The Ship Model Forum

...or why I can never finish a ship model.



These are all Combrig kits.

First up; USS Maine. Spring-early summer 2008.

Reason for stall; failed attempt at non-standard mounting method caused paint to blister, and, I'm a sissy.

Modifications that I recall are accurizing the barbettes to be assymetrical as they were on the original, drilling out and squaring up the ports in the superstructure to place opened port-lids on them, adding the main-deck fender strake, modifying a rowing pinnace to more accurately portray the barge carried on the aft port boat davit.




Showing the modified port barbette to better advantage.


Port lids, all laid out, drilled and scored, but not removed.


The unfinished barge.


Phot-etch bow scroll.

Next; Tsessarevitch.

Begun winter of 2004, stalled spring of 2005.

Reason for stall; I'm a sissy whose eyes are bigger than his enthusiasm.


This kit, to be reasonably satisfactory to me, is going to require scratchbuilt, more accurate forward superstructure platforms, charthouse, and wheelhouse.
The fighting tops are going to need considerable detailing, the kit-provided plan view does not correspond to the supplied resin, two torpedo armed picket boats are going to have to be carved out of a pair of Modelkrak Japanese steam pinnaces, among other considerable detailing.

Oy.




This a prototype for a fighting-top support that's been bent all cattywhampus.


What kind of monster leaves a model with a beautiful hull shape like that unfinished?

Next; Tri Sviatitelia.

Begun in the fall of 2004, stalled in the fall of 2004.

Reason? Some incredibly sloppy and hurried painting that is going to require extensive re-work...and, I'm a sissy.

No work is less satisfying than re-work.



Is that a finger smear by the conning tower? *flogs self with wet noodle*


Aside from needing to add some companionways and miscellanious small details, I think this is a pretty nice kit, and deserves better than to be languishing in a drawer...someday, someday.

Tom, Don't give up on them, they look good. Sometimes putting them away for a little while and then starting on them latter helps..... makes them seen like a new model half way done!

Next; Dmitri Donskoi.

Begun Spring 2004, and stalled shortly thereafter.

Reason for stall; being one of my all-time favorite ships, I wanted to replace the (what I felt to be) exaggerated fender wales. On this ship, they followed a gently sweeping sheer line, and I got scared of completely screwing this task up after mostly removing the kit-supplied detail.

Verdict?

Sissy.

Wanting to build the kit to represent the ship's circa 1900 appearance, the forward bridge will have to be scratchbuilt to the earlier version.


There's some structural detail that I'd like to add around the bow, in addition to the already mentioned wales, should I ever light a fire beneath my rear and get to work on this thing again.


Picket boats from the lamentably now hard-to-find Modelkrak small boat set.

DanCinSD wrote:
Tom, Don't give up on them, they look good. Sometimes putting them away for a little while and then starting on them latter helps..... makes them seen like a new model half way done!

I couldn't agree more, I think having a stash of kits really, really, really can have it's downside sometimes, though.

Next up: Rurik.

Rurik, ah Rurik...this is probably my most ambitious attempt at a ship model.

Begun July of 2007, stalled October 2007.

The kit has many minor and not-so-minor flaws, and while I'm pretty happy with where I was required to carve into the resin, I'm not overly enthusiastic about some of my added detail...not by a long shot.
Then, there's the fact that I intend for the model to represent the ship as-built; the horror of a 3 masted barque rig makes me break out in cold sweats.

Stalled due to very sloppy paint, and work generally sub-par for what I want in this model....aaaaand, I'm a SISSY!



Scratched replacement bridges.


Bow scroll was painted free-hand, corrected often, then traced over with CA glue via stretched sprue, the shield with eagle is .005" plastic sheet done the same way; the red background to the double eagle is based on a photo of the ship in drydock where the background shows very much darker than the relief emblem; perhaps silver? Blue? I went with red, and will change it if anyone has info.


Slightly longer shot.


View forward and scratch built shell hoists.


Scratched engine-room skylights; I removed a kit supplied deckhouse-like structure directly aft of them to represent the companionway that was actually in that location, but a photo a friend has since sent to me shows my guesswork to be more than a little incorrect.


The funnel bases had a considerable chamfered overhang which the kit parts didn't show, so I've attempted some re-work on them.


The funnel base overhangs also sported angle-iron supports for the ammunition supply rails, something I've also made a beginning at representing...not overjoyed with the result, though.


Bow scroll, opposite side. Interestingly, photos of the actual ship show this to be assymetrical in some details.


Ram-bowed picket boats being coaxed from Modelkrak steam launches.


Close up of after bridge...

They still look impressive in their preparatory state! I have at least 22 stalled projects, some of which haven't had any TLC in six years, despite being nearly finished. In the mean time, I usually robbed boats, small parts and PE off them for scratchbuilding projects...

Come on, just sit down with one and start building!

I wish my stalled projects would look like yours!

I also wish I had only as few as you have...

Jorit

Thanks for the kind words, guys.

Tom--that's a lot of work done already--how I would enjoy having all those 'shorcuts' to choose from to get a quicker finished model...!!!

I must admit that I too am sometimes obsessive about trying to ' accurize '....

but in truth I normally only build one model at a time--I simply grit my teeth and push on...

Re the supports of the fighting tops of Tsesaravitch....

when I built mine--pre-internet and lacking decent resources/plans/books etc....


I made mine from bits of bent handrail... that way not having the 'frame look' of the to and mast-side PE.

Here is my 'old' model--back in the days of 35 mm film scanned images......... arghhh!!

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

Some of these projects have been stagnant for a couple years......

This is a stall that's been upgraded to WIP; Combrig's Khrabri.

The yellow deck superstructure color will no doubt raise some eyebrows, but the photo I based it on shows little if any differentiation between the stack, ventilator cowls, and superstructure, yet the boats in the photo show very much lighter...could be wrong, but I went with it anyway.

Could stand to do a little housekeeping, eh?

makes me need to mount my finished build....



http://ussmaine.blogspot.com/

That's a really sweet Maine build; I followed your build as you updated.