MisterMeester

Well, with reluctance, I’ve decided to post a build log on this basic kit. For me, the operative word being basic. I purchased this model on impulse two years ago on an opportunistic basis for one reason. Nostalgia. I had it, and a few of the other Aurora Monster Models, 50+ years ago. But since purchasing it, and recently building my Academy 1/400 RMS Titanic, it has taken on a new purpose. That being to help learn entry level scale modeling skills, which will, no doubt, be necessary to improve on for my Trumpeter 1/200 RMS Titanic build. I looked at starting a build log for this kit on another community board, but that board was somewhat frustrating in that the engine that drove it seemed slow and clunky, annoying pop-up ads, 3rd party photo hosting, and it was unclear on exactly what a build thread on that site is. For me, posting a build log is not showing off. I’m fully aware, in the short time I’ve been here, that the talent on this board is immense. How could I possibly be showing off to that talent with such a basic kit? Contrary, this log is about receiving feedback on how I could, and can, do things better. Critique and suggestions are welcome. My wife and I watched the original Lon Chaney silent film a few nights ago, for reference and inspiration. Loved it. I’d seen “The Phantom of the Opera” many many years ago, but that must have been the Claude Rains version, as I know for sure it was not the Chaney film. First time I’ve watched that one. A couple of inaccuracies to point out: The Phantom (Erik) did not have long silver hair, as depicted in the box art. And, if there was any “prisoner”, it was not a guy behind bars. It was Christine, an opera understudy whom the Phantom was obsessed with. And so it begins….. This is as far as I've gotten. I have a bar clamp on order for the right leg. In my, thus far, short scale modeling career, I've become somewhat disappointed in THE hobby store in my locale. It's lacking a fair bit and I've had to resort to ordering online for quite a few items. I don't want to use rubber bands as I don't trust that I will be able to prevent those from coming into contact with the liquid cement. I think I did a pretty good job on sanding the left leg inseam, but..... ....sloppy work on the outer seam of the left leg. Particularly up near the belt line where those trouser folds are. The other pieces are on hold, for now. Awaiting the bar clamp, as mentioned, and also needle sand sticks for the arms on order too. My hobby shop didn't have those either. Me thinks the sleeve folds in the arms are going to make for some tricky sanding. Thanks for looking. Suggestions are welcome. Cheers, Mark

Airbrush station venting gaps issue resolved. Not pretty, but it works.

Thanks all. Hamilton...haha....yes...born and raised in BC! Moved to Sask in 2016. Wife has family here. To answer your question...seems Rider fans are generally neutral toward Lions fans here. It's more Winnipeg, Calgary and Edmonton they have an aversion to. But mostly Winnipeg. That's been my observation. Side note: the step son-in-law was born and raised here, but he's a Stamps fan. Says he could never cheer for the Riders. I've met a few like that. I think it has to do with them growing up with a team that was generally very bad when they were kids. Anyhoo....build update.....not much to say. I've still be doing a fair bit of research and planning. I can finally say, however, that I have physically actually started as of tonight. Did some scraping of the mold nubs on the bottom of the hull. Very minimal, so far, but it's a start. I've ordered a underhull plating kit from Maritime Models, so I'm going to leave the seam line on the bottom to help assist with getting that aligned right. I also have the stern counter plating kit from Midwest Model Shop. That arrived a few days ago. Still not sure about the seam line for where that gets laid down. I'll probably sand it down. For sure the seam line on the upper aft stern will get sanded, but not until after I plot the four missing portholes that go there. Next up will be marking the hull for the many corrections identified on the Port side, as well as plotting which portholes get filled, which get drilled and which don't. I'm still not planning on using the LED set, but I have decided to drill the portholes anyway and go with a resin portholes/windows aftermarket kit. My original plan was to use a pencil on the portholes. That plan was based on a tip I came across on the "Trumpeter Titanic 1/200th Model Only Building Tips and Tricks" FB group (sheesh, that title is so long I still don't have it memorized). It's a cool way of simulating glass. Anyhoo, what changed my mind is the distorted portholes on the Port and Stbd Quarters. To fix those requires filling, then drilling. If I'd gone the pencil route, I would then need to back those portholes from the inside with styrene to "colour" them in. Problem with that is they would then be more recessed than all the other penciled in portholes that wouldn't have been drilled out. Hence, the decision to just drill them all and fit clear resin in each one, thus making it all uniform. The actual drilling won't happen until the aftermarket kit gets to me. I want to drill some test holes in styrene and then fit each of the different size resins so as to know the correct size drill bit to use for each of the various sizes. So, that's were it's at. More to come soon. Thanks for looking, Mark

