Mike P

This is my forever project I will post the build sequence up to now. I’ve started the build in 2016. I had to install all radio gear and batteries as far back as possible due to the weight of the scale O.S. 300L engine which weighs almost 6 pounds in order to get the center of gravity right without adding several pounds of unneeded weight to the wing loading."..

Roger your 100% on the money As for Clarence “Kelly” Johnson and his skunk works the man and his team were national hero's and his SR71 Blackbird Just one of many the innovations needed for a mark 3+ Aircraft from titanium to high temperature lubricants had to be invented for this project which advanced all future designs. Mike P

Thanks for the kind words Bob here’s the Barbie skier I built it for my grand daughters sometime ago as there both out of college now. You can not see it in the video but the driver waves her left arm and the other ones head moves with the rudder input. Mike P

Gentleman thanks for all the feed back I was just lucky that a friend sent this client to me who had a Scentamentil attachment to the model. I told him he could purchase a cruise ship model on e bay for 5 or 6 hundred dollars brand new but he wanted his restored. I’ve been modeling since I was 10 years old and built Just about every kit Comet Models, Sterling Models, Scientific Models as well as Dumas models over the years. I just used the kits as a starting point and did the Reasearch on project to make it mine. I’m posting some photos just for your entertainment there all R/C and I could post Video of some if anyone likes. Hope this is ok.  I do realize that this 

web site is for historical ship model builders which I’m inspired by and plan to learn from. Thanking you all in advance. Mike P

8 hours ago, shipmodel said:

Hi Mike - 

 

I agree with the others that you are doing a great job with the restoration.  That's the good news.

The bad news is that it is not likely that you will ever be paid a reasonable return for your work.

 

Having done dozens of restorations, the most important commercial fact I have learned is that once the model is repaired, the repair cost is folded into the value of the model.

Imagine that you have a wrecked 1975 Dodge Charger.  You spend $10,000 worth of time and money fixing it back up.  It then becomes just another used car worth about $6,500.

Most times, unless the model itself is of high intrinsic value like a bone and ivory POW model, the repair will not pay for itself.  

Your model is a very nice example of an ocean liner model.  But it has some simplistic details and is not a model of a famous ship.

At this point in my career I do not repair models without a firm contract for the repair work itself.  I leave any subsequent sale to the client.  

 

I'm happy to discuss this further if you contact me at shipmodel@aol.com or phone at 718-855-1720

You can even come to the next meeting of the New York Shipcraft Guild in downtown Brooklyn next Tuesday, March 10. 

Contact me for the details if you are interested.

 

Sorry to be the bearer of unwanted news

Be.st of success to you.

 

Dan

Thanks for that druxey I was feeling kind of overpaid since modeling is so rewarding to me for so many years. But put that way since nothing you pay for it seems is less then $100.00 per hour these days I’m now feeling short changed just kidding. It was well worth the experience and the client was happy with the results. Thank You Mike P

Thanks to everyone who replied this is one wonderful web site. Mike P

Thanks for the reply Dan and may I add your builds are amazing. I get the message as I build r/c airplane models and have won some awards  at the WRAM show and Toledo Exspo with hundreds of hours work on them plus hundreds of dollars in materials and equipment at the end of the day if I were to try and sell them I would be lucky to get the cost of materials for a 1/4 scale model. I’ve come to realize that it’s all about the journey in researching and building scale models and the cost equals the satisfaction of the finished project. I spent 200+ hours and about $275.00 in supplies plus $220.00 for a display case and charged $2800.00 for the restoration I was curious as to transactions. Happy Purim 

1 hour ago, shipmodel said:

Hi Mike - 

 

I agree with the others that you are doing a great job with the restoration.  That's the good news.

The bad news is that it is not likely that you will ever be paid a reasonable return for your work.

 

Having done dozens of restorations, the most important commercial fact I have learned is that once the model is repaired, the repair cost is folded into the value of the model.

Imagine that you have a wrecked 1975 Dodge Charger.  You spend $10,000 worth of time and money fixing it back up.  It then becomes just another used car worth about $6,500.

Most times, unless the model itself is of high intrinsic value like a bone and ivory POW model, the repair will not pay for itself.  

