The Ship Model Forum

Hi Bob,
Sorry for the late reply, i have a habit of jumping in and out of posts as i have a few construction projects on the go on this site. You should have grabbed it, these sell on ebay uk for about 40 or 50 pounds, 10 dollars was a steel. The one im looking for is the ss france, had a few near misses on that one.

I wanted to say that I just saw this exact model, the Airfix Mauretania in a second hand store, the unmade kit. The box has been opened but all the parts appear to be there, the bags in place. The guy who owns this small shop of curious told me that he came across a stash of old models that had been purchased over decades by a collector, opened, looked at but never assembled. Many scales, many different models. He wanted $10.00 for the Mauretania but I thought no. I did buy 4 others however not ships.
For a model collector, this is a find.

The first thing done tonight was to input the missing steam pipe on funnel number 1. This was made from spare evergreen plastic. Unfortunately the fresh water tanks were another item missing from the kit so I created new tanks from larger scale bollards as I liked the rimmed detail which simulate the lines on the tanks.
Way aft by the café parisienne on the boat deck, all the cowl vents were missing so I carved to scale new cowl vents. I painted in the windows on the sky lights on the top of the house, using a battleship grey which blended in nicely with the brown and does not overly stand out. The inside funnels also received a coat of black.
Next up was the recreation of the second class deck which was completely missing. I started by carving new mounts for the cranes with evergreen plastic. These were then put in place and cranes mounted.
I created the skylights in the same manner. Using acetate plastic sheets I created the wall of the second class lounge, measuring the height from the first class boat deck walls of 4mm. I could have cut out windows but to be honest I wanted to keep the look of the kit consistent. Glues and painted the walls.
Airfix did something peculiar with hose pipes in the anchors and molded them straight. Instead of drilling to make larger I cut the anchors down to size so they sat in the holes.
I mounted the flag staffs and painted.
I also mounted the anchor and corresponding crane. Flash was consistent and cleared.
I also moved the a deck wall on the fore castle forward as it was set back to compensate for the mistake in the boat take previously stated. It was now populated with portholes.
A fair amount done and lots more to do.
ebjoy the pics

Thanks capt-p. Yes the ship is spot on in scale, its pretty much as jim said, the plastic molding is too thick in parts taking it out of scale to a degree such as the boatdeck as specified and other areas such as the wheel house. Airfix and ships never went well together. The scale and proprtions were great but the detail was always severely lacking, maretania being the worst offender. The potentail to correct was no mean task which is why the build was attractive.
Enjoy the rest of the build, there is a long way to go yet.

It seems by your comments that the AIRFIX kit of this ship was infact as it should be in scale, but maybe lacking in detail.

Well you seem to be cracking the detail

Nice work so far, watching with Interest .

Cheers Capt-P

Tonight I decided to focus on correcting the paintwork and the boat deck on the ship.
In the previous pictures you can clearly see the over hang of the boat deck where it ends at the main mast. This was confusing as this did not really exist on the ship but when I compared the piece to the plans the airfix deck was the correct size. I found the problem was where the deck meets the hull behind funnel number 1, there seemed to be an extra bit in added which can be seen in the fist pick. The impact can be seen in the second pick where the forward bulwark of the boat deck is retracted into the superstructure too far. To resolve this I cut out this section which resulted in the boat deck sitting in the correct position and the second class deck positions in the right place showing a perfect wedding tear shape.
I corrected the waterline height on the starboard side and added the white band on top of the waterline.
The black line at the top of the hull on the Lusitania was lower than the mauretania which can be seen on the photo above. The black line on the mauretania actually went one third up the A deck bulwark which airfix have beautifully represented here in the mold of the hull. On the Lusitania it stopped at the top of B deck. This has now been completed on the model and the second class A deck exterior plating has been painted black also. This was also not the case on the Lusitania.
The funnels on the model have now received their characteristic orange.
I intentionally have not added the boat deck housing yet because the rigging of the funnels needs to be completed which wraps inside this deck housing.
Next up I need to complete the paintwork on the port side and start re-creating the second class lounge and sky lights.

Hello Jim,

Even in the light of the highest standard of your more recent work, I remain of the opinion that your dazzle-camouflaged Mauretania will live on as your finest work.

Jean-Paul

Hi Jim,
I must say the mauretania looked better in ww1 livery than cunard, she looked fuller, more balanced.
I would love to some pics from you if you don't mind.
Looking on the net I love your models especially the odd Russian pre dreadnought era. They were fun subjects and even quirky, what drew you too them?