I thought it's time to get my build log started, even though I haven't actually started the build yet. Soon. I've been quite busy with research, planning and start up. Essentially 50 years since I built scale models, so lots to do in preparing for this build. Start up is still in progress. Before anything else, I first off just want to put out a big thanks to Evan, aka Force9, for his very detailed and resources rich Titanic 1/200 build log. I’ve learned so much from his thread, before I even begin my Titanic, and I would have missed so much without this information. Thanks Evan. Okay. Some preliminary stuff.... This was my work station for my Academy 1/400 Titanic. All building, and the limited painting I did, was here. Not exactly conducive to the Trumpeter 1/200 version. My new workstation for the Trumpeter 1/200 Titanic. The pool table is being sequestered for a few years. That's fine. We didn't play much anyway. The son-in-law helped me carry the 4x8 plywood in yesterday. Originally purchased for the electrician to install the pool table light fixture. Stowed in the garage since. Spidey senses must have known there'd be a use for it again. The task lamp is the same one as with the small table. I just drilled a 1/2" hole in the plywood for it. Now it's interchangeable, as I will still be using the small work station. On the left, I put the binder together just yesterday and today. Some inspiration from Evan, again, on that, but I give myself credit as well for recognizing this need. Throughout my entire working career, I have always been about organization. It's half of it. Even as a Deckhand, organization was key. An organized and clean deck is a good working deck. Same goes for building models, I figure. The book on the right was recently purchased online and just arrived today. I'm optimistic this will be a valuable resource toward my build. A closer view of the "build binder". Not sure what else to call it. I'm an older salt, and thus somewhat old school. Digital pictures and screenshots are fine to a point. But, for the most part, I like the physical copy in my hand. Much (probably most) of what is in this binder are digital screenshots. Anyhow, lots going on with startup. My new Airbrush Station. The new airbrush kit just arrived today! And one more pic for now. One problem with the Spray Booth venting is insulating the gaps at the window. Been pondering this for days now (the Spray Booth arrived last week). Stuffing bubble wrap in the gaps proved to be a Mickey Mouse solution. Got the idea of foam in my head as a solution. Placed an order for some poly foam yesterday. It's coming from the US, however, so a solid resolution here might be awhile. Suggestions are welcome. Anyhoo, that's it for now. Lots more to come. I've ordered five after market kits for the model, none of which have arrived as yet. My first approach to the model itself will be addressing the hull. No brainer there, I suppose, but in particular, how to approach the hull inaccuracies and porthole inaccuracies. Regarding the portholes, I came across a tip on Gene Davis' FB page (the title of which is too lengthy to repeat) that I most likely will go with. I like it. I don't plan on using the LED lighting kit for my model and this tip appears to me to be a great option for the portholes for those modelers not doing the LEDs. Stay tuned. In the meantime....suggestions are welcome. Thanks for looking and cheers, Mark

Thanks Peter. Cheers, Mark

Dutch. My Grandfather was from The Hague. Not many of us here on this side of the pond. Cheers, Mark

Yes, Trumpeter.

And how 'bout those Canucks, eh?!

I forgot to resize the images I attached to my Gallery album. Is there any way I can delete those images so I can attach the correct 1600x1200 max resized images in their stead? Thanx, Mark

Hello everyone, Thank you very much for allowing me to join this group. Good to be here. I joined MSW a week ago at the suggestion of another member here, but haven’t gotten around to an intro until now. I’m a 62 year old retired Deckhand/Deck Officer formerly with the Canadian Coast Guard of the Federal Government of Canada. I was at that career for 35 years and 4 months. Born and raised on the coast of British Columbia, I currently live in Warman, Saskatchewan (just North of Saskatoon). I moved here in 2016 for family reasons. I am essentially a beginner scale modeler. Here is my modeling story, hopefully in brief……. I just recently finished my first completed scale model build in 50+ years. I had finally gotten around to checking out THE hobby store here in Saskatoon 5 years after moving here. It was an unplanned opportunistic visit. Walked out with an Academy 1/400 Titanic and another much simpler non ship model. That was in June 2022. Both models sat untouched all of last winter. The non ship model was purchased mainly for a nostalgic reason and is yet to be built. I’ll be starting that one soon and I intend to post a build log for that in the Non-Ship forum. There is more than just the nostalgic reason for that build now. It will be a great model to develop skills. Detail painting and airbrushing in particular. As for the recently “completed” kit….that would be the 1/400 Titanic. I started it in early November and “completed” it mid January. I will post some pictures and text about it in the Completed Gallery soon. In the meantime, I just want to say that I started that model without any prior research or a plan. Just dove in, having no idea what to expect after a 50+ year hiatus from plastic scale modeling. It is also the most complex plastic scale model I have ever attempted, by far. I was somewhat disappointed with it, in the end. I attribute this to two aspects. My skill level (essentially a green as grass beginner) and the model itself as manufactured (historical inaccuracies; fit issues; and fine detail painting required where I would have preferred parts to attach). Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed the process and want another crack at it. Therefore, I’m going bigger. I’ve purchased the Trumpeter 1/200 Titanic. It arrived yesterday 😊. I have read the pinned article “For Beginners – A Cautionary Tale”. I intend to not give up. Many lessons already learned from the 1/400 build, and many many more lessons to come, and learn, and skills to develop. I’ve been researching the 1/200 quite a bit, the last two weeks. I am already aware that it too has inaccuracies. Some of which I will deal with, whereas others I will accept as is. But I digress. This build will not start for quite some time. I will begin a build log on that project when the time comes, but in the meantime I intend to focus on much smaller and simpler builds to develop my lacking skills. One final note….a brother of mine gave me a Corel 1/25 “Sloup”, Modello SM 43, wooden kit as a Christmas gift some 25+ years ago. It is a model of a small French F/V. I still have it. I actually started it, way back, but then after three rows of the planking done, I got to the difficult task of needing to bend the next rows for the hull’s buttock lines where they meet the transom. I tried, but eventually gave up. I learned years later that there’s more to it than simply holding and bending said planks in the steam of a boiling kettle of water, as the instructions indicated. I also learned on this site that difficulty with planking is the single most deterrent to a wooden ship modeler from continuing. That is actually comforting to now know. But I digress. Point being I intend to continue and complete this kit as well, but that’s a few years down the road. Again, thank you very much for the privilege. I look forward to learning many aspects and techniques of scale modeling from the wealth of expertise here. Cheers, Mark Meester