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  • Hank:

    You're making me blush. After 39 years with the Navy, some years as a tank commander in the Reserves and being raised by a railroad man I normally don't blush easily.

    At my age I gotta watch that blood pressure.

    But thank you very very much for your review. Last month's sales were pretty good. Since the book came out lately sales have been around 2 books a month, sometimes 3 and sometimes 0. But last month 3 books sold at regular price and 4 books sold at "distribution" price to a library or an academic place of learning.

    I think it may have been the California State University of Long Beach. They have been given a grant to do a TV history of the historical presence of the Navy in Long Beach. Of course, it means the Shipyard, the Base and the Airfield.

    I have contacted the class instructor and have offered my services as a technical advisor. He will be getting back to me in June after this year's class graduates. In the meantime I'm gathering together all photos video tapes (VHS and Beta), disks, 35mm slides and 16mm movie films into an "accessible pile" so we can pick and choose what we need to pass on to our future generations when they ask, "Grandpa. I've been told there used to be a Navy Yard here with enormous dry dock capabilities. But all I see is a huge parking lot full of truck containers. So, was there ever a Navy center of some sort here?"
    Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

    Comment


    • Dick,

      You're certainly welcome for the review! I hope it boosts your sales AND some modelers take the bait. I have a different view of ship modeling than most and I'm aware of this from posts on the modeling forums. A lot of younger modelers are not interested in the history of the ship they are modeling and do it for other reasons. For me, it's all tied in together. If you're going to spend a lot of time on modeling something correctly then the history of the real object is a necessity. To each his own, I guess. As with my 6 year Sloop of War PEACOCK project, I got thouroughly involved in the history of the class of ship I was building, it's career, it's captain's career and so forth so I could try to understand the world the ship was constructed and served in. This helped me build a better model, I think in the long run.

      Your book is a real asset to the history of Long Beach and the naval community there - I'm glad that you will be taking part in the video presentation to be made of that part of Navy and California history.

      Hank

      Comment


      • Well, I'm getting published again. But not exactly about Battleships. Well, maybe about Battleships. I collect the Milwaukee Road in HO scale and some years ago I found how they built 30 foot Couplet cars to haul the huge 16-inch gun barrels. So I made up a set out of cut down 40 foot Athern cars and another set out of 30 foot Roundhouse cars. Then I drew the dimensions to scale on my computer and submitted it to the Milwaukee Road Historical Association (MRHA) magazine. All based upon official Navy plans (of which I have a copy of course). Unfortunately my fingers are too clumsy for jewelry making so some of the parts are a bit on the "imaginative" and "oversized" side.

        It was shelved for a few years (obviously) but I finally got an email that the article will be published in an upcoming issue of their bi-monthly magazine. I will let you know what issue when it finally comes up. If it really does this time.

        Couplet cars are where it takes two flat cars to carry one gun barrel. I think you will see a photo of it that I published in the Modeler's Corner of this board some years ago.

        Gotta go now. Have to jam a supersize (but burned out) TV in the back of my truck (with lots of neighborhood help I hope) to take to an electronics recycling center tommorrow.
        Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

        Comment


        • Way to go, Richard!! It's nice getting a bit of notice now & then. I got an article published in the NRG Journal several years ago about CAD drafting.

          I'll be sure to check out your couplet car!

          Hank

          Comment


          • Considering a Revision B to my book. There are a few minor corrections needed and some additional information to be inserted. Plus Createspace has come out with a larger format (8 1/2 X 11) that will be more suitable for the maps I have drawn of the Naval Complex.

            BUT, I'm not to sure I can set it up in PDF and with the margins required (wide margin on the left of odd-numbered pages but wide margin on the right of even-numbered pages). With my first edition, the people at Amazon took pity on me and set it all up for me. Oh yes, I will have to rescan some of the photos as well in a finer definition. Those of the turret top plates of the Iowa came out far too dark. I have some better ones I took when we towed the ship out of Benecia to Richmond.

            Oh, another thing. Is there a way I can download (preferably for fee) a driver for my hp G4050 scanner to scan negatives and slides in Windows 7? When I got the scanner, I was using Windows XP (a very good program but greedy Bill Gates no longer supports it). So I am having problems scanning some negatives of designs of the RPV antenna domes.
            Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

            Comment


            • I knew you would update the book. I just received my copy.

