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RMS Queen Elizabeth +++FINISHED+++


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7 hours ago, Chewbacca said:

That is quite strange.  It looks as though it is meant to be there as some form of reinforcement plate but none of the reference photos I have of QE or the ones I can find on www show it. 

Hello Chewbacca, I think it is a mould insert for the anchor points (it forms a complete circle around that area and is just visible in the photo)- there is another similar to this on one of the aft decks where a staircase goes down to a lower top deck.

 

Cheers,

 

Ray

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On 24/07/2018 at 19:13, Ray S said:

It is only when you do a real close-up like in the last photo do you realise that something is not right! There is a large arc right by the EE in Queen that even though I know it is there on both sides (now) I cannot see it with the unaided eye...

PHEW!!!

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23 hours ago, Lawzer said:

PHEW!!!

Ah Lawzer, I did say unaided eye - I need high powered glasses to see anything close up, so it could well be highly visible!😃

 

Despite that hiccup, I have made some progress. The photo-etch railings have started to go on. Firstly, I put them on four of the stairways underneath where the port davits will go. They needed a little shaping, but using said high powered glasses I managed reasonably well:

 

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One looks like it was just slightly over-large, but to my unaided eye(!) it looks alright to me. It was quite interesting trying to measure out the railings and to remember that some needed a slight bend round to the stairs, and that you needed to put a stanchion at that end! Cue a couple of wasted sections of railing due to forgetting this simple principle...(to save any undue distress this may cause, said wasted sections did get used elsewhere as I had followed the rule of doing the larger sections first and that allowed me to cut them down correctly for the next bit).

 

Then it was a case of fitting the davits. Each one has two ejection pin marks, and each one needed the location tabs sanding to fit the slots. It was with some relief that I found the davits did fit above the railings.During this operation, it came to my attention that I was one davit missing - I looked high and low for it, then found it skulking under the sheet of paper that has the flags printed on it, in the box. It looks like even high powered glasses are not good enough for me! I have also glued the funnels on, and from the front at least it looks like they are vertical - it took some doing because one was insistent on sitting skew-wiff.

 

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While I was posting (or attempting to post) that last photo, I accidentally hit 'Ctrl H' instead of 'Ctrl V' and found my internet history popped up on the screen. Yes, I know H is nowhere nearish V on the keyboard.

 

Anyway, thanks for looking and the comments, and I am now wondering just how long I have left modelling!

 

All the best,

 

Ray

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello all! Shortly after I put those last photos on here, I discovered that White Ensign did a photo-etch set for this ship! I tried to track one down on White Ensigns website (the American version) but could not get any details up on screen. What was odd was that I could not get onto Toms Modelworks either to see if they had anything, so I have kept things as they are. The big improvement would have (of) been for the davits. The plastic ones are functional, but could do with refining.

 

Anyway, on Sunday I managed to go through all the lifeboats and got them fitted. That was quite a simple process, and it showed that I got the davits fairly well aligned as all the boats went on a treat, and I only needed to trim fore and aft where the runners were attached.

 

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As you can see from the above photo, photo-etch is now being added. I decided to fit the railings on the top deck first. I went for the two-bar rails along here. They went on quite well too, which meant I had managed to fit the majority of the davits snugly.

 

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I started at the fore end of the deck and worked aft. Most of the etch was straightforward and just involved measuring with a pair of wheel-controlled dividers, transferring that to the railings and trimming. The number of times that the measurement coincided with stanchion spacings was phenomenal, and it meant very little cut and shunting. I did need to make a few bends in places, but all were at (just about) right-angles so was quite easy. On one or two (well, four then) of the stairways I did need to attach a small 'E' of etch, which is why you do not even throw away bits like this when you have trimmed the railings to size:

 

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I used Glue'N'Glaze to attached the railings, it is just like PVA so it gives a bit of wiggle time for accurate positioning, but then I run a bead of thin CA along the bottom of the run to give it a bit more grab. I use a piece of fishing line for that - I find that the line is curved slightly, and by altering the way it is held in self-locking tweezers allows you more control over the application.

