginia, arguably the prettiest of all American BBs!
Also planning a 1/96th scale Allen M. Summer DD late war configuration!

I take umbrage with your assessment of the USS West Virginia as the prettiest of all American battleships. I will counter that I find the looks of battleships with triplets in superfiring turrets make for prettier dreadnaughts; in particular the North Carolina, South Dakota, and Iowa classes of battleships. There's just something about a 3-gun turret...

 

[Ura-Ki]

Yup, I would agree, Bismarck most likely. The platforms around the beam gun-mounts appear (see first pic) slightly different on the Tirpitz than the Bismarck (even though they're ships of the same class), based upon the pics I'm finding online.

I made the mistake of focusing solely upon US battleships, and completely missed the mark. The Bismarck, that is...

Geez, I crack myself up...

If I had to guess, I would say Terpitz, the fighting tops ( upper mast) looks different, that and I think the bridge under the conning tower was different between the two!

 

[Ura-Ki]

Yup, I would agree. Bismarck most likely. The platforms around the beam gun-mounts appear (see @Pierre's first pic) slightly different on the Tirpitz than the Bismarck (even though they're ships of the same class), based upon the pics I'm finding online.

I made the mistake of focusing solely upon US battleships, and completely missed the mark. The Bismarck, that is...

Geez, I crack myself up...

I take umbrage with your assessment of the USS West Virginia as the prettiest of all American battleships. I will counter that I find the looks of battleships with triplets in superfiring turrets make for prettier dreadnaughts; in particular the North Carolina, South Dakota, and Iowa classes of battleships. There's just something about a 3-gun turret...

I would agree with the North Carolina class being damn sexy, but there is just something extra cool about those old American Standard class Battle Wagons that just nails it, plus, our ships all had super firing turrets and nothing says you care like an 8 to 12 gun broad side! Don't forget, those 4 turret ships could turn away and still send a minimum of 4 shots off the stern!

 

[sobo]

and nothing says you care like an 8 to 12 gun broad side!

 

[wired]

My favorite man jewel.

 

[tac]

Sampo was/is Korean I believe. Maybe part of Goldstar/LG now

Ah, okay. The REAL Sampo is the Finnish mythological cauldron that can never be emptied, sought by Vainamoinen and others in the well-known Finnish historical saga, The Kalevala. It was compiled in the 19th C by the world-famous Finnish wordsmith Elias Lonnrott.

Excerpt from one of the 1207 verses.......

Vaka vanha Väinämöinen itse tuon sanoiksi virkki: "Näistäpä toki tulisi kalanluinen kanteloinen, kun oisi osoajata, soiton luisen laatijata." Kun ei toista tullutkana, ei ollut osoajata, soiton luisen laatijata, vaka vanha Väinämöinen itse loihe laatijaksi, tekijäksi teentelihe.

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast, Answered in the words which follow: "Yet a harp might be constructed Even of the bones of fishes, If there were a skilful workman, Who could from the bones construct it." As no craftsman there was present, And there was no skilful workman Who could make a harp of fishbones, Väinämöinen, old and steadfast, Then began the harp to fashion, And himself the work accomplished.

In case the rhythm seems hauntingly familiar, it is because your own poet, Longfellow, adopted the so-called 'Kalevala metre' when writing his great work, 'Hiawatha'.

Here in rural East Anglia, as we huddle around the burning twig of the evening, our talk is of little else.

 

[Pierre]

Good morning, gentlemen. Sorry for the late reply. I haven't been on the Internet for a while now and just regaining my vision. I should have explained when I posted those photos.

Jean-Louis Lacour was an officer in the French Navy, now retired. In years past he was the only one in the world (literally) that was qualified to work on Swiss rifle sniper scopes, including the ZFK31/42, the ZFK31/43 and the ZFK55 sniper scopes. He machined perfect copies of the original Swiss armory tools in solid brass. He was excellent and very meticulous with his work. I became acquainted with him about seven years ago and we did converse about his service being available in the United States. Approximately one year ago he felt that he should retire from servicing those scopes as he wanted to enjoy a true, full retirement.

