Lou Coatney's Ship Projects

[LouCoatney]

I have free model ship plans on my early Lou Coatney: Home Page and at Free Cardstock Paper Model World War 2/II Warships

WARNING: I'm 74 and have had 4 heart attacks. The Tripod page may always be there (and I need to clean it up), but CoatneyHistory has to be renewed every year, so any game or model ship plans you could ever want should be printed off NOW.

(Remember Fabrizio (Zio) Prudenziati's beautiful models suddenly disappearing from Internet with his death?)

[LouCoatney]

My printer stopped working a year ago, so my test-building came to a screeching halt. However, I just discovered that it is a glitch in my newer computer, and the printer works fine in my older one, so ....


I have virtually all the plastic 1:1250 Wiking WW2 warships, except for the super-rare USS Augusta heavy cruisers, of which I want 2. Having already done the Wichita and San Francisco models I may just go ahead and build them at 1:1200. (In fact, I may have already started Wichita, or is that at 1:1800? Hmm ....)


HOWEVER, comma, outside the ancient Pyro Shokaku and Pyro and also MiniShips/ESCI/Revell/etc. Yamato, 1:12xx plastic Japanese ships are scarce, so I'll downsize my Shiratsuyu destroyer and Jintsu light cruiser, but that still leaves the Japanese heavy cruisers and most crucially the Kongo class ... which I am now resuming work on.


Again, there is no excuse for American model and/or toy companies not coming out with 1:1200 plastic task force sets of WW2 U.S. and Japanese ships, having a battleship, a carrier, a couple cruisers, 4 destroyers, a sub, and for us (tiny) PT boats. American businessmen could never grasp the down on your knees on your living room rug play value - just like the admirals did for real in our Naval War College before WW2 and computers - of cheap task force sets.


Maybe I'll do a set and put it up on Wargame Vault for a relative pittance.

[ct ertz]

Oh wow! You are a survivor! I am 50 and had one heart attack due to chemo. I cannot imagine four! Keep on going my friend! Every breath is a blessing and every day a great gift. I will pray for your continuation in this world with good health. And thank you for all of the great contributions!

[LouCoatney]

And I shall pray for yours, ct.

The first ones in January 2017 were the hardest-hitting, just after I got up in the morning, but on the spur of the moment, I reasoned that (after taking an aspirin) it might ease if I laid down on my bed on my back and laid my left arm up above my head to straighten that criticial little left side heart artery and get the blood flowing again ... and it worked.

So after about 15 minutes, I got up again, and it hit again - not so hard - so I did the same thing and it eased ... and I fell asleep and happily woke up later.

Another one, milder, happened the next day as I was getting up, and I did the same thing and it went away the first time.

The first attack was on a Saturday and nothing more, so I forgot about it, and nearly forgot to tell my doctor about it a couple weeks later when I went in (to Norway's excellent free national health care) for something else. EKG and blood test, he ordered.

No sweat on the EKG, and he said I could call him on Tuesday of the following week for the lab results, but HE CALLED ME MONDAY MORNING - never a good sign, when your doctor calls YOU - and told me to go to the "mottak" ?? in the University hospital 30 minutes away.

So I went in there, the cardiology lady looked at my records and said FOLLOW ME and took me to the AKKUT MOTTAK (emergency room!). ("But I'm not acute! I'm not acute!" I kept saying. )

I had an important lecture to go to the next day, but they said I could be DEAD the next day if I didn't have an angiogram to put a tiny pipe in that little clogged artery, so I decided to forego the lecture.

The mild attack a year ago was probably thanks to me thinking I no longer needed my meds. Also, I *think* I may have had an early case of coronavirus, and that may have caused clotting.

So I'm being careful - although I should lose about 50 lbs - and doing fine.

But don't forget laying your left arm up on the bed if you get hit again, while you're waiting for the ambulance.

All the best.

[ct ertz]

Wow! I am so glad you came through ok. And thak you for the advice. One never knows!

