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SS France by ChrisSC - FINISHED - Airfix - 1/600 - PLASTIC


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After enjoying building the Airfix 1/600 RMS Queen Elizabeth I purchased as many 1/600 Liners as I could find. The rarest one is the Airfix SS France which I finally found on ebay at a high but reasonable price. She is my current project but I have to be careful since messing her up and trying to replace her would not be easy.

So far she is in prime with the propeller shafts and stabilizers installed. I really would have preferred to leave them until near the end of the build but they needed a lot of filler which would have messed up the paint job. I'll just have to watch out for them as they are very delicate. Once I get the hull painted and mounted on the stand they will be much less vulnerable to damage.

The holes for the shaft supports were just a mess and the hull had quite a bit of warp to it so I filled the support holes first from the inside with styreen sheet and then putty on the outside. I also glued in a brace of styrene sheet to help hold the two halves of the warped hull together. She needs a little more filler before paint.

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Thanks Yves. Bill, so far I have acquired the Airfix 1/600 RMS Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth 2, Mauritania, Queen Mary 2, and SS France. I know there was a Canberra made and I believe that might be the only Airfix ocean liner I am missing. I also have the Revell 1/570 Queen Mary which I started but wound up putting off. 

 

The Revell Queen Mary is going to be a major project as it is very out of proportion. The whole bridge area is way too flat and the deck house is way too high towards the stern. I'm not a rivet counter by any means but it's so far off that to me it looks very bad. Once I started it I wound up starting to half way scratch build the bridge and I decided I would just wait on that whole model and maybe start from scratch on a lot of it at a later date. I am pretty new to modeling so I think I would be more comfortable building a few more that don't need major surgery and work on getting my skills up for so much scratch building.

 

I like the way the Airfix models are set up much more than the Revell Queen Mary. The Queen Mary also has lots of very exaggerated details such as the funnel rings and deck planking that would probably not look good melded together with styreen sheets. I may just do everything from the hull up myself when I pick up some more experience.

These are some photos of what I started doing on Queen Mary before deciding to wait until I feel I somewhat know what I'm doing lol!

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3 Bridge - Copy - Copy.jpg

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1 hour ago, ChrisSC said:

Thanks Yves. Bill, so far I have acquired the Airfix 1/600 RMS Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth 2, Mauritania, Queen Mary 2, and SS France. I know there was a Canberra made and I believe that might be the only Airfix ocean liner I am missing. I also have the Revell 1/570 Queen Mary which I started but wound up putting off. 

Chris,

 

Here is a picture of a 1976 French Airfix catalogue, showing all liners available at 1/600: 

DSC04720.thumb.JPG.d3a2d48881b59828c56600956822b95a.JPG

 

My next AIRFIX catalog is from 1990 (quantum leap there...) and the liners are no longer available. They were all dropped from production, sometime in between.

 

Yves

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thats going to look fantastic

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Superb job of the windows  - infact the whole paint job so far, your skills  make me envious, I remember this kit very well as I also built her  when I was about 12  (but did a right hatchet job on her)

 

Really loving these liners you are bringing back to life.

 

OC.

Current builds  


28mm  Battle of Waterloo   attack on La Haye Saint   Diorama.

1/700  HMS Hood   Flyhawk   with  PE, Resin  and Wood Decking.

 

 

 

Completed works.

 

Dragon 1/700 HMS Edinburgh type 42 batch 3 Destroyer plastic.

HMS Warspite Academy 1/350 plastic kit and wem parts.

HMS Trafalgar Airfix 1/350 submarine  plastic.

Black Pearl  1/72  Revell   with  pirate crew.

Revell  1/48  Mosquito  B IV

Eduard  1/48  Spitfire IX

ICM    1/48   Seafire Mk.III   Special Conversion

1/48  Kinetic  Sea Harrier  FRS1

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You are doing what looks like a fantastic job from where I'm sitting Chris.

 

if you are interested in competing your 1/600 set here are a couple of possibilities, one is pretty expensive, (aren't they almost always!) and the other would need a bunch of retro reworking with brake fluid or something to strip the paint and try and start over.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Airfix-SS-Canberra-1-600-scale-model-ship-kit-05201-Sealed-box/124307291105?hash=item1cf14abbe1:g:Zz8AAOSwBNRfP8gQ

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Airfix-600-scale-free-enterprise-11-series-2-f201s-nearly-built/133513376340?hash=item1f16047254:g:8OAAAOSw6JlfVf9a

Lou

 

Build logs: Colonial sloop Providence 1/48th scale kit bashed from AL Independence

Currant builds:

Constructo Brigantine Sentinel (Union) (On hold)

Minicraft 1/350 Titanic (For the Admiral)

1/350 Heavy Cruiser USS Houston (Resin)

Currant research/scratchbuild:

Schooner USS Lanikai/Hermes

Non ship build log:

1/35th UH-1H Huey

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks. I've been dealing with my Mom's health issues so I haven't had time to work on my 1/600 France. Today I took a little break and did some painting. Not so sure about the color I chose but the ship had green decks. This color is a gray that has a green tint. I really don't want to paint it a dark green so this is what's going to be on there.

25 Paint.jpg

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Crazy Amazing work  - Superb.

 

OC.

Current builds  


28mm  Battle of Waterloo   attack on La Haye Saint   Diorama.

1/700  HMS Hood   Flyhawk   with  PE, Resin  and Wood Decking.

 

 

 

Completed works.

 

Dragon 1/700 HMS Edinburgh type 42 batch 3 Destroyer plastic.

HMS Warspite Academy 1/350 plastic kit and wem parts.

HMS Trafalgar Airfix 1/350 submarine  plastic.

Black Pearl  1/72  Revell   with  pirate crew.

Revell  1/48  Mosquito  B IV

Eduard  1/48  Spitfire IX

ICM    1/48   Seafire Mk.III   Special Conversion

1/48  Kinetic  Sea Harrier  FRS1

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Thanks Bill and Old Collingwood. I permanently glued down the decks and bridge. I also added window decals and some photo etch doors. It took some filing but it went together pretty good for such an old and warped model. I think I'm going to add some styrene posts on one of the stern decks as it looks a little empty. It also still needs some seams closed up. Then on to the railings and other details.

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That is looking so nice  - this is not an exaggeration, you have improved even over what the company themselves could do.

 

OC.

Current builds  


28mm  Battle of Waterloo   attack on La Haye Saint   Diorama.

1/700  HMS Hood   Flyhawk   with  PE, Resin  and Wood Decking.

 

 

 

Completed works.

 

Dragon 1/700 HMS Edinburgh type 42 batch 3 Destroyer plastic.

HMS Warspite Academy 1/350 plastic kit and wem parts.

HMS Trafalgar Airfix 1/350 submarine  plastic.

Black Pearl  1/72  Revell   with  pirate crew.

Revell  1/48  Mosquito  B IV

Eduard  1/48  Spitfire IX

ICM    1/48   Seafire Mk.III   Special Conversion

1/48  Kinetic  Sea Harrier  FRS1

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considering the age of the kit, you would not know, lovely work

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I got a lot of railings done on my France. My dog bumped me and my elbow crushed the bow railings after they were glued on......straightened them out as best I could. The PE also had a lot of waves to it from shipping which didn't come out that great. I found the railings on this ship the hardest ones to do of the four models I have done. Lots of long straight runs and curves.

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51 Railings.jpg

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