              Comment


              • Originally posted by Shinytop View Post
                I knew you would update the book. I just received my copy.
                Thank you for buying a copy.
                Here's a couple of revisions you can pencil in:
                Page 15 (DRY DOCK 1) under the photo of the Nevada, change the date from 1942 to 1943.
                Page 89 (HAZMAT), 3rd paragraph, 1st line after Navy doctor; add "Dr. Shelton".
                Page 492 (1985 LIST OF APPRENTICE GRADUATES), in the notes after Nunez, Leonor; add FEMALE.
                Page 503 (LIST OF FEMALE GRADUATE APPRENTICES), add in; 1985 Leonor Nunez, Metals Inspector.

                Having to go with just the list of names, it's sometimes hard to identify the gender. Prior to publishing the book, I had one of our former apprentice instructors go over the list of welder apprentices. He found one that I listed as female but he was really a male. The name sounded female and I'm not surprised. When I was in welding school one of the apprentices was Gale Francis. But he was hardly a female. He was a Marine Korean War vet and tank driver. I should have known as one of my car pool passengers was his uncle with the name of Shirley Francis.

                Can't win them all.
                Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

                Comment


                • Richard,

                  Wish I could help you out on the scanning info about drivers, but that's way out of my league on computer gear. Hope someone can help you out on this. FYI - the model of NJ is still underway, slow going right now, but in progress.

                  If & when you do get Rev. B published, be sure to post a notice so we can look into the updated version.

                  Hank

                  Comment


                  • Drivers for G4050

                    Originally posted by RustyBattleship View Post
                    Considering a Revision B to my book. There are a few minor corrections needed and some additional information to be inserted. Plus Createspace has come out with a larger format (8 1/2 X 11) that will be more suitable for the maps I have drawn of the Naval Complex.

                    BUT, I'm not to sure I can set it up in PDF and with the margins required (wide margin on the left of odd-numbered pages but wide margin on the right of even-numbered pages). With my first edition, the people at Amazon took pity on me and set it all up for me. Oh yes, I will have to rescan some of the photos as well in a finer definition. Those of the turret top plates of the Iowa came out far too dark. I have some better ones I took when we towed the ship out of Benecia to Richmond.

                    Oh, another thing. Is there a way I can download (preferably for fee) a driver for my hp G4050 scanner to scan negatives and slides in Windows 7? When I got the scanner, I was using Windows XP (a very good program but greedy Bill Gates no longer supports it). So I am having problems scanning some negatives of designs of the RPV antenna domes.
                    Hi Rusty,

                    I just checked out your scanner and there are drivers no charge on the HP site.

                    http://h20566.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/p...&swEnvOid=4062

                    Just need to determine if you are running 32 bit or 64 bit Windows 7. It shows there how to determine which you have.

                    Cheers!

                    Scott

                    Comment


                    • Originally posted by BB64 View Post
                      Hi Rusty,

                      I just checked out your scanner and there are drivers no charge on the HP site.

                      http://h20566.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/p...&swEnvOid=4062

                      Just need to determine if you are running 32 bit or 64 bit Windows 7. It shows there how to determine which you have.

                      Cheers!

                      Scott
                      Thank you very much. Yes, I'm running 64 bit. I'll give it a try.

                      Oh, and by the way, the reason I need to scan film and slides is because a couple of years ago a friend of mine gave me some 35 mm slides of the box installed on the side of the Queen Mary. So they will be added to chapter 1 as well as some better slides I took of the top of Turret II on the Iowa.

                      So your info is coming just at the right time.
                      Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

                      Comment


                      • That's great Rusty, glad to help.

                        And I will buy the revised addition to go beside my old one!

                        I toured BB63 in Hawaii in April last year. Did the "Heart of the Missouri" tour and made it all the way down Broadway into the engine room and got a pic of my wife holding the throttle wheel.

                        Was a great time. Next on the bucket list, getting to your neck of the woods, tour BB61 and get you to sign my book!

                        Cheers!

                        Comment


                        • Originally posted by BB64 View Post
                          That's great Rusty, glad to help.

                          And I will buy the revised addition to go beside my old one!

                          I toured BB63 in Hawaii in April last year. Did the "Heart of the Missouri" tour and made it all the way down Broadway into the engine room and got a pic of my wife holding the throttle wheel.

