NABS (Nova Scotia) Revival?

So much for the cottage as a possible battle site, and attending NATS this year or next. I'm giving up the cottage in a separation agreement and have to remortgage my home, so can't retire this December as planned. Maybe in a few more years.... :>(

On a positive note the tight tolerance SS barrels ordered from Strike Models before closure arrived a few weeks ago and will be used to arm CL Profintern and BC Indefatigable. The 'spring' weather remains abysmal with another heavy snowfall warning issued today and a storm in progress. In 2-3 weeks the overnight temps should be warm enough to glass in the prop shafts on the new ships and leave them outside to cure.

 

I am waiting for it to warm up enough so I can clean the garage so I can work on both the Tennessee and the Prinz Eugen (VU class). The Tennessee needs to have the shafts redone. The PE has had the SLA batteries die so I am considering moving to nimh batteries and putting in a speed controller.

 

Ship and hull mould building is on hold for a while due to repairing flood damage at the summer place in New Brunswick. The 3 main buildings were built on artificial hills 1.5' - 2.5' above maximum historical flood level, but this year's flood was 2' higher than the record. A gale and storm surge with 4' waves near peak flood did a lot of damage - dozens of homes and cottages built lower than ours were destroyed, including the one next door; a 2 storey house is aground on the shore, having floated 4 miles across the lake into our cove. The guest cabin was washed off its hill and is sitting level on the new area of lawn I made last year, but the cottage stayed on its foundation. It lost its wrap-around deck, stairs, front doors, basement windows, well pump, some of the front siding and had waves in the front rooms and a few inches of water in the rear ones. Luckily my workshop had only 4" of water inside and sustained no significant damage.

 

Time to get rid of some hulls and models. I bought the Suffolk and Canarias back 2+ years ago but have done very little to refit them and just received a decent offer for both 'as is' so will probably sell them. The Ralph Coles Rodney hull and turret set is for sale again along with the fiberglass deck I made for it. Same with my extra thick Vanguard hull (already cut out), with Grey Wolf resin turret set and a fiberglass deck I made for it. I'm also selling my I-400 hull set (upper and lower hulls and superstructure).

That'll leave me with HMS Gorgon as my only completed model, plus incomplete HMS Indefatigable, Soviet CL Profintern, and light carrier IJN Ibuki.

 

We hired a contractor with a boom truck to do the major cottage repairs and put the decks and guest cabin back where they came from, so there's much less work for me to do. A lot of the minor repairs and cleaning of interiors has been done since the flood so I have some time for model building.

I've been getting motivated again while doing some resheeting and superstructure repairs on heavy cruiser Canarias. Larry Dingle in SC wants Canarias back, plus Suffolk. He already has my models of HMS Hood and HMS Minotaur, and had Canarias for more than a decade before I got it back in partial trade for Hood in 2015. Suffolk's in rough shape so will need more work than Canarias.

With those models out of the way Indefatigable and Profintern will be the next projects to complete, followed by convoy/target ship IJN Ibuki (a light carrier nearly complete by the Japanese surrender; built on a Mogami Class hull).

 

Change of plans: Suffolk/Cumberland was in worse shape than I realized and can't be completed for 2-3 months, so only Canarias will be going to SC in late June. Cumberland needs a completely new superstructure and resheeting. Having the propshafts and drive train already installed it's more advanced in construction than Profintern or Indefatigable so I'll complete it first. Larry's interested in the small monitor HMS Gorgon, which is battle ready, so I'm thinking of selling it when Cumberland is finished. I like to have at least one battle ready model on hand. The cosmetic refit of Canarias is going well - the hull should be done tomorrow and the superstructure within 2 weeks.

 

Any progress Paul?

 

No progress to report. I am awaiting my order from Battlers. Some projects around the house have occupied my time. Before i start i have to clean work bench/garage before i can start.

 

I hope to finish the refit of Canarias in 2 weeks and ship it back to South Carolina. I've nearly finished removing the balsa from Brechin's old HMS Suffolk. As soon as Canarias is gone Suffolk will be on the workbench for a complete rebuild. I'd sold it partly complete in 1997; Brechin was the third owner. The drive train, fiberglass deck and hull are in good condition but the superstructure was a wreck and has gone in the trash. The model will probably be built without the large cube-shaped hamgar aft and be renamed Cumberland, which had the hangar removed in 1944 and looked better than Suffolk. The less topweight the better.

 

Anyone still active in Nova Scotia?

I was one of the sort of founding folks of NABS back in the 90's. I've still got my old Graf Spee up in the attic of my garage.

 

I know there are still members in the HRM but I don't believe any of them managed to get together . Jeremie Turner has a Tirpitz / Bismarck for rc combat . I don't know if anybody else still has models for combat . The club is basically defunct . I don't recognize you . The only Graf Spee I recall was at a Can-Nats and it had a fake dummy turret behind the forward turrets. I think it had a very large pump motor and large drive motors mounted inside. I still have the VHS video of it and a Lutzow battling in a one on one . What's your name ?

 

Curt - I'm Brad.

 

Brad ! Lol ! Yeah you and I were forming Nor Can battle Squadron . North Atlantic Battle Squadron name was formed at Bob Pottle's house at a meeting our first as a club. It was at that meeting we hashed out the final club name .

You still have the Graf Spee ? What kind of shape is that in ?

 

The Graf is in the attic of my garage - haven't looked in on her in a couple of years now. Maybe I should!