Bluenose

It's mainly painting it, if that's the plastic kit I'm thinking of (I too built a Bluenose when I was a kid, with my Dad, and yes, I thought the vacuum formed sails were the coolest thing ever).

You're going to be looking at painting wooden decks so they look like wood instead of, well, paint, and there is the question of rigging, but thankfully the Bluenose doesn't have a lot of that. I'd start by searching for the many threads in here about painting wooden decks and painting sailing ships.

I'm no expert in building ships, but I can tell you that the Bluenose (along with her daughter Bluenose II) was simply called Bluenose. She was a working cod fishing boat and occasional racing schooner, and was never part of the Canadian Navy, who's ships are called HMCS (His/Her Majesty's Canadian Ship).

Found this link from the Nova Scotia Archives on the Bluenose. Lots of pics!

http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/bluenose/ 

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Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know that only navy ship where called HMS, I thought all british ships and some canadien started with HMS like the titanic. I know she was a racing boat and was a fishing boat before she sank but my model is the Bluenose 1.

"H.M.S." is an abbreviation for "His (or Her) Majesty's Ship."  It's only applicable to vessels of the British Royal Navy.  Canadian warships are referred to as "H.M.C.S.", Australian ones as "H.M.A.S.," and New Zealand ones as "H.M.N.Z.S." 

Merchant steamships can quite legitimately be referred to as "S.S." ("Steamship.")  British steamers that have been given approval to carry the Royal Mail are referred to as "R.M.S."  (Royal Mail Steamer).  The Titanic was so designated; she's usually referred to as "R.M.S. Titanic."  ("S.S. Titanic" is also technically correct.  Photos show that the words "S.S. Titanic" were painted on her lifeboats.

So far as I know, there is no abbreviation for merchant sailing vessels.  (British sailing warships are labeled "H.M.S.," American warships "U.S.S.," etc.  But not sailing merchantmen.)

Hope that helps a little.  Good luck.

   If you are going to get into "detail", with this project, Howard Chapelle"s "The American Fishing Schooners" would be an excellent source book. I had the opportunity to board the "Highlander Sea", out of Port Huron, Michigan, when she was at Tall Ships Chicago. She was built to race the Bluenose, but the races were done before she could participate. It was quite an experience to see all the details I had only seen as drawings in the book.

thanks jitelly for the info, that will be most useful.

My Bluenose (since my brother doesn't want it any more) in in good condition after all these years but it needs some painting, I don't know if this is correct but this is what the instruction saids on painting, below the water line is bright red but I can't get it to shine and its defenatly not bright red, the darkist blue green (dark teal) isn't showing the red, don't know what to do? most of the ship is navy blue (that must be why they call it Bluenose) and the wooden deck appear yellowish, i'll paint it over wood tan, it should do, or maybe glose it to make a apperance of clear coat wood, but don't know how to do that.

Is this paint scheme correct?