This will be a short build session. I started on her at 9 this morning, and finished her at 1:20 this morning. I made the fiberglass hull last year, and had the windows cut out, and the sub deck installed. So we decided we needed more convoy ships for Nats this year, and I just kept putting it off for the last 2 weeks, but since we are shipping everything tomorrow morning to Minnesota, I figured I had better get busy this morning. She is a 5600 ton Japanese oil tanker, she is painted for night runs from harbor to harbor, trying to avoid Allied submarines. I installed a speed control so when we arrive at Nats it will be no problem getting her on speed. She is pretty simple looking, but since it was a rush job of 15 hours, that was all I could do for now, later I will add a little more.
Djranier, could you post further information about the history of that ship, and its historical counterpart? I'm getting some serious deja vu here, especially if that ship is 35"x4.5"
My Daughter who is fluent in Japanese, has informed me that I spell the name wrong, its Mu gu Maru, no Moogoo Maru, stands for Shows no Fear. Well shes the expert not me, LOL. I will measure her right now. She is 35 x 4.5 inches, the plans just call her a T-2, 5600 ton Tanker. My Daughter looked on line at a Japanese site, and came up with the name. She wants to paint the, did I say it right, Kangi name on her stern.
No, No! Moogoo is a much better name. Just paint a few white spots on it. Or get a little cow to glue on the bow. In the old campain format you could have hauled a load of beef.
If my kiddo wanted to paint the name... I'd have to go with the Mu Gu you can always abbrieviate it... and you cannot be held responsible for the typos (moogoo's) of others Excellent glass work! Mike
Moogoo maroo is about how you would pronounce it, though Mu Gu Maru is how you would properly spell it. Kanji must have a "j" because a "g" doesn't have the "j" sound at all in Japanese. Can you find the website she used? My vocabulary is still very small, and I would be glad of any opportunity to expand it. Just the other day, someone recommended to me the name "ipatsu maru" or "ippatsu maru" (he wasn't clear on the pronunciation or spelling), and now I pass it on to you. Trust me, it's a good name for a small unarmed transport. The boat's superstructure and dimensions are exactly the same as the Mehoshi Maru. Asides from the tonnage difference and the transom stern, it is identical. I'll ask the club member who game me the plans for more information on the boat. As I recall it was a captured Dutch tanker. Some other names that were included on the plans were Mutsuei Maru, Shinpo Maru, and Nichinru Maru. As I am still a beginner I have not checked to see if these are real or just nonsensical names made up by some American.
She could only find one of the 4 you listed, the Shinpo Maru was a 5200 tanker, that the USS Silverfish torpedoed and sank. The other 2 have close spellings, but nothing is even close to the Mehoshi Maru. Even mine was just a listing about a Japanese tanker, but when I checked the list of ships that served with the Japanese, it also is not listed. She says most likely due to spelling errors during translation, is why they do not show up. Here is the site we were looking at, for the names,they may be spelled wrong also.. Visit this site
I found the tanker Shimpo Maru listed at 5135 gross tons, sunk on August 12, 1944 by a submarine. I found cargo ship Mutsuyo Maru (sounds similar to Mutsuei Maru), listed at 2726 gross tons, sunk on June 12, 1944 by carrier planes. I found passenger-cargo ship Nichiryu Maru (sounds similar to Nichinryu Maru) listed at 5447 gross tons, sunk on January 7, 1943 by Army aircraft. It's possible that the ships were not lost, so they may not be listed on that site. I am waiting for more information from the person who provided the plans I used to CAD model Mehoshi Maru (the name of a particularly beautiful Japanese lady in a fictional story he was writing about his experiences in the hobby). I could not find a submarine called USS Silverfish on www.navsource.org. The only result when searching for "silver" was USS Silversides.
Am I the only one who is feeling creepy at how much that looks like a Altmark from the side? I am building a Nordmark and the side view from the deck levels looks eerily similar, but I guess they were oilers too. []
She is way smaller than a Altmark. A few guys had Altmarks at Nats, and they were much larger. I think most ships of that time period looked allot alike.