                          Was a great time. Next on the bucket list, getting to your neck of the woods, tour BB61 and get you to sign my book!

                          Cheers!
                          Ummm, don't be so much in a hurry to wait for Revision B. I haven't even started reformatting everything as I'm waiting on Amazon Create Space to tell me what I have to do (if it's possible in my archaic mind who was comfortable with a manual typewriter) and what they can do for me.

                          Plus I will have to dig out all of the Negatives and Photographs to rescan in a higher definition. It will be MONTHS before I can submit a revision --- THAT IS IF I AM UP TO THE LABOR TO DO IT. Come July 26 I will be turning 8 decades old and my patience is a tad short. So go ahead and buy the existing edition as in my previous message I gave you folks the main corrections to pencil in. The main thing the larger size edition will do is allow larger and more readable maps of the Naval Complex (Appendix D) and I can add in a few extra photos here and there.

                          Also, any royalties I get will give me a little more down time at our local VFW post. Some days are not complete until I have my Vodka on the rocks. Well, my paternal grandfather (though German by birth) was a Ukranian Cossack. So I have to toast to his honor. Well, my maternal grandfather was 3/4 Irish (with a Welsh name) so a jigger or so of Canadian goes well also since his mother was actually born in Canada rather than Ireland (her parents took an earlier boat and afterwards hopped across the Wisconsin border at the western tip of Lake Superior. No, not really illegals. They were farmers and the border patrol just looked the other way because the upper midwest needed farmers desperately).
                          Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

                          Comment


                          • Originally posted by RustyBattleship View Post
                            Also, any royalties I get will give me a little more down time at our local VFW post. Some days are not complete until I have my Vodka on the rocks...
                            Sir,

                            I am new here, but have been silently visiting for a year, or two. Enough so as to become somewhat familiar with some of the members.
                            It was with a feeling of pride that yesterday I ordered your book, and was able to contribute to the cause.
                            And, since I had to join Amazon, I got the two-day shipping free!

                            The bad news is that two or three days earlier I picked up a copy of "The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors".
                            I find myself "book rich" and "time poor"...

                            Comment


                            • Originally posted by Cruiser View Post
                              Sir,

                              I am new here, but have been silently visiting for a year, or two. Enough so as to become somewhat familiar with some of the members.
                              It was with a feeling of pride that yesterday I ordered your book, and was able to contribute to the cause.
                              And, since I had to join Amazon, I got the two-day shipping free!

                              The bad news is that two or three days earlier I picked up a copy of "The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors".
                              I find myself "book rich" and "time poor"...
                              Thank you very, very much for purchasing a copy of my book. And getting the free shipping helps you alot. I didn't know they had it. Whenever I had to order copies for myself (for presentations, trading with authors of other books, etc.) I have to pay shipping even though the books are just a tad above wholesale price.

                              I cannot sell them on my own because I gave up my business license 10 years ago when I closed up my design services as DREADNAUGHT CONSULTING. It took me about 10 years to write the book because of truckloads of information had to be acquired, verified and then transferred into a printable format. Appendices A & B required a different program than I'm not computer savvy enough to set up myself so two other friends of mine helped me on that. Then they had to be reviewed by a couple other friends to make sure I didn't have any repeats and I didn't skip any items.

                              I'm hoping Amazon can help me as much with a 2nd edition as they did with my first edition. Normally, I had no intention of doing a 2nd addition until I very recently found out it can be done in a larger format thus making it easier to read and enlarging the maps of the shipyard so they are easier to track what building did what.

                              Oh, I'm STILL having trouble upgrading my scanner. Though I downloaded an upgrade, it still WILL NOT scan slide films and transparencies. I'm having a hell of a time scanning and cleaning up the RPV drawings for the Battleship Missouri. Very time consuming and very hard on the eyes.
                              Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

                              Comment


                              • You're quite welcome. I look forward to reading it.

                                The free shipping was some sort of promotion for joining Amazon. This is the first time I have ordered anything from there. So I had to join.

                                Of course, I haven't seen it yet, but I am of an age that a larger formatted book, with pictures to match, is a better book.

                                I realize that the comment about your scanner troubles weren't directed at me, but IF I could help, I would. I'm pretty sure that I'm less computer savvy than you are.

                                Comment

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