Ralph has finished 3 new molds for fiberglass hulls: torpedo cruiser IJN Kitakami, heavy cruiser HMS Fiji/Uganda/Swiftsure, and dreadnought HMS Agincourt. He can be contacted at ralphster30@hotmail.com Ralph is bringing the new hulls for me to see this weekend so I'll take some photos and post them.
Very curious which version of the Kitikami he built. The original "classic" cruiser, or the monster torpedo boat with sponsons and bulges?
He told me it was a Kuma Class but I understood him to say he made the torpedo cruiser version. I'll know for sure when I see it on Saturday.
I was thinking about getting one, that was the first boat I tried making a wooden hull, which turned out to be a total failure, the plans I had the ribs were totally wrong, Goff. Just threw it in the trash, lol. But I got to many to finish now.
No hull photos. Ralph wasn't able to make it into Halifax today - car problems. I won't have a chance to see him and the new hulls until Sept. 23.
Ralph brought his new hulls by today but the battery for my camera needed charging so no photos. The Agincourt hull was very nice but he'd modified the underside of the stern aft of the skeg (a very small area) to be flat instead of a continuous curve in cross-section. (Ralph said the reason he didn't follow the plan exactly was so if someone copied his hull he'd know.) I remain tempted to build an Agincourt instead of another QE Class now that twin and single rudder ships in the same class have the same rudder area. With the new rudder area being 50% larger than it used to be Agincourt will turn better and is only 2.5" longer than a QE. Ralph is molding sets of turrets to go with the hulls. His Japanese light torpedo cruiser hull looks good and has reduced penetrable area aft due to the sponsons extending out from each side of the q-deck and their related stringers. The third hull was the Fiji/Uganda/Superb hull. He'd made the sides of the q-deck higher in a couple of places so the different splinter screens and side plating around the torpedo tubes carried by these classes can be respresented and form upward extensions of the hull (same thing I did with the Profintern hull plug I gave to Strike Models).
Well I purchased a Kitikami, but going to call it the Oi, easier to spell. He shipped it this week to me, but coming from Canada will be a week or 2 is my guess.
does Ralph have a brochure/website/anything that is not a thread on this site where we could see a comprehensive list of hulls, prices, etc?
He doesn't. I've been bugging him for 20 years to set up a website, especially when he complains about not selling enough hulls. :>) I know he sold some of his molds (Mogami, Graf Spee and others) but still has molds for QE/Valiant post reconstruction, Fiji/Uganda/Swiftsure Classes, Oi, Agincourt, Texas, Yamato, Indefatigable, Rodney and others. Email: ralphster30@hotmail.com
A stickied thread where he or a friend could maintain an updated hull and price list, with an email slapped on the bottom of the first post would probably serve 90% of his and potential customer’s needs. Just a thought.
Yeah that would be excellent as a stand-in. I'd love to see his full list, especially since he appears to have some really odd duck ships, judging from the Wind class icebreaker mentioned in a thread back in 09. I'll have to hit him up sometime near christmas, my Dad's been enthusiastically watching my build for the duration, and since he was a Puddle Pirate with a twisted sense of humor, I think a Wind-class icebreaker would make a good christmas gift, as well as a unique edition to the New England group.
I'll send him an email this morning and see if he wants me to post up a thread like @buttsakauf described. Maybe talk to the admins and have them pin it to the top and see what happens.
