Guys, I'm gonna need your help.

[.Mark]

Been thinking aloud around the house recently about building some models again. The last I did were probably 15 years ago and were cars. So on Christmas morning I get a large wrapped box from my daughter with this inside


Now I am quite keen to get going but know preparation is the key so I am going to get the paints and stuff I need first. But I have some questions.
1. Painting, on the sprues or after assembly?
2. Getting a good finish, painting always lets my modeling down, now I am not about to go and buy an airbrush so any tips on getting a good finish would be much appreciated.
3. I have looked all over the net for pictures of the ship to get ideas for colour etc. It's hard to find any that don't show it as a burnt wreck - I suppose a library might be a good idea.
4. Sails. The sails in the kit are blown plastic and look a bit pants IMO, any tips on making some using the card provided as a pattern?

5. Rigging. is all I can say at the moment! Looks like it could be a real mare of a job with my fat fingers! Again, any tips would be much appreciated.

I'll update the thread as I go, if anyone is interested, but time is tight so it's going to be a slow old process!

[T89 Callan]

RE Paint finish, I have found that oil paints give a better/smoother finish than the new acrylic paints from Tamiya and Revell.

RE Sails, I suspect a quick serch of ebay/internet will find you an add-on pack designed for this kit that will give you decent sails and other nice bits.

As for painting on the spru's I don't as you usually need to remove the moulding flash and clean up were th sprus met so you need to paint them again.

Just don't rush.

[Big Al.]

Need any help give me a shout.

BTW we have Sussex Model Center in Worthing to get all your gubbins, pop over and we'll make an afternoon of it.

ETA, you should remember the colour scheme weren’t you there at the launch!

Edited by Big Al. on Sunday 3rd January 18:17

[dr_gn]

.Mark said:

Been thinking aloud around the house recently about building some models again. The last I did were probably 15 years ago and were cars. So on Christmas morning I get a large wrapped box from my daughter with this inside

Oh. My. God.

To explain further: I completed the Airfix HMS Victory earlier this year. It took months, and was possibly the worst kit I have ever had the misfortune of building. The black plastic is brittle, the masts were bent, the engineering of the kit made painting extremely difficult, and the fit of the parts was pretty atrocious (even when the huge amounts of flash had been carved off).











I brush painted the lot, except for an overcoat of satin varnish which I airbrushed. Regarding the rigging: by the time I got that far I'd had enough and just followed the instructions, which give the absolute minimum information. You really can get very quickly in too deep with rigging if you wanted to replicate it exactly. These Airfix models aren't detailed enough to have all the pulley blocks and tie-off points to make a really accurate model (without loads of scratch building).

Personaly, I'd leave the sails off altogether.

I built the Revell version of the Cutty Sark years ago; it is a good looking ship, but you will need patience.

Have fun!

Edited by dr_gn on Sunday 3rd January 23:45

[.Mark]

T89 Callan said:

RE Paint finish, I have found that oil paints give a better/smoother finish than the new acrylic paints from Tamiya and Revell.

RE Sails, I suspect a quick serch of ebay/internet will find you an add-on pack designed for this kit that will give you decent sails and other nice bits.

As for painting on the spru's I don't as you usually need to remove the moulding flash and clean up were th sprus met so you need to paint them again.

Just don't rush.

Thanks, will get a look about for the paints. Having seen the post above, without sails looks quite nice!

[.Mark]

Big Al. said:

Need any help give me a shout.

BTW we have Sussex Model Center in Worthing to get all your gubbins, pop over and we'll make an afternoon of it.

ETA, you should remember the colour scheme weren’t you there at the launch!

Cheeky Might be worth a pop over mate, got summat to drop off at yours anyway.

At the launch that's rich coming from you.

[.Mark]

dr_gn said:

Oh. My. God.

