Old Rentner
-
Posts
125 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Gallery
Events
Everything posted by Old Rentner
-
Having sprayed the undercoat I set to work on the very (too) many windows and portholes. I tried painting them wit a fine brush but was not steady enough. I then tried with a waterproof fine pen. The results were less than pleasing!
-
Here I go again! Having finished the ‘Mayflower’ with some difficulty I needed some more occupational therapy! In January of 1972 we found ourselves on the SS Canberra. My family and I were sailing from Southampton to Sydney. Our eldest son was eight years old at the time and to remind him of the boat we bought an Airfix model kit of the Canberra which we thought that he might build at a later date. Time went by and the Canberra kit joined the ‘Mayflower’ and went into ‘storage’ with the ‘Mayflower’ for the next 50 years. They travelled from Brisbane to Wellington to Germany with us and now, with my grown up son’s permission, I’m starting to try to build the SS Canberra! This build log will describe my problems and solutions (if any) with the build. As others have already commented, the kit was not very well made so features in the polystyrene are not often clear and pieces do not seem to fit too well sometimes. This time the first step that I took was, after washing the parts, to spray everything with a white undercoat! I soon found that the major difficulties with the build were going to be with the painting of the individual parts and applying the transfers (decals). As I found with the ‘Mayflower’ my hands were not too steady and I did have some problems masking and painting some small parts. The windows were a nightmare (see later).
-
Amazing - you can understand now why I was somewhat depressed with my efforts with Mayflower! I hope you have a happy new year and that you make many more ships. Thank you for your help to me. William
-
Thank you to everyone who offered help or who commented on my efforts. Even I am quite pleased with the rigging! It was quite a job for me and I am pleased that I did not have any sagging lines.
-
Do you just brush on the Antiquing Medium or do you have to brush on, wipe, wash away parts with solvent etc?
-
FM. Thank you for sending all the suggestions. It was very kind of you to take the trouble. My painting is not steady enough, unfortunately, and I’m not artistic enough to get worn/weathered finishes. I did try on spare bits but it looked horrible! Thank you again for the kit suggestions.
-
Patrick, I have been looking at your build logs. I am amazed that you go from bathrooms to Revell kits - you are a magnificent builder, both small and large, and I do wish that I had managed a much better paint job. I’m too old for a second boat however so I will just look, from time to time, at other experts builds. Thanks for your kind words, william
-
Thank you Steve, I tried my best! Having read more builds on this site I see, now, how I might have made the build better by using third party parts. Thank you again for your kind words. william
-
Thank you very much. Towards the end I did know about the third party blocks and different thread sizes but I did not think that I could manage them. I did not think that I could make my own ratlines either. I guess that if I were younger, I would try again and try with third party parts. I did make a kit set wooden drummer though. I don’t know if I’m allowed to show you? My Movie 25.mov My Movie 27.mov
-
Thank you for your kind words. What sort of rigging pieces do you mean - I doubt that I could make blocks and deadeyes and rig them - it was hard enough doing what I did!!!
-
My ‘build’ is finished. I found the painting particularly difficult. In a way, I’m sad it is finished because it kept me occupied, but on the other hand I’m glad that I made it. I’m sad it’s not up to the standard of the other builds on this site, particularly the wooden ones, but at least I finished. I will never know if it would have looked better with sails? P.S. I did manage to get a peep at the newer 30+ pages instruction manual! It was all pictures, some quite unintelligible to me, with no useful written instruction at all. In retrospect, my old instructions were far superior! FINISHED!
- 48 replies
-
- 10
-
-
My ‘second childhood’ build might be similar to an 8th. grade standard???
-
The finished water pumps were painted and are now ready to be installed! It was fiddling work and not as neat as i would have liked. The pumps were white-tacked to sprue to facilitate painting.
-
I used the Shipways manual a lot and recently discovered that in the Shipways’ Mayflower there were water pumps on the main deck. I decided to try to make a pair with some of the remaining sprue from my kit. More to follow….
-
My build was finished (at least, as far as I had determined to go) and I was wondering whether to spray the rigging, masts etc.? I had a test run with a few threads mounted on the sprue but I did not like the result. The build had taken about four months with many trials, missteps and tribulations. I had read the Model Shipways manual and Hackney’s book. The latter was not much help because I did not know many of the terms and the part numbers referred to Airfix parts and not Revell. There were too few illustrations for me as a novice! I understand that the later Revell kits had about three times the pages of my kit so if I had had more help I might have had more success and less mistakes? i managed to break the boomkin three time and it was so small that it was not easy to repair. I wished I had known how easy it was to damage and I would have added it last! The best I could do! In the end I was quite pleased to have finished and at my age I was reasonably pleased with the result. When I looked at many of the builds on this site I wondered whether to describe my build at all was appropriate because they were all so beautifully made. I guess that if I had known I might have made/bought wooden blocks and hand made the ratlines but under the circumstances I doubt that I could have managed. All I had to do was paint the sign. But…………. Model Shipways Manual. https://www.manualslib.com/manual/973192/Model-Shipways-Mayflower-1620.html Hackney NCL. Mayflower. Patric Stephens. 1970.