Hi Jim,
I hope you are well. Thanks for the link, your dazzle model is nothing short of spectacular. Amazing work.
Yes that was the thing about the airfix kits, there general proportions were stunning but were let down by the lack of detail and poor injection. I have built the queen Elizabeth and the qe2, both of which I have had to custom build numerous sections and make windows. For some strange reason they made a right pigs ear of the mauretania. The decks are too thick, the boat deck is too long which I will have to shorten, the water line was too low, the funnels have no caps and the list goes on.......
I chose to build this because it is such a rare kit and to attempt to fix its many flaws. The kit is so rare now. I saw a kit on ebay recently that had been build but missing parts go for 31£ which I thought was unbelievable.
The queen mary model by revel is a disaster allright and I have undertaken the task of fixing the kit as best I can, I have done a post here of my progress so far but needed a break because it is suck a labour intensive job. It is going well though as it actually looks like the queen mary now, too many flaws to list here. The mauretania is a beautiful kit alright and will join the rest of my fleet. I could do with help looking for the right photo etch to use.
Your model built in the 90's is beautiful, I cant believe you did it the old fashioned way with good old fashioned research, well done.
I have a lot of models to build yet, I also have a 1:350 restoration of the Lusitania which I bought 10 years ago and built terribly ten years ago. I have a 1:144 concorde which is nearly complete, took ages because the parts simply don't fit well at all, lots of sanding and filler.
I bought the uboat type xx1 exposed model for silly money which I am really looking forward to but I know it is going to be a pig to build. Great size model for 12£, so cheap for the quality!!!. Its the one with the interiors on show.
Lastly I have the 1:1200 qm2 which I have base painted but not assembled. Not enough hours in the day I can tell you.
Any tips you might have would be a pleasure.
All the best
James

The Mauretania kit is actually very good in overall proportions-- it was taken of the builders drawings

( I jave a set of reduced GA plans)

It is compromised by plastic injection technology--ie the decks are too thick--which reduces the cabin sidewall height.

Other than clunky 1960's detailing--its actually pretty good--compared to for example the (sadly ) --(admittedly pretty old) Revell clunker of the RMS Queen Mary...

were there there is so much wrong one looses the will to live!!!


I successfully built the 1/600 Airfix Mauretania in to a fairly accurate model--both dimsnionally and historically...

see link below

http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/sh ... eview.html

If you want some help--send me a PM



Hope to help- I can send you some images

Jim Baumann

PS-- I built this Airfix kit in the early 1990's-- way before internet or a worthwhile reference library of my own...




this one in 2008

I decided to base the model early in the ships career when she had similar colouring to Lusitania so most skylights were brown on the top of the house as can be seen in the photo of the mauretania in Liverpool.
I started by reconstructing the missing sections of the model. The first section I was missing was the second class open deck space that supported the docking bridge. To reconstruct the section I measures the thickness of the existing decks and matched 4 sections of acetate. I outlined the existing section of deck after cutting off the steps before re-attaching as it was a similar shape and used the plans of the ship to calculate the reduction in size as it was wedding cake tear in profile. Using the other deck section I matched the curvature in the deck. I also cut out the sections around the mast and the area of the baggage cranes.
I also recreated the recessed bulwark in a similar manner on the forecastle deck.
I painted the sections, mounted the docking bridge, dry fitted the decks again, attached all the cowl vents in fist class and made a start on the funnels by assembling\painting.
There is a massive amount of flash on these parts that have to be cleared and the fit of the decks, particularly the boat deck are questionable and might need alteration as it appears too long.

Thanks Shane, she is going well alright.
I will definitely go down the scratch build route because I can create additional details such as windows, portholes and door that would not be available in donor parts.
Additionally I can create to exact scale as well as the fact the model is remarkably small and would be difficult to sculpt using thick plastic.
I will use good old acetate sheets which are very flexible.

looks like she's coming along well. Do you think you could rob parts from other airfix kits or is there going to be a ton of scratch building?

Performed more paintwork to the decks and the deck walls.
Also fastened the fan tail and forecastle in place.
Checked details of the ship against plans and found water line indicated on the model is too low so will have to amend that one.
Also included pics with all deck dry fitted showing the missing parts which are the second class open space and entrance towards the stern and the recessed deck wall on the forecastle.
In the pics you can see the major fault with this kit which is the lack of any girders which support the decks above in the exposed promenade.
These will all have to be made. Still working that one out .

Not many parts at all Shane yes it is the 1:600. Airfix were always like this with that range of passenger liner, another example being qe2 but got there hull proportions right. They took a good build of scratch build to get them right. There mauretania was the worst offender and it is only due their rarity that i am building this one.

Looks like the kit doesn't have many parts at all. This one of their 1/600 scale jobs?

I bought this kit about ten years ago and to be honest I had very little interest in building it because when I received from an ebay purchase it was missing parts so was put in the pile.
I decided to build as I know how rare these kits are getting and matches my queen Elizabeth and qe2.
The kit I received had no fixed parts of bag so all I got was the parts minus a couple, the manual and transfers.
Unfortunately like all airfix kits, the detail was terrible such as missing windows on all most decks, missing support girders.
the girders I will put in with donor parts of plastic and I will draw all the windows with cd pen.
As you can see by the picks below the ship is in terrible condition with inaccurate paintwork so I first cleaned the hull up with base coat which is a dramatic improvement.
Will keep posted as build goes on.