To explain further: I completed the Airfix HMS Victory earlier this year. It took months, and was possibly the worst kit I have ever had the misfortune of building. The black plastic is brittle, the masts were bent, the engineering of the kit made painting extremely difficult, and the fit of the parts was pretty atrocious (even when the huge amounts of flash had been carved off).

That's kind of what I thought. There does seem to be a lot of excess all over, so a fair bit of tidying is going to have to be done.

dr_gn said:

I brush painted the lot, except for an overcoat of satin varnish which I airbrushed. Regarding the rigging: by the time I got that far I'd had enough and just followed the instructions, which give the absolute minimum information. You really can get very quickly in too deep with rigging if you wanted to replicate it exactly. These Airfix models aren't detailed enough to have all the pulley blocks and tie-off points to make a really accurate model (without loads of scratch building).

Following the instructions is all I am capable of doing, so it will be a long haul, I am prepared for that much.

dr_gn said:

Personaly, I'd leave the sails off altogether.

I built the Revell version of the Cutty Sark years ago; it is a good looking ship, but you will need patience.

Have fun!

Leaving sails off is now my preferred option at this point.

Thanks for the input, really useful.

Maybe I should build the kit as the ship is currently, I think then I'd only have to make the hull Oh, and an effigy of Big Al tied to the main mast.

Edited by .Mark on Monday 4th January 08:56

[.Mark]

dr_gn said:

Oh. My. God.

To explain further: I completed the Airfix HMS Victory earlier this year. It took months, and was possibly the worst kit I have ever had the misfortune of building. The black plastic is brittle, the masts were bent, the engineering of the kit made painting extremely difficult, and the fit of the parts was pretty atrocious (even when the huge amounts of flash had been carved off).

That's kind of what I thought. There does seem to be a lot of excess all over, so a fair bit of tidying is going to have to be done.

dr_gn said:

I brush painted the lot, except for an overcoat of satin varnish which I airbrushed. Regarding the rigging: by the time I got that far I'd had enough and just followed the instructions, which give the absolute minimum information. You really can get very quickly in too deep with rigging if you wanted to replicate it exactly. These Airfix models aren't detailed enough to have all the pulley blocks and tie-off points to make a really accurate model (without loads of scratch building).

Following the instructions is all I am capable of doing, so it will be a long haul, I am prepared for that much.

dr_gn said:

Personaly, I'd leave the sails off altogether.

I built the Revell version of the Cutty Sark years ago; it is a good looking ship, but you will need patience.

Have fun!

Leaving sails off is now my preferred option at this point.

Thanks for the input, really useful.

Maybe I should build the kit as the ship is currently, I think then I'd only have to make the hull Oh, and an effigy of Big Al tied to the main mast.

Edited by .Mark on Monday 4th January 09:12

[dr_gn]

Found a couple of websites with photos. They're not too good, but there's enough there I think.

http://www.cuttysarkguide.co.uk/gallery.php?shot=4...

http://www.cuttysark.org.uk/index.cfm?fa=contentIm...

http://tinyurl.com/ykr68xs

[.Mark]

Thanks I'd found and bookmarked the first two, but the 3rd is great.


No Pressure then.

[.Mark]

So, I unpacked it and checked the parts. Few bits and pieces broken, such as railings and the settings. Emailed Airfix to see what they say, I am guessing they will send new bits. Won't start until they reply though in case I have to return the whole thing.
Pity, because those parts don't come in to play until later.

[dr_gn]

.Mark said:

So, I unpacked it and checked the parts. Few bits and pieces broken, such as railings and the settings. Emailed Airfix to see what they say, I am guessing they will send new bits. Won't start until they reply though in case I have to return the whole thing.
Pity, because those parts don't come in to play until later.

This might be a silly suggestion, but if you were to sell your Airfix Cutty Sark on EBay, and get hold of the 1:220 Revell version:

http://tinyurl.com/yb63smj

It is a far superior kit. I built one when I was about 12, and still have it:



OK, it's a bit broken in places now, and hopefully I've improved my modelling skills over the past 27 years, but the fact I don't feel embarassed to display it today says a lot about the quality of the Revell kit, and the excellent rigging instructions.