 

I am now wondering whether to try and paint the top rail in a brown colour to represent the wood that was on top of many ship's rails, or if I am too late.

 

Problems, problems, if only that was the worst the world had at the moment!

 

Thanks for looking and the comments, all the best,

 

Ray

 

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4 hours ago, Ray S said:

Hello all! Shortly after I put those last photos on here, I discovered that White Ensign did a photo-etch set for this ship! I tried to track one down on White Ensigns website (the American version) but could not get any details up on screen. What was odd was that I could not get onto Toms Modelworks either to see if they had anything, so I have kept things as they are. The big improvement would have (of) been for the davits. The plastic ones are functional, but could do with refining.

 

 

The top level WEM page is up and running but as soon as you try to drill down it gives a error 500 message.  The main Tom's Model Works pages seem to be working okay but they don't list anything in 1/600.

 

Looking good.  I would definitely aim to paint the top of the rails in brown.  A light dry brushing should be all it needs

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2 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

The top level WEM page is up and running but as soon as you try to drill down it gives a error 500 message.  The main Tom's Model Works pages seem to be working okay but they don't list anything in 1/600.

 

Looking good.  I would definitely aim to paint the top of the rails in brown.  A light dry brushing should be all it needs

Thanks for that Chewbacca, I am glad it was not just me with the White Ensign website!

 

I am really minded to do the brown, I just need to ensure a steady hand!

 

Thanks for the reply,

 

Ray

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16 hours ago, TonyW said:

That etch work looks stunning!  

 I'll have to give the stuff serious consideration for my SS France build, it seems to add much more to the ship than the size of it would suggest.

There's no doubt to my mind that whilst PE makes model aircraft look better, it brings model ships to life.  I remember the days before PE trying to craft 1/600 guard rails from extended sprue without much success.  Nowadays it is relatively straightforward (though I still make a pig's ear of it at times!)

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23 hours ago, TonyW said:

That etch work looks stunning!  

 I'll have to give the stuff serious consideration for my SS France build, it seems to add much more to the ship than the size of it would suggest.

Tony, thanks for the comment. I think it would be a good move to add railings at least!

 

6 hours ago, Chewbacca said:

There's no doubt to my mind that whilst PE makes model aircraft look better, it brings model ships to life.  I remember the days before PE trying to craft 1/600 guard rails from extended sprue without much success.  Nowadays it is relatively straightforward (though I still make a pig's ear of it at times!)

I could not agree more Chewbacca! It does seem to add life to ships, more so than aircraft I find. I have only added etch to one aircraft (that I recall - that was an Airfix Avro 504K) so maybe I should try a few more - I have a number of Eduard WW1 aircraft with etch supplied.

 

Well, I took the plunge and repainted the top rail in a Revell wood brown acrylic colour. I started off painting with a very fine brush straight from the pot, but could not get on with the process. Then I remembered how I had done the windows - I popped some paint into my paint tray and thinned it with some water, and used a thicker brush (relatively!) and bingo! it worked! Thankfully my shakes were subdued by me resting the ship-holding hand and the brush-holding hand on my workbench, and successfully managed to repaint the top rail without knocking off any railings off! Phew...

 

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I even managed to get to the railings at the top of the stairways behind and under the lifeboats! Not sure how I managed that though.

 

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I have continued adding railings around some of the aft decks. I did the sides first, then put a gentle curve in the rearmost section and added that to the deck. In this shot I had cut the rails just fractionally too short, but filled the gap with some Glue'N'Glaze which bridged the space quite nicely (but not as well as cutting properly in the first place). I have now trimmed the scag on those stairs, so it does not look quite so bad. Yet another case of the photo showing what I could not see properly.

 

I need to paint a few more top-rails and retouch one or two areas where the diluted paint was a bit thin, then it is on to the railings below the lifeboats. I am going to use three-bar rails for that area, and this time paint the rail top whilst it is still on the etch fret. I would not be able to paint the rear face otherwise, and it could be seen that it was not painted - and save my nerves in the process!

