vossy

Rear cockpit now done, although lots of details left to do.  The cabin roof is still not glued on, and the mahogany trim below it needs to be finished once the full handrail is done.  The front seats are also just dry-fitted, but the rear is all glued in.  Because it's a static model, I skipped a step to make part of the rear deck removable.
 
The instructions are interesting -- they say to finish the seats "with your favorite material", which implies regular varnish.  That would be simpler, but it leaves the seats out of step with the finish on the rest of the boat, so I did all of the rear (and the front seats too) with the epoxy/spray treatment.
 
The epoxy/spray is not something you want to do a piece at a time, so I'm doing it in batches.  My plan is just one more batch after this if construction permits that.
 
Regards,
David

Let me explain briefly how I am approaching the butchering of the deck.
 
First, we take a deep breath and try to forget how much this kit is (+PE)...☹️
This is our starting point, a deck already butchered at the bow: 

Using a large file, we file away a few of the protruding molding, preserving the hatch. At that stage there is no coming back:

The base for the kiosk also has to go, since the PE will cover everything. Then, we tape the template to the deck and I drill some holes to delineate the shapes that will have to be cut. Basically a hole in each corner:

Then a rough contour of the shapes is done and we start cutting. Of course, we start with the starboard side (away from the hull), since the fabrication of the plastic "lace", weakens drastically the entire deck. At that stage, I am actually happy that Trumpeter molded the hull in a very thick way, even though it is nightmare to grind, cut and file.

Every time an opening is done, I verify with the PE that everything lines up nicely. The hole for the gun is my reference. That is all for tonight, folks.
 
Yves
 
 
 

Good job. I too am working on this model. One thing though; gloss paint shows more imperfections than flat/matt paint because it is shiny, and thus highlights any imperfections. This edict is true on both small model projects and large houses. Most houses, at least here in Australia, will be painted with a semi-gloss/low sheen exterior as opposed to a ultra shiny gloss level which will only highlight the imperfections.
 
Cheers
 
Chris
 

Greetings everyone,
 
Slow going in the shipyard this week, not much accomplished due to work. While I still wait for my planking to arrive (delayed for some reason that Amazon can sort out), I figured that I would do a little work on some of the main deck structure. For now, I focused on the forward staircase and coal locker.
 
Fairly simple build, the most tedious part was placing all of the stair risers and runners.

 
One thing that I noticed was the instructions call for the corner posts of the coal locker walls to be set flush with the front of the walls. Dry fitting these pieces would not allow for the walls to be in a straight line with the top beam, keeping the precut holes in the decking lined up. I had to cheat the corner posts forward a little to get everything to line up right. Not a huge deal, since personally I think the wall set back about a millimeter looks better than being flush.

 
One little thing that I like to do on my models is leave little notes in places that will never be seen, but I know they are there. Usually I put the build start date in the hull, unfortunately I forgot to snap a picture on this one, but here is just one of the others that are on this build.

 
One thing that I am going to have to get in the habit of doing is washing my hands a little better when dealing with flat white paint. It seems to pick up even the most minuscule pieces of dirt and transfers it to the bright white surface. Oh well, nothing a little touch-up paint can’t take care of.
 
 
A little shameless borrowing of ideas, I loved the look of adding posters to the front walls of the coal lockers. The idea came from Bruce Evans' build, a beautiful addition to dress up the walls. I know that the Mark Twain poster is not late 19th century and Dinsneyland wasn’t around then, but I liked the picture and thought added a nice touch. Besides, they are small enough that unless you are really looking, you can’t tell.

 
That's all for now. Until next time, thanks for looking.
 
-Brian

Another beautiful build David.  Congratulations.
 
Chris
 

Another beautiful build David.  Congratulations.
 
Chris
 

Another beautiful build David.  Congratulations.
 
Chris
 

Cabin roof is done.  The mahogany roof edging you see is attached to the boat and isn't finished yet.  I'll finish it along with the mahogany in the rear.  The roof is still removable and I won't fix it until the end.
 
Regards,
David

A final picture for this module, inserted into the main hull:

I still have a couple of details to finish: The Pressure hull under the front planes link, some weathering and a couple of details inside the torpedoes room, to make it even more realistic. Most likely my next efforts will be directed towards the hull. It is a big piece, to say the least.
 
I hope you have enjoyed the building of the first part of that enormous kit.
 
Yves

Fantastic model of the most beautiful building on the planet! Everyone should aspire to visit the real thing at least once in their lives. Great job. Congratulations.
 
Cheers
 
Chris
 

Fantastic model of the most beautiful building on the planet! Everyone should aspire to visit the real thing at least once in their lives. Great job. Congratulations.
 
Cheers
 
Chris
 

Fantastic model of the most beautiful building on the planet! Everyone should aspire to visit the real thing at least once in their lives. Great job. Congratulations.
 
Cheers
 
Chris
 

Fantastic model of the most beautiful building on the planet! Everyone should aspire to visit the real thing at least once in their lives. Great job. Congratulations.
 