[madriscoll]

Great to hear from you Lou! I started building paper models because of your article in Naval History in 2000. The Monitor is still on my shelf.

[redwolf28386]

Wow! Amazing story! So glad you are still with us!

[LouCoatney]

Awesomely cool, madriscoll. You have no idea how great that makes a designer/author feel. I've still got my USNI author's pen.


Be sure to check out the naval games then on CoatneyHistory. Task Forces and Convoys: A Naval Chess Game is a family&friends quantum step up from classic Battleship and l'Attaque/Stratego/Dover Patrol, and it even has "historical" scenarios. I designed it for my then-7-year-old daughter, and she immediately began beating me in it.


Then there are also my fast&simple Naval Action WW2 miniatures rules. I'm designing this simple little paper model Kongo for exactly that use, since it's not available in plastic at 1:1200.

[Foute Man]

Originally Posted by LouCoatney

HOWEVER, comma, outside the ancient Pyro Shokaku and Pyro and also MiniShips/ESCI/Revell/etc. Yamato, 1:12xx plastic Japanese ships are scarce, so I'll downsize my Shiratsuyu destroyer and Jintsu light cruiser, but that still leaves the Japanese heavy cruisers and most crucially the Kongo class ... which I am now resuming work on.


Again, there is no excuse for American model and/or toy companies not coming out with 1:1200 plastic task force sets of WW2 U.S. and Japanese ships, having a battleship, a carrier, a couple cruisers, 4 destroyers, a sub, and for us (tiny) PT boats. American businessmen could never grasp the down on your knees on your living room rug play value - just like the admirals did for real in our Naval War College before WW2 and computers - of cheap task force sets.

The only US model company that comes to my mind to have 1:1200 1:1250 plastic kits of ww2 Japanese ships is Lindbergh, (the duo Yamato \ Zuikaku kit), so it actually proves your point.

Originally Posted by LouCoatney

I have free model ship plans on my early Lou Coatney: Home Page and at Free Cardstock Paper Model World War 2/II Warships

WARNING: I'm 74 and have had 4 heart attacks. The Tripod page may always be there (and I need to clean it up), but CoatneyHistory has to be renewed every year, so any game or model ship plans you could ever want should be printed off NOW
(Remember Fabrizio (Zio) Prudenziati's beautiful models suddenly disappearing from Internet with his death?).

I can assure you your paper models have been saved to the Webarchive (by me and others) multiple times. Have been trying to save the rest of your boardgame website as well, but that's an effort that will take a bit longer than an afternoon. But working on it.

Fabrizio (Zio) Prudenziati's website has been saved to the Webarchive as well, and I read some time ago on this forum someone restored his website and released it online again

In Michael Ainsworth's "Warships in Miniature" there's a 1:1200 plan of IJN Hiei. Are you interested in a scanned version of that plan, or is it already in your possession?

You might like this website with mini ships. You'll find a mini version of IJN Hiei, besides several carriers, seaplane tenders and offcourse the Yamato



For some reasons the webdesigner made some unfortunate choices in "decorating" his website with a background image, so it's a bit confusing to find your way on this site. But there is a "modern" section, with a JMSDF subsection (with another Hiei), a US Navy subsection, and Russian Nuclear submarine Kursk, and also an "allied" ww2 section as well

On another website you'll find this 1:1200 model of IJN Chokai



From the same designer, this is light cruiser IJN Oyodo, also in 1:1200

Sheets to be printed on grey and brown paper, so no need to paint the model digitally on your computer or with brush and paint



On the same blog you'll also find a 1:1200 HMS Roberts and a 1:1200 RMS Titanic

I remember you once wrote about your plans to release some of your modelsheets in a book, I hope this project has not been shelved forever, as I was more than interested in buying such a book

[Don Boose]

What a wealth of information there is in this thread! Thanks for that information and for the links, Foute Man.

And good wishes to you, Lou.

Don