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RMS Carpathia, Scratchbuild, 1/500 Scale


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On 4/14/2019 at 10:55 PM, Bandsaw Steve said:

Not really.  I think anyone could eat crayons if they put their mind to it. 🖍 

Secret is to eat the paper too, the fibre helps move things along and the waxy texture ensures no hang ups.  😁

 

Nice work on the ventilators.

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8 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

 

a 1/24 model of IJN Akagi with firing guns and flying aircraft (and lights).

By a strange coincidence I was thinking of building a 1/24 model of Darwin Harbour and township (circa 1942). If you can have Akagi finished next year I’ll let you drop bombs all over it. 🔥 

 

How good is your public liability insurance?

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Gidday Steve, I don't think liability insurance covers acts of war, even at 1/24 scale. Next you'll want to do Midway, and I know Akagi came off second best there.

     I think I'll abandon these grandiose schemes and let you get back to Carpathia and me to 1/600 scale ships. Regards, Jeff.

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11 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

Disappointing 😥

Well, Darwin Harbour and environs would be tricky even at 1/600 scale. The tidal variations alone would require two sets of scenery for the initial morning raid and the follow-up at noon. The bomb falls and aircraft crashes alone would need a tennis court to encompass. Then there are the shoot-down and strafings as far as Mellville Is. Perhaps 1/2400 may be a better scale? 

Hold that thought, onward with the Carpathia. 

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Looking really good Steve.  I'm very much in the "ships to be seen in the sea" camp.  The only time I've ever seen the bottom of any of my ships was in a dry dock.  Mind you I did see the back end of USS PRINCETON leave the water when she went over the Manta mine in 1991.  I so wish I'd had my camera ready!

 

Best rgds

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On 4/19/2019 at 7:45 AM, Bandsaw Steve said:

On Carpathia there were three different sizes. Let's call them 'big', 'middle' and 'small' - I hope I'm not confusing any of you with this technical stuff.

 

I'm not completely au fait with this watery technical speak, however I am assuming 'big' equals large, 'middle' equals medium and 'small' is neither large nor medium... have I got that right?  Otherwise, I'm lost.

 

nice repurposing of the hooks and nails though.  Not many people realize just how much effort it takes to be lazy

Edited by hendie
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10 hours ago, hendie said:

 Not many people realize just how much effort it takes to be lazy

I do! So much so that I have been trying to emulate your technique for years. (Really Hendie, when will you evet learn not to give aliens ammunition to fire?)

 

Martian 👽

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On 19/04/2019 at 21:16, Bandsaw Steve said:

For me it’s actually nine days to go as I am away from Perth for the working week prior to WASMEx However I think things are under control as I am now further advanced than this thread shows and I have all of next week off work.

 

So.... she should be done by Sunday week...

 

Hopefully...

 

 

 

That Sunday is tomorrow folks and it’s down to the wire! 😱

 

Will it be RFI tomorrow?😮

 

Will the result be worth 9 days of unrelenting effort?😨

 

Will the 1/500 Scale Carpathia make it on time to WASMEx?😰

 

Tune In tomorrow for all of this excitement and more.

 

Bandsaw Steve 😎

Trying to stay cool under pressure

 

 

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I can’t wait for the exitment and shock among the audience when Kate Winslet appears on the scene to switch those beautiful LED’s on.

When they dim down the lights in the show room, it will be an breath taking sight! 😍

 

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Job Complete!  Deadline Met!

 

Here's the link to the RFI thread.

 

 

I invite you all to go and have a squiz folks.

 

As mentioned earlier,  quite a bit has happened since my last post here a week and a half ago, so over the next few weeks I will come back to this thread and fill in some of the more interesting bits, just to ensure a complete WIP thread from start to finish.

 

Thanks for all the support and interest along the way. I hope the finished product meets your expectations.

 

Best Regards,

Bandsaw Steve 😎

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Keeping Hendie Happy

 

Well I did promise that I would keep this thread going and Hendie's starting to grumble so I guess I'd better have a crack at updating this.  Here's how the bulwarks went on.

 

Cut out the bits of paper from the plans that have the bulwark shape on them.

 

CIuJ5ql.jpg

 

Select a bit of 0.75mm - or thereabouts - brass sheet and use some of that spray-on adhesive to attach the paper to the brass.

 

9j3voqR.jpg

 

Cut out the relevant shape with some tin snips - keeping fingers well clear from the sharp curly-wurly bits that come off the side of the thing.

 

GgQnSP7.jpg

 

Use some small appropriately shaped files to fine-tune the shape of the brass.

 

TIFL3hZ.jpg

 

That should leave something a bit like this. There's a bit more fine-tuning to go as you can see but I'm sure you get the idea.

 

mhvCnYv.jpg

 

Now stick a bit of dymo tape along the line of portholes and use a drawing pin and a hammer to...

 

VOsW19j.jpg

 

punch a series of dents in a straight line to mark the position of the line of portholes. 

 

iLFrDeE.jpg

 

Now use the Dremmel tool in a drill press to drill out each hole.

 

3nKNqOr.jpg

 

Clean up the resulting piece with sandpaper and test that the brass sits nicely on the ledge that I created - for exactly this purpose - way back on post number 73.  See - there is some forward planning going on after all. Not much - but there is some!