Cheers
 
Chris
 

The eels are almost completed. I just have to apply some wash and the silver scratches of the loading: 

Most of the torpedoes with one or two exceptions, will be invisible. Rather sad!
 
Yves

Hello everyone,
 
A little more work in the shipyard over the past few days. 
 
I finally made the decision that since I wanted to do a stained deck on my Chaperon and I just couldn't get over the roughness of the "finger joint" between the main deck pieces, that I am going to go with adding a layer of planking. This will serve two purposes, to cover up the joint as well as help hide the deck extension I added. This will also allow me to show individual planks instead of one long one running from bow to stern.
 

 
While I sat and pondered what I wanted to do about the "finger joint" issue on the main deck and waiting on my order of extra basswood planks, I did a little work on the boiler. Instead of just the plain 'ol square box, I decided to add a few extra details. Not that they will really be seen that much, but I thought it added a nice touch.
 
First I added the individual boiler tops and rivets along the seams of the boiler cover.
 
Next, the boiler doors may be a little hard to open without handles. So I added them along with sides for the ash pan.



Now for a little touch up on the boiler paint and install the pop-off valves, gauges, steam lines and drum, then this will be ready to install once i get the planking down.
 
Until next time.
 
Thanks again for looking.
 
-Brian
 

I have painted the bottom and the side up to the waterline in Hunter Green.  Thanks again to Grant (gjdale) for his excellent tip above about using varnish to seal the edge of the masking tape.  The edge really looks good.  It will be finished with a striping tape, but having a clean edge to work with will make that better.
 
The instructions are ambiguous about when to do this.  In one part, they say that they recommend painting the boat at the end.  But I didn't want to be taping the boat with the cabins and details on, and this way I can use the same epoxy finish on the entire exterior hull.
 
So build a few more mahogany parts, and then tackle the epoxy finish on the mahogany.
 
Regards,
David

Good day everyone,
 
A little work has been done on the build. Unfortunately not a whole lot since this thing called a job tends to get in the way of my fun time. Anyway, I have planking complete on the hull as well as filled, sanded and painted. I made the mistake of using gloss paint in the hopes that it would fill in some of the voids i may have missed during filling and sanding. Nothing that cannot be remedied with a little sandpaper and some flat white. This is my first painted build so I dealing with a learning curve when it comes to painting. On the good side, this will give me the opportunity to apply a little more filler and clean the hull up a bit.
 

 
 
One thing I did notice is that when I installed the keel on the bow, I some how managed to make it a little long. Now the deck pieces are about 1/4 too short cover the bow. Not sure how I managed to do that. Must have given the bow a little too much rake when planking. I may be able to extend the bow a little to cover this up since I am still not real happy with finger joint on the deck pieces and will probably lay down my own planking. I'll give this some more thought and hopefully come up with some sort of solution. 
 

 

Denis, do you mean this bad boy or the B52 kit ?  I build this B36 kit probably thirty years or more ago, can't remember if it was a Revell or Monogram kit but it was advertised at the time as being the largest wingspan model airplane available. It's been hanging from the rafters in my cellar since I built it and some parts have fallen off due to glue failure and some of the decals are coming off too; been trying to salvage the decals with Microscale's Sol and Gloss to reattach and reseal them. Plus it is covered in dust which I have to periodically take it down and dust it off without doing any damage.  Wingspan by the way is 38-39 inches. Don't remember what scale but I'm guessing 1:72 maybe. (That's my B17 to the right of it)
 

 
 

For years now, I have been thinking about building R.M.S. Titanic. Just like many other people, I have always had a keen interest in her history. By moving through this build, I am looking forward to gaining even more information about this amazing piece of machinery and how she helped shape our history going forward.

            Just recently, the opportunity came upon me to do so. Last Sunday I woke up made, my coffee and breakfast sat down in the living room and proceeded to figure out what I was going to do for the day. While sitting there I received a message from a colleague of mine in my model club. He asked if I would be interested in building a ship for someone. I was intrigued about this notion, as this would be my first commission build, so I replied to his message and said yes I would. He put me in touch with the person and the next thing I know is I now have a 1/400 scale model of R.M.S. Titanic in my shop.

            This build will include many firsts for me. My first ship of this scale, first time doing PE and First-time laying wood veneer.

            I hope everyone enjoys the build as I go along, and I will be open to any comments or suggestions as we move through.