The end result of the time, materials and effort you put into the the Airfix kit will not be rewarded as much as with the Revell kit. Just my opinion, having experienced building sailing ships from both manufacturers

[.Mark]

That's a nice looking model, and well built sir. In all honesty, I'd never get round to selling the one I have, couldn't justify buying another, so I am going to have to stick with it.

Fully appreciate it may turn out to be a load of old cack, but I'll give it a shot. Keep up the tips though, I'll need 'em!

[dr_gn]

.Mark said:

That's a nice looking model, and well built sir. In all honesty, I'd never get round to selling the one I have, couldn't justify buying another, so I am going to have to stick with it.

Fully appreciate it may turn out to be a load of old cack, but I'll give it a shot. Keep up the tips though, I'll need 'em!

No worries.

It might be worth investing in a can of Halfords Grey Plastic Primer, and coating the hull components with it. Might make the top coats easier to apply, and easier to see what you're doing. The decks should be a light oak colour, so white primer might be a good idea for them. Not entirely necessary, but you might find you need fewer coats of top colour to get a 'solid' colour.

[.Mark]

Pardon the ignorance, but the detail on the hull etc. is not great, would the primer not fill some of it - or do you mean just a light dusting?

[dr_gn]

.Mark said:

Pardon the ignorance, but the detail on the hull etc. is not great, would the primer not fill some of it - or do you mean just a light dusting?

Halfords Plastic Primer should be fine, and you should be able to build up to a decent uniform grey or white without losing any real detail.

Filler primer on the other hand will obscure everything within about 3 coats.

[.Mark]

dr_gn said:

.Mark said:

Pardon the ignorance, but the detail on the hull etc. is not great, would the primer not fill some of it - or do you mean just a light dusting?

Halfords Plastic Primer should be fine, and you should be able to build up to a decent uniform grey or white without losing any real detail.

Filler primer on the other hand will obscure everything within about 3 coats.

Off to Halfrauds I go.

[.Mark]

OK so I have made a start. Remember guys this is the first model in over - well probably 20 years! Still waiting for some parts from Airfix but can plod on for a bit still. Seem to have lost some of the decking detail with the primer but it's still just about there - shouldn't be so heavy handed!

Question is, should I start to paint now or prime everything and paint after build is complete - but before rigging obviously.

[dr_gn]

.Mark said:

OK so I have made a start. Remember guys this is the first model in over - well probably 20 years! Still waiting for some parts from Airfix but can plod on for a bit still. Seem to have lost some of the decking detail with the primer but it's still just about there - shouldn't be so heavy handed!

Question is, should I start to paint now or prime everything and paint after build is complete - but before rigging obviously.

So far so good.

Personally, I'd paint what you've got now. Looks like there is still a bit of a gap on the stern: get rid of it now or it will bug you later!

Paint as many sub-assemblies as you can if they are contrasting colours. or example, if the lower mast assemblies are white, and the decks oak, then paint these seperately, then assemble them. Make sure you scrape paint off wherever you are glueing though. If you have a deck pump assembly, build it and paint it, then stick it to the deck : it will make painting much, much easier.

Just take your time with the painting: get a good quality, wide brush for the hull and deck colours.

Keep up the good work!

[.Mark]

dr_gn said:

So far so good.

Personally, I'd paint what you've got now. Looks like there is still a bit of a gap on the stern: get rid of it now or it will bug you later!

Yes, I had noticed that - it's on the list.

dr_gn said:

Just take your time with the painting: get a good quality, wide brush for the hull and deck colours.

Keep up the good work!

Daughter is an artist - plentiful supply of brushes

There are some real fine detailing though that need to be gold - ships name in various places and other stuff. Even a 1 hair brush would probably be too big! What's the best way to tackle this? I had thought about some paint on a sponge or something and gently press it on - the detail that needs to be gold is raised obviously.