 

KrrRU5X.jpg

 

Prime the brass with everyday model-building primer.  I have learned that, in essence, working with brass is very similar to working with plastic card. Many of the tools, materials and techniques that work with plastic are compatible with brass. This primer is just one example.

 

aJoiu0s.jpg

 

With the primer on, follow with a couple of layers of Tamiya, rattle-can, matt, white paint.  Once that paint is dry  glue the two bulkwarks (one on each side) onto the hull using two-part epoxy araldite. Fantastic stuff That glue!

 

ZPQaLta.jpg

 

The contact between the white and black is looking very clean and sharp and I think she's looking OK at this point. I hope Hendie is happy.

 

ibrg5gX.jpg

 

I might get to post another of these retrospective 'updates' tomorrow - we shall see.

 

Best Regards,

Bandsaw Steve

 

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3 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

Well I did promise that I would keep this thread going and Hendie's starting to grumble

 

Grumble ?  I was merely making an observation.  When have you ever heard me grumble ?  really!

 

 

3 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

sharp curly-wurly bits

 

'nuther nautical term ?

 

3 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

See - there is some forward planning going on after all

 

was that accidental?

 

 

3 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

I hope Hendie is happy.

 

I believe he is now that order has been restored to the nautical universe

 

very nice update Steve.   Do you find the standard modeling primer on brass sufficient ?   

I keep a can of automotive etch primer for metal stuff as I found the 'normal' primer did't have enough staying power for my cludgy handling techniques

 

love that demarcation line!  very neat

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Sorry folks. I just wrote an absolutely fascinating post about superstructures and funnels and all sorts of stuff and then something went wrong - I don’t know what- and I lost the lot. I think my computer is getting old. Having tech dramas. Will have another crack at posting tomorrow. 😕

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On ‎18‎/‎05‎/‎2019 at 08:35, Bandsaw Steve said:

Sorry folks. I just wrote an absolutely fascinating post about superstructures and funnels and all sorts of stuff and then something went wrong - I don’t know what- and I lost the lot. I think my computer is getting old. Having tech dramas. Will have another crack at posting tomorrow. 😕

Sympathies on that, its something I end up doing all the time. I however am realistic enough to realise that it is all down to tentacle trouble and not my machine.

On ‎18‎/‎05‎/‎2019 at 16:12, hendie said:

 

I've used that excuse before too!

And doubtless will do so in the near future?

 

Martian 👽

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Funnels and Superstructure

 

This one's going to be pretty basic folks because I'm in a hurry to go and watch Game of Thrones, and it's the second time I've written all of this (the previous time all of my work disappeared into cyber-nowhere) and because - in any case - it's all fairly simple.

 

Firstly - the superstructure. These old ocean liners generally had fairly simple superstructures - at least at 1/500 scale - so really it's just a matter of getting the right box shaped bit of wood in the right place. 

NG8uuNz.jpg

 

This is about as complex as it gets.

z9jyQhX.jpg

 

Just stick 'em on with a bit of PVA to produce the result below. The only real complication was that I noticed that the main structure under the boat deck was too low - I had somehow misread the plans - and I had to boost it up a bit with the strips of balsa that you can see here.

Rt92av2.jpg

 

Now to the funnel.  It seems most ship's funnels have some sort of lattice at the top of them. This is to stop seagulls that are overcome with smoke from falling down the chimney.  I have no idea what type of lattice was at the top of Capathia's funnel - there's no clues on the drawings and no photos from above, so I've just imagineered this fairly unfeasible lattice. it will largely disappear when painted black.

CYlxIZy.jpg

 

Prime the whole funnel.

8jLrTi0.jpg

 

Paint it black and mask off the top and the three Cunard stripes. Paint the whole thing black again (with a rattle can) so that any bleed under the masking is black on black.

AuZFHP5.jpg

 

Give it two coats of Cunard Red (same Tamiya red I used on the Mig) and peel the masking tape off. I love this bit!

ks0Vj2b.jpg

 

It leaves this - which will pass in the rush.

ZgsXfiB.jpg

 

And here is the first time that I've seen the funnel in place. I'm well happy with this! In my view the colours are working beautifully together - the red and black and tan and blue and white are all 'working together' in a way I find quite attractive.  These ocean liners look great and make a nice change from grey warships - no offence intended to grey warships of course.

4Uio7Xh.jpg

 

That's about it for now.

Let's see if I can get this posted without further issues.

 

Bandsaw Steve.

 

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Thanks Steve for spending the time to rewrite the above post.  

33 minutes ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

... These ocean liners look great and make a nice change from grey warships ...

Good point.  I have a friend who has spent years building modern US Navy ghost-grey aircraft models.  He finally built a non-grey aircraft, & made the same comment about how nice it was to make the change. :D

 

John

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Gidday Steve, Yeah I think the colours of Carpathia work well together also. The funnel looks really good -it would have too I think, as it is a rather prominent fixture.

 

As for warships, agreed, the same one or two shades of grey (initially Hu27 and Hu64 in my case) can get a bit monotonous, which is one of the reasons I like a few ships in dazzle camouflage, for the variety. Regards, Jeff.

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Yep - One day I’m going to do a WW2 RN warship in one of those complex camouflage patterns that ‘GW’ is so fond of. But that will be a while in the future.

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