He sent us his unpublished specifications and inside knowledge for servicing these extremely complex scopes. Long story short, my father-in-law, now nearly 100 years old, flew up here from the coast to assist in training my son-in-law to service these scopes. Neuropathy in my fingers and hands precluded me from being the one to work on those scopes. His name is Albert Davis, and he was the past R&D man for Jenkyl-Davidson Fiine Optics, Swift instruments and Hospital microscopes. He is also one of the three optics experts that developed the world's first atomic microscope at Stanford University many years ago. He was more than qualified to decipher everything that Jean-Louis had sent to us, including his tools. For the past year we have been the only certified source for servicing those original Swiss scopes.

Jean-Louis then turned his attention to something he truly loved, and that was assembling/building model battleships. The photos are of pieces he is currently working on. Last year he told me what those ships were, but my short-term memory is failing me rather badly and I can't remember. I can certainly get the names of them but I'm almost certain that those were French battleships. "Almost" being the qualifier, but they do appear to be American vessels. LOL

He will be sending me more photographs of the ships as they develop, and when I correspond with him next week I will ask him specifically what and whose ships those are.
I'm only able to post here because I have a Dragon speech system that converts the spoken word to typed words. I'm just now able to proofread my own posts, so I will be back on my own Swiss Forum and the Internet Swiss pages most likely next week.

This was rather long-winded, however I did want to explain exactly who the man is. His skill at assembling/building those battleships is self-evident. I would love to have met him, but I don't travel very well anymore so I'm essentially a permanent fixture here in Lost Prairie Montana.

Spring is not too far around the corner, so I intend to be back on the Swiss products field test range as soon as the snow thaws. It will be the first time in three years that I will have been able to actually see a target.

"Ride hard, shoot straight and tell the truth". *Jeff Cooper*

 

[sobo]

Good morning, gentlemen. Sorry for the late reply. I haven't been on the Internet for a while now and just regaining my vision. I should have explained when I posted those photos.

Wow, sure hope you're able to see again, soon. If you feel like telling us, what happened?
And crazy story on the scopes! Wow...

Jean-Louis then turned his attention to something he truly loved, and that was assembling/building model battleships. The photos are of pieces he is currently working on. Last year he told me what those ships were, but my short-term memory is failing me rather badly and I can't remember. I can certainly get the names of them but I'm almost certain that those were French battleships. "Almost" being the qualifier, but they do appear to be American vessels. LOL

He will be sending me more photographs of the ships as they develop, and when I correspond with him next week I will ask him specifically what and whose ships those are.
I'm only able to post here because I have a Dragon speech system that converts the spoken word to typed words. I'm just now able to proofread my own posts, so I will be back on my own Swiss Forum and the Internet Swiss pages most likely next week.

This was rather long-winded, however I did want to explain exactly who the man is. His skill at assembling/building those battleships is self-evident. I would love to have met him, but I don't travel very well anymore so I'm essentially a permanent fixture here in Lost Prairie Montana.

Do please get the names of the ship(s). I think @Ura-Ki is correct in that it's either the Bismarck or the Tirpitz. I did a little snooping around teh innerwebz and the photos I found sure seem to confirm his hunch.

Spring is not too far around the corner, so I intend to be back on the Swiss products field test range as soon as the snow thaws. It will be the first time in three years that I will have been able to actually see a target.

"Ride hard, shoot straight and tell the truth". *Jeff Cooper*

Good luck to you, and don't be a stranger to this board anymore!

 

[Pierre]

Thank you, Sobo, and I don't mind giving you the condensed version.
Up until age 70 I was extremely healthy, and in all the early years on the place here for the past 50 years in Lost Prairie has been a horse ranch.
Time caught up with me and Ma and when we were no longer able to put up our own hay and I was unable to take care of all of our horses feet, it was time to back off. Both of us had had spinal accidents.
Lots of in between stories that I may post here someday. All of it is in the Lost Prairie Chronicles I have been writing for a very long time.