 
Thanks,

Craig K

Hello from New Zealand - my first post although I've been a casual browser for many years! I recently decide in my older (wiser?) years to build a tall ship and as the Endeavour is a well known vessel in NZ and Australian history, decided this was it. The A.L. kit was available locally (NZ) and here I am. I'm a reasonably experienced modeller (scratch built rc scale aircraft - mostly WW1) and have a fairly well equipped, but untidy, workshop.
My hope is that I can ask questions of the vastly more experienced crowd here on MSW. My hope is that this model can be completed, unlike my previous attempt (another story).
So, enough waffle - I scanned the kit's contents, found the expected generally OK quality, have read a few builds on other forums and decided to perch here and share my stumbling beginnings.
First, a base was built to secure the 6mm ply keel to while the 6mm frames were all fitted squarely, and the decking pondered. I also marked out and pre-drilled the mast holes using card angle guides and my small drill-press to ensure the lower mast sections were all lined up!
I'm looking forward to some relaxing fun!
 
Pat

Folks,this model is the realization of a childhood dream. As long as I can remember, I have had a passion for submarines and more specifically for the German Type VIIc. A few years ago, Revell Germany proposed a very impressive model of the Type VIIc at the scale of 1/72 that was a nice match for their re-issue of the Matchbox Flower Class Corvette. 


A lot of negative things can be said about the Chinese quality and products, but in the domain of plastic scale models, they created a renewal, a revival of that discipline that no American or European companies have been able to even get close to. It started with their Bismarck and USS-Arizona in the scale of 1/200 and they have been relentlessly offering multiple models each time, bigger and bigger. The upcoming Titanic at 1/200 is another proof of their energy and commitment to this form of Hobbies. The models offered, the molding, packaging, artwork of the contents, quality of instructions and the size are absolutely unmatched by European or American manufacturers. Tamiya, being Japanese, remains in the leading group, but you pay for it.

Their 1/48 U-Boat U-552 kit is probably the biggest kit that can be found on the market today, at least it is in my small collection.  The following shows the box weighing 22 pounds resting against some of my pinball machines: 

That model is massive with a length of 1.440 meters, near 5 feet. The kit includes more than 1100 parts and is extremely well presented, packaged and molded as are the modern Trumpeter kits. All the parts are arranged into three large boxes with delicate parts carefully wrapped with bubble shields. The main hull and rear hull are located in their respective boxes, impervious to shocks and mishandling.

Three booklets come with the kit: Instructions for assembly (70 pages), instructions for colors (20 pages) and a flyer for painting and assembling the 50 some crew members. 
 
on the PE side, it is very limited and spartan: 

However, two PE solutions are available:
- Eduard with 3 sheets of PEs for the hull and conning tower 
- RCSubs with a fantastic offering (slightly more expensive than Eduard but ten times better and more protypical) of PEs, including the infamous Enigma machine in the scale of 1/48 - https://www.rcsubs.cz/index.php/photo-etched-sets/20-sets-for-u-boat-viic-1-48-trumpeter-06801

 
I have not made up my mind yet, but I am leaning very strongly towards RCSubz which allows to redo the entire deck and part of the hull, in brass. They are currently sold out but working hard to produce other PE kits.
 
The amounts of parts is overwhelming: 



I have not replicated the instructions here, as it can be easily found on the Internet. Instructions are very precise, clear and are leading you step by step, towards a successful completion of that large model. 
 
The hull is provided with a grey side and a clear side: 


A lot has been said about that kit and numerous people have built it on the WEB. The best realization (in my humble opinion), being a French modeler who turned that kit into a museum piece with a galore of extra details. His Build Log can be found here: http://www.laroyale-modelisme.net/t20510-u-552-trumpeter-echelle-1-48 (in French): 


Here is another shot from a different builder, showing a beat-up and heavily rusty Type VII (Revell kit): 

People have been complaining about the clear acetate used to mold the Port side of the submarine and the starboard of the conning tower (mishap!!) and wished that both parts were molded with polystyrene. The Trumpeter kit insists mostly on the inside of the U-Boat and it is clearly what the Chinese tried to do with this massive kit. The Trumpeter kit is an enlargement of the Revell kit and all mistakes of the original Revell kit regarding the hull, have been carried over to the Trumpeter model. 
 
Despite these limitations, that kit remains an absolute must have (for submarine enthusiasts) and offers incredible potential for kit bashing and a level of details rarely obtained in naval plastic kits.
 
I am not planning to start the building of this kit any time soon (other priorities to take care of) but still wanted to present it to you and perhaps get the motivation to tackle the biggest plastic model of my life.
 
Yves
 

If no one has a hard, fast answer, when I had a case built, the builder said measure and add 4" to the length and width for the inside measurement.   The outside will vary on glass thickness and whether you use decorative or structural framing at the corners, etc.   Your mileage may vary as this isn't set in concrete.   

For anyone who doesn't know, Heyl provides a 1 to 2 page roundup of early american steamships, including many which served in the Civil War. And he provides a drawing of each and every ship. Here's the links and enjoy!
 
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015024193131;view=1up;seq=5
 
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015024193149

This looks like a fabulous new model. Do you have any idea of the dimensions? I am extremely tempted to get this one myself.
 
Cheers
 
Chris
 

This looks like a fabulous new model. Do you have any idea of the dimensions? I am extremely tempted to get this one myself.
 
Cheers
 
Chris