 

Thanks for taking the time to look, kind regards,

 

Ray

 

PS I think I should have (of) replaced the Aztec stairs, but there were not enough of the right size in my generic sets. I still have a couple of Mauretanias in stock, so I will have to see about getting a generic set for them. I wonder if I could get away with 1/700 scale stairs?

 

PPS While I had the Wood Brown out, I painted some extra detailing in the lifeboats to make them less bland

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On 8/8/2018 at 9:38 PM, AdrianMF said:

The etch is making a huge difference, and the wooden top rail is icing on the cake!

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

Thanks for the comment Adrian, I have to admit that when I began this I was just going to do it out-of-the-box, but it looked incomplete without railings, and I am glad I have added them.

 

I have now got most of the railings on, I have put three-bar railings on the main deck, under the assumption they would prevent good folks sliding off and over more than two-bar railings would have done. I painted the top rail before removing it from the fret this time, and got a really good benefit from using acrylic paint:- namely I could paint the rail, retouch some other rails from Wednesday, then fit the rail almost straight away. I have nestled them down right hard up against the davit bases, so that has given a bit more support for the fairly long sections. I needed two and a bit sections either side for the main deck, then off-cuts for the remaining aft decks. I have left the final aft deck for the moment, because I just know I will mangle those rails during handling of the ship, so they will probably be last on.

 

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It looks like I am going to have to straighten one or two of the rails on the flying deck aft!

 

I am off now to see what rails the Queen Elizabeth had foreward, and what colour the masts are - the colour guide suggests deck colour, whilst the box top painting suggests dark brown.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Ray

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Hello all, thanks for the comments and encouragement!

 

I have needed some oomph today, due (owing?) to one thing - rigging!

 

I decided on White Ensign RN Buff for the masts, with the aft mast having a black upper section. The foremast went in well and aligned vertically fine, with just a little bit of help. After it had set, it was time to attempt the rigging. I had decided I was going to use thin copper wire from the core of speaker cable. I have used this successfully in the past, and had improved the straightening technique when I discovered that if you pull the wire with a couple of pairs of tweezers, it pulls the kinks out and gives very straight sections. Previously I had been rolling the wire under a steel rule on a marble-type top but had still been unable to remove all the curve in the wire. This time, do you think I could find my speaker cable? No! I found some really thick stuff which was supposed to improve sound quality, but not my thin cable. What's the difference? I hear you cry! Well, the thin cable had the copper core wires in straight, the thick stuff seems to be wound into a spiral, and when I tried to straighten that, it kept reverting to kinked wire, even after pulling apart with the tweezers. I just hope I have not chucked the old thin stuff away! I know I have used it recently because I used it in the Flying Boat and Floatplanes GB.

 

So, Plan B. Also known as EZ-Line. This stuff I have used a lot, but I have a 'love/hate' relationship with it. Today I found out why, on both counts! First the good news:

 

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I managed to do the rigging on the fore-mast!

 

However, it was a bit of a trial! I use thin CA, an accelerator and a fine-pointed pair of tweezers along with good magnification lenses in my headset. My technique is to cut a piece of EZ-Line to just over size, place a small drop of thin CA to the attachment point, dip the line in accelerator then place the line into the CA. Easy! Except not this time. The accelerator sometimes would not work. Sometimes the CA had set before I got to the placement. Sometimes the EZ-Line curled up into a small loop. Sometimes I could not see what I was doing. Sometimes I shook too much! Sometimes my super-sharp scissors would not trim the line to the correct length. That was the 'hate' part. The 'love' part was that when the combination works, it works like a dream, but I wish it would be consistent!

 

Good job my good lady wife was out, because she might just have heard something more than 'oops' in the model room!

 

Anyway, we modelers are a hardy breed and it is the challenges which allow us to win out in the end, and as I have said before, there are somewhat more serious issues in the world than whether your CA sticks or not.

 

I am relatively happy with the rigging, it needs just a drop or two of matt varnish to disguise the glossy CA drops that built up, but I think I still need practice with rigging, and hopefully find my other speaker cable!