As I said, up until I was 70 my health was great, and I had never been diagnosed with anything like diabetes, but one day it caught up to me all at once. Long story short, one morning I woke up and felt there was something desperately wrong and couldn't stop myself from drinking. Ma called the VA and they told her to get me into town immediately. No explanation, just immediately. When I got there they did a quick blood test and told her to get me over to the ER at Kalispell regional Hospital as fast as she could. Still nobody was telling me what was wrong. By the time I got there just 10 minutes later, they did another one of these blood tests and the guy said to me "you shouldn't be here". I told him I agreed I was perfectly fine and nobody would talk to me about anything and I should go back home. He said, "no, I mean you should not be standing here." Our normal glucose level in someone my age should've been somewhere around 120 to 130, but actually it was it 800. He was right. I shouldn't have been standing upright. They got me upstairs, plugged me into four different IVs at one time and still, nobody told me what was going on. The lady doctor came in about 10 minutes later and told me that I was on the extreme edge of a diabetic shock.

I didn't know what any of it meant anyway other than I was still alive, but it wasn't too long after that that I noticed a slight change in my vision. Almost a year later I saw nothing but cloudy images and was no longer able to read emails or anything else involving vision. It took a while but the surgeries involved had to do with the nerves in my eyes being affected and the lenses had substantially clouded. I knew what it meant to have the lenses changed but I knew nothing whatsoever about the nerve business. I still don't understand it all, but after the first surgery I'm seeing fairly well with my left I and I'll have the second surgery next week. I will then be fitted with new glasses and I'm told I should have very close to 20/20 vision. That's extremely important to me as even at 80 years of age, I still do new product development and field testing here on the Lost Prairie range. The two other things that hit me late in life are neuropathy in the feet and legs and finally in the wrists and hands. No longer able to drive, and I can't feel small parts to pick them up and that's the reason my son-in-law has been training in the armory here in Lost Prairie.

My son Latigo handles the business in town with the machine shop, Swiss Products and the Graphics Studio, and because I'm 40 miles away, he has no time to come out here and work on scopes or firearms, but my son-in-law is helping a lot.

I'm sure I'll be around a lot more after that second surgery is done. I don't think I've ever talked about the Lost Prairie Chronicles here, but since we're in the Northwest, you may find it interesting. I think that your member Tac is probably read most of them.
Thank you, and I should hear from Jean-Louis by tomorrow morning about the names of those ships.
Pierre St. Marie

 

[sobo]

Wow, I have no words... other than I wish you a speedy recovery!

 

[tac]

Pierre - The mushroom-like features are rangefinder housings for the AA defensive weaponry - ONLY found on German major warships - you can also see, on your laterally-inverted image, the heavy riveting of the back of the 5.9" secondary armament turret. It is a wonderful model, BTW.

 

[Phred]

Pierre,
Going to the hospital and getting your eyes whitled on is NOT a hobby. so knock that off. I can understand what your going through. I had neuropathy after a heart surgery, and I've had both my eyes repaired because of cataracts. Best wishes to you.

 

[Lilhigbee]

@Pierre you have posted some of The Lost Prairie Chronicles here in the past. I always enjoyed reading them and wondered why you quit posting. Glad you are on the mend and look forward to more LPCs.

https://www.northwestfirearms.com/threads/from-my-lost-prairie-chronicles.275955/

 

[sobo]

@Pierre you have posted some of The Lost Prairie Chronicles here in the past. I always enjoyed reading them and wondered why you quit posting. Glad you are on the mend and look forward to more LPCs.

https://www.northwestfirearms.com/threads/from-my-lost-prairie-chronicles.275955/

Thank you for that link, Lilhig', and thank you, @Pierre, for the Chronicles.
I have a fair bit of catchin' up to do tomorrow, I reckon...