-
At the beginning of the build I had inserted the anchor rope before gluing the hulls together. When I came to spraying the hull, I removed the rope and then much later had great difficulty reinserting it! I pushed a paper clip through the two holes in the hull (a bit of a job lining the holes up!), I tied a fine thread to the paper clip and pulled it through, I tied and glued the thread around the end of the anchor rope because I had to make sure that it’s cut end came trough the hole and not a loop. It worked! I made two small hooks with copper wire and secured them to a line. I created a sort of double block with the cat head and secured it to the beakhead rail.
-
I attached the blocks for the braces, applied pva to the knots, let them dry and then amputated the excess thread. I tied most of the rigging and only seized the stays - very difficult for me with very fine thread. I tried to use everything supplied in the kit but there was no very fine thread. Securing a line - I tied the line, glued the knot and then pulled the knot inboard so that it was not visible. I glued a small thread coil over the knot inboard.
-
Bowsprit rigging. Mizzen rigging. Completed fore and aft rigging. I used the provided ratlines and had quite a lot of difficulty fitting them. I had already glued them to the deadeye chain plates and replaced the missing ‘chains’. I discovered that some were fitted to the wrong ratlines because the direction of the deadeyes did not line up with the shrouds. I separated the offending combinations and reglued them. In spite of correcting the geometry, the angles were still incorrect and when the deadeyes were mounted, the tops of the ratlines were either in front of or behind the mast. Further surgery was required to line up the ratlines! I guess, in retrospect, a warning in the instructions might have helped me and saved much anxiety and toil? More rigging blocks tied in place. Small wire hooks were made for the main garnet tackle.
-
Keeping the lines tight was difficult but progressed slowly. The main mast became more vertical. Many blocks were attached to stays and yards. Attachment ties were were ‘locked’ with pva glue and allowed to dry before excess threads were cut off. Excess threads removed.
-
The standing rigging did not look too difficult so I started to rig! I used only the thread supplied in the kit throughout with the exception of some thicker black thread from my wife’s work basket for the stays and some fine fawn thread for the flag halyards and to seiz the stays. I thought/hoped that as the rigging progressed the loose stays would be tightened. I have seen some sagging loose rigging lines on other models and really did not want any loose lines in this model.
-
The next task was to step the masts and get on with the rigging. I had decided not to use the plastic sails and only to try to rig the boat with non directly sail related (sheet, clew, bunt, martlet, and leech) lines. The instructions had no detail regarding fitting the masts. The fore and aft masts passed through holes in decks before being ‘anchored’ into their own ‘sockets’ on the main deck. Sadly, obviously in retrospect, the fore-aft positioning of the upper decks affected the fore-aft tilt of the masts and although the upper decks were fitted nicely into their places in the hull they were not vertically lined up regarding the mast holes and mountings. Again what to do? The fore mast was tilted forwards about 20o! In the end I cut off half of the base of the mast and repositioned it so that the mast became almost vertical. The main mast had a forward lean but I thought that I could pull it back with some of the rigging lines. I then set about painting the blocks and deadeyes.
-
I began to notice, as I manipulated and handled the hull that small flakes of paint were coming off - I had not undercoated it before painting - so I thought that if I retouched the the areas of paint loss and then sprayed the entire hull with a clear, matt, acrylic varnish, it might protect the parts that were being damaged. On a wind still day I took the hull outside, supported it upside down in an ice cream container, warmed the spray can, shook it for 5 mins., donned gloves and a face mast and gave the boat three coats of paint. I had one small ‘run’ which I was able to sandpaper away and respray. I did find that the hull paint was much more secure following the application of the varnish.
-
When I re-examined the three masts carefully I realized that despite vigorous perusal of the meager instructions, I had glued the top fore mast and the pennant mast 180 degrees out of line. i was unable/did not know how to unglue the pieces so what to do? I pondered the problem, thought that any corrective action would be too difficult and thought that no one would notice! I then realized that there were, in fact, many people who would notice and that somehow I had to correct the mistake. I took my courage in both hands and cut off the tops, turned them in the correct direction and glued them back together!! I think the result was ok?
Our Emblem ®