Your model is a very nice example of an ocean liner model.  But it has some simplistic details and is not a model of a famous ship.

At this point in my career I do not repair models without a firm contract for the repair work itself.  I leave any subsequent sale to the client.  

 

I'm happy to discuss this further if you contact me at shipmodel@aol.com or phone at 718-855-1720

You can even come to the next meeting of the New York Shipcraft Guild in downtown Brooklyn next Tuesday, March 10. 

Contact me for the details if you are interested.

 

Sorry to be the bearer of unwanted news

Be.st of success to you.

 

Dan

13 hours ago, druxey said:

Well, first, Mike, how many hours' work was involved?

Thanks for the reply I’d say about 200+ hours and $275.00 in materials plus $220.00 for the display case.

I just completed restoring a model and would like to know what a fair price for the work would be.  I will post the photos in the

progression of repairs. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Mike

Thanks Schooner very interesting not to go on and on but my farther was on dozens of Libertys and Victory’s as Oiler up to engineer on triple expansion steam and turbines. He was in all war zones and did Murmansk more then ounce. Thanks to him taking me under his wing I earned my NYC High Pressure boiler operator Stationary Engineer license and unlimited refrigeration operators certificate. The boilers, steam engines, generators, and auxiliary’s were very similar to the engine room on a liberty as I recently was aboard the John W. Brown in Baltimore. The Merchant Mariners never given the respect and credit they earned, 1977 they were given veteran status a little late. There’s a book by Robert Carse A Cold Corner Of Hell the story of the Murmansk convoys 1941 to 1945. Of course when I finish the PERRY I’ll use one of the ships names my father sailed on as I have all his sign on and discharge papers and battle zone records from the coast guard and naval department. 

2 hours ago, schooner said:

Mike,

 

An interesting fact about the ship SS Robert E. Peary is that of the more than 2700 Liberty Ships built she held the record for the shortest building time - 4 days, 15 hours from keel laying to launching! Of course it was a publicity stunt with a lot of prefabrication work and unlimited manpower but still that is an amazing accomplishment. I suspect that record has never been broken for any large ship built since.  

 

Below is a link to a 1-hour wartime movie about the shipyard where the Peary was built. If you advance it to the 9 minute 20 sec mark it will show the construction and launching of the Peary. Pretty impressive.

Here's the link:

 

https://archive.org/details/cubanc_00004#

 

 

 

Thanks for the kind words Aidan. The cast metal fitting are roughly cast and require lots of attention I find holding them with tweezers and filing clean them drilling holes on blocks with small drill. Be careful as the attached eyes for installation are very easily broken. Aidan on this site there’s a fantastic build by Schooner of 1/192 scale WW2 Liberty Ship SS Stephen Hopkins lots of wonderful details and ideas it’s really well done Schooner did all the home work great detail you can use which is very difficult to come by and how he did it example cargo hatches.

Thank you Aidan just added some build photos not to keen on posting so edited last post and added photos.

11 hours ago, Aidan said:

 

 

 

On 10/5/2019 at 3:59 PM, Mike P said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    Found this small grease cup on e bay and added to lubricate prop shaft 

 

 

Thanks for the Wellcome and kind words  mtaylor, Kevin, Cog, and GranfpaPhil 

I must tell you gentleman that I’m in awe of the build blogs and how many talented craftsman

share there skills all I can say is Thank You All 

Just got to finishing the hull painting. 

Considering making modification on model to convert to CAM Liberty with one time Hawker 

Hurricane defense aircraft. Almost done with all the main fixtures getting down to detailing and paint.

This was the sea test of the hull under power.

Working on Deans Marine model Liberty Ship hope I’m going to get this right I have been making progress and will try to upload 

pictures. Well I see the photos weren’t a problem but adding captions under each photo is I would imagine the pictures explain 

the progress one other thing I would like to mention the last photo of the rudder is not scale as the kit cast resin rudder was a poor casting and the shaft was only  3/32 dia. Wire which I thought a little less then I preferred so it was replaced with one I fabricated. I know one of you will notice it doesn’t have the division half way down with right thrust added to correct fo the large prop torque on the full scale ship to save fuel but since I’m not going to cross the Atlantic I opted out on that detail.