 

[Pierre]

Thank you, Sobo!

Good afternoon gentlemen. As promised, this is the answer to my inquiry from Jean- Louis Lacour in Paris
It appears that either two or three of you are absolutely correct.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I will send you the last photos of my models that you will be able to examine better…. I am working on the German battleship "Bismarck" at 1/200 th scale… It is a super detailed plastic kit, with additional brass parts (photo cutout), the model measures 1.25 meters ( about 4,1 ft or 50″ "

 

[Ura-Ki]

Thank you, Sobo!

Good afternoon gentlemen. As promised, this is the answer to my inquiry from Jean- Louis Lacour in Paris
It appears that either two or three of you are absolutely correct.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I will send you the last photos of my models that you will be able to examine better…. I am working on the German battleship "Bismarck" at 1/200 th scale… It is a super detailed plastic kit, with additional brass parts (photo cutout), the model measures 1.25 meters ( about 4,1 ft or 50″ "

Those 1/200 kits with all the accessories are super duper detailed! I priced one out once, with the photo etch kits, the resin parts kits, and wood decks, and metal gun barrels and propellers, the cost was over $1200, and that's before you add paints, filers, putties, and glue, and about 3 years time! Still, they are beyond cool!

 

[wired]

I picked up an old 14x 30 Hendey lathe today. Not literally. Its 4000 lbs. Big old US Iron lathe built during WW2. Real neat setup. The threading capabilities are amazing with those things. The lead screw can reverse on the fly and the half nuts never need to disengage the lead. Luckily I have a gantry crane in my garage to unload the thing.

Heres one in action...

Scovil made brass cartridge cases in WW2

Hendey lathe No.33891, a 14 x 30, 12 Speed, Geared Head Model, was completed on November 9, 1942. The following information was taken from the original Order
Form. Information in parenthesis my addendum.

Date Ordered: May 20, 1942
Date Started: June 3, 1942
Sold to: Defense Plant Corporation (a Government Supply Agency), Scovill Manufacturing Company, 99 Hill Street, Waterbury, Connecticut
Ship to: Scovill Manufacturing Company, Dublin Street, Waterbury, Connecticut
Wanted: Priority A-1-a, No Urgency, 4-37540
Description: 14" x 30" - 12 Speed Geared Head Lathe CR (Compound Rest) - To Swing 16-1/2" (Raised Swing model)
Oil Pan
Regular Equipment (as shown in catalog)
Timken Roller Bearings on spindle - Multiple Splined Shafts
Taper Spindle Nose
Spindle Speeds - 18 to 539 R.P.M.
High speed reversing Mechanism
Drawing -in Attachment and set of 29 #6 Collets from 1/8" to 1" inclusive by 32nds complete with cabinet
Furnish and Fit Cushman 10" 4-jaw independent chuck #10214CE5
Furnish and Fit Cushman 6" 3-jaw universal chuck #6236K5
Furnish and Fit Jacobs #18 Super ball Bearing drill Chuck
Arranged for vee belt connected motor drive with motor in cabinet leg
Furnish and Fit ball bearing motor, 5 HP, 440 volts, 3 phase, 60 cycles, 1200 RPM, Frame 284; together with reversing magnetic starter and
push button station
THIS NUMBER TO BE STAMPED OR ETCHED ON MACHINE AND EQUIPMENT: DPC-522-SCOV

 

[tac]

Sounds to me like somebody did you a good turn, so to speak.

 

[slimmer13]

Newest project. Bringing this 2000 Kawasaki Mule 2510 4x4 back to life. It runs great, but the front left CV axel, bearings, brakes, hub assembly are smoked. Assembling parts for the rebuild.



This was supposed to be splined.



Next up will be seat upholstery.

I got it for a steal, so I might flip it (because anything UTV/ATV is red hot right now) or use it around here. If I keep it, I might put a little lift on it and a plow.