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Ray

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Ray, your rigging story is similar to mine and I was just adding three wires to a 1/72 Spitfire! I honestly couldn’t agree with you more about your experiences with either E-Z line or the even thinner and harder to see Uschi thread. It’s all horrible to use, but so rewarding when it does work on the 10th attempt. 

 

By the way - this floating device is really looking lovely. All the hard work will pay off handsomely. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

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On 8/14/2018 at 8:26 PM, Chewbacca said:

Nicely done.  The challenge I usually find with EZ-Line is that the tension pulls the masts and yards out of alignment.  That looks really good.

Hello Chewbacca, When I use EZ-Line, the I do the final trim so the line is just fractionally short, meaning that it is under tension but not unduly so, but I have over tautened the line from time to time so I know what you mean!

 

On 8/14/2018 at 10:48 PM, Rabbit Leader said:

Ray, your rigging story is similar to mine and I was just adding three wires to a 1/72 Spitfire! I honestly couldn’t agree with you more about your experiences with either E-Z line or the even thinner and harder to see Uschi thread. It’s all horrible to use, but so rewarding when it does work on the 10th attempt. 

 

By the way - this floating device is really looking lovely. All the hard work will pay off handsomely. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

Thanks for that Dave - I find one of the issues with EZ-Line and Caenis thread (a fly-tying line) that I use is that I find it difficult to actually pierce the surface of the thin CA so it gets a proper seating! Oh, and the way the line curls, always in the wrong direction to where you want to place it. However, will shall overcome duress!

On 8/15/2018 at 12:41 PM, Lawzer said:

top work!!!

Thanks Lawzer!

 

Here is the results from today's work. I rigged the rear mast, and guess what? EVERY SINGLE line went on like a dream rather than like a nightmare (as Motorhead sang) and each line fitted and stayed on perfectly. What was I on about yesterday? I did nothing different that I am aware of.

 

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Having got my heart rate down after that success, I tackled the aft railings. This required quite a sharp bend on the rails, so I elected to do the job in two halves. I placed a stanchion on the join line of the two halves and measured around to the aft superstructure forward on the starboard side, and trimmed the rails. I used Glu'N'Glaze to fit the rails and placed them slightly inboard but butted up against the slightly proud deck and that helped with the correct curvature. The same was then done for the port side, and thankfully it fitted quite well, especially at the join line.

 

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I ran a bead of thin CA along the rail baseline, then after it set I painted the final top rail wood brown. Then it was a case of fitting the rear flag pole, then I found out belatedly this kit was absolutely unbuildable as the fore flag mast was missing and I had to scratchbuild (oh woe is me) the flag pole! Then I remembered to repaint the anchors (I had been a little hasty in fitting them and had not let the paint harden and some had rubbed off), and finally I fitted the four stabilizers for the second time. The first time I had fitted them I found they were positioned just where I hold the ship when working on it and you can guess the rest!

 

So, the result is the the Queen Elizabeth is now finished!

 

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I will pop some more photographs in the Gallery in a tick.

 

I would like to say this has been an enjoyable project, and I am glad I ordered the photo-etch, even though I did not use all of it. 

 

Thanks to all for looking and for the comments and encouragement, it has all been very much appreciated.

 

All the best,

 

Ray

 

PS I am going to see if I can sort another Golden Age kit to do

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4 minutes ago, John D.C. Masters said:

Impressive!  How long is she?  (I know...a personal question 😉)

Hello John - she is 21" (52cm) in length - just enough to clobber anything around when moving the model into position to paint, fit etch, rig etc!

 

17 minutes ago, Heather Kay said:

This has turned out to be a splendid model. I’d be proud to put that on a mantelpiece. 

Thanks Heather, I am not sure where it is going to go - no space on the mantelpiece or my model shelf, or either speaker in the model room, the top of the stereo is full, as is another shelf...

 

Cheers,

 

Ray

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Practice makes perfect - and this is a perfect model. You tamed that photo etch wonderfully. Aren't you glad you did it in the Cunard scheme rather than the wartime one....? Well done. Cheers. Mike.

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