Points of <cardmodelling> interest in Melbourne

[greycat]

G'day,

I'm going to visit sunny Melbourne for three weeks very soon.

Would be glad to get a tip of a good store or other nice things that could be interesting for our hobby.

BTW, I have a model of HMS Victory, from Maly Modelarz 10-11-12/2005 that is of no need for me.
If anyone interested - I can easily bring it.

[RonC]

Hi Greycat,

I'm sorry to say that there is very little available in Melbourne in the card modelling line. I have only seen railroad buildings in 1:87 scale.
(I'm also sorry to say that Melbourne doesn't seem to be very sunny at the moment. We are in the middle of winter here.)

The Melbourne model scene has been totally dominated by plastic models for many years.

My own introduction to card models came inititally from breakfast cereal packets in the 1950's. Then in the 1970's I came across a newsagency owned by a German fellow who had imported some Scheuer & Schreiber paper card castle kits. I was attracted because he was selling them off at half price. I bought Neuschwanstein and a couple of others for the children and ended up building them myself. It was years later that my (now grown up) daughter mentioned them and I looked up Schreiber Bogen on the internet and discovered that paper card modelling was thriving.

All my models have been downloaded from the internet or purchased by email order - periodically I receive an interesting package from the Czech Republic, UK, Canada, or from Germany or Poland.

I have begun to specialize in 1:250 scale ship models from the period 1870 through to 1914. This was sparked by my interest in HMVS Cerberus (model from papershipwright) and has now exended to include a number of other German and Russian ships from this very interesting period.

Cerberus was sunk as a breakwater off one of the Melbourne beaches is now a rusting hulk (check out the HMVS Cerberus website) but claimed a number of important firsts when it was launched in England in 1870. For a ship modeller it is Melbourn's main claim to fame.

Enjoy your trip to Melbourne

Regards,
...RonC

[pbhawkin]

RonC,
Hi.
I also am particularly interested in 1/250 scale ships of about 1880-1920 era although I will do some of the papershipwright line as well. I also really like the German and Russian ships of this era!!
Greycat hope you had a good trip?

[RonC]

Hi Peter,

The 1880 - 1920 era is really interesting period for ship design, and it seems to be the Germans and the Russians who have been interested enough to model the ships of this period. I'd love to get hold of a model of some of the British pre-dreadnoughts, like the Majestic class, but there doesn't seem to be anything around. The papershipwright Cerberus is the only one I've seen (however, HMVS Cerberus is a very significant ship for a Melbournite. My great grandfather served on it as a seaman, so naturally it was one of the first card model ships I built)

I occasionally visit the jsc.pl site just to look at the pictures of their models, but the Polish distributors have linked to paypal now so you can order online. I found that gpm.pl have a number of Polish and Russian ship models available in addition to their own GPM range. I have become used to waiting three months and more for overseas orders to arrive, but these came by airmail and arrived three days later (might take a bit longer to get to Mudgee). In my enthusiasm for their range of pre-dreadnoughts I probably over-ordered, and of course, the postage came to nearly as much as the models themselves. At the rate I build I now have about 5 years' worth of projects lined up!

Having started with German-sourced models in 1:250 scale I have decided to standardise on that scale. Most of these Polish and Russian models are produced in 1:200 so I plan to scan them and reprint them at 80%. (That also gives me a chance to adjust the colour schemes on the way through - e.g. JSC have produced HMS Dreadnought in a lovely shade of pale blue - but I'm sure that can't be historically accurate).

I am currently building Pro-Model's "Admiral Ushakov" scaled down to 1:250 in the manner I have described. The model is well advanced and I am quite pleased with the result. This scale allows plenty of fine detail while keeping the ship models nice and compact.

What are you building at the moment?

Regards,

RonC

[greycat]

Hi there,

Thanks for the information.
Next time if I come down here, it's possible for me to look after some kits that are of interest for you.
Anyhow, Australia is just wonderful with or without the card models, just enjoying it.

Thanks

[jaffro]

Originally Posted by bigbenn

I don't live in Melbourne, thankfully - it takes a special sort of Aussie to live there

I'm special

I'd love to find a decent supply of card model kits in a hobby store over here but i just don't think it's going to happen... until then I'll settle for papermodelstore.com as their value for money and delivery times have never let me down.

As for supplies... I'd love to know of some good cardstock suppliers, for now I seem to be able to get everything I need from either officeworks, Big W or computer swap meets (cheap ink).

[bigbenn]

Mmmm,
Well there are places to get free downloads, I suppose its a matter of ethics
Bb

[RonC]

Originally Posted by bigbenn

Send me a message.......

Hi Bigbenn,

It's never too late, as projects move rather slowly in my workshop!
I have completed the 1:200 Pro-Model 'Admiral Ushakov' scaled down to 1:250 and am quite pleased with the result. A side benefit from the re-scaling process is that I still have the original model booklet uncut.

I now have the 1:200 Modelik 'Pietropavlovsk' close to completion, also scaled down to 1:250. It's a good looking vessel. I decided to modify the colours, as the model is presented in a very dark charcoal grey. Printing in a lighter grey proved troublesome, as my scanner tended to greatly over-emphasis certain colour variations on the original. I finished with many spare parts in quite a variety of shades. Fortunately the 190 gsm card stock that I use is not very expensive. I console myself with the thought that the slight colour variations in my model are probably no more than would be evident in a real-life weathered ship...

Since then, I've found that Pietropavlovsk's sister ship 'Sevastapol' is available from a Russian supplier in the white colours of the Russian Black Sea fleet (sigh - I have spent months building one in dull old grey - oh well).

My latest source has been the GPM website gpm.pl which has a variety of Russian models I haven't seen elsewhere. They delivered to Australia by airmail within three days!

Anyway, I had put in a plea for other ship models of that era. I have seen the collection of plans that the French Navy have made available on the web. Do you have any of the British pre-dreadnoughts in your collection?

Regards,
RonC

[jaffro]

Originally Posted by RonC

My latest source has been the GPM website gpm.pl which has a variety of Russian models I haven't seen elsewhere. They delivered to Australia by airmail within three days!

At what kind of cost might I ask?

I found whenever I looked at models on the GPM site the postage costs were sometimes more than the cost of the model itself, whereas I found the same kits on papermodelstore with way cheaper postage than GPM although delivery took about a week or two.

[RonC]

Originally Posted by jaffro

At what kind of cost might I ask?

Hi Jaffro,

Postage cost from GPM for four models was between $A35 and $A40 from memory - as you say, about the same again as the cost of the models.

I've not seen the papermodelstore site before - just checked it out and found models from Orel and other Russian manufacturers at competitive prices. Postage from the US is cheaper than from Europe, too.

If I get around to adding Sevastapol and Peresviet to my collection of models waiting to be built I'll order them from there. Thanks.

... RonC