Airfix 1/180 Great Western Build

I like what you have so far. I have been thinking about getting one of these so I will be watching ...... 

Anything truly horrible about the assembly so far  ( other than the deck. I'v gotten pretty good at fixing "crappy planking". ) Nice job on the deck by the way!

Was the circular railing at the stern warped or out of round?

Do the paddle wheels go together ok? Are they individual paddles?

How's the alignment of the smokestack half's ?

Are the lifeboat's a one piece hull with the seats molded as a one piece insert?

And..... just how long is the hull?

( I know....... so many questions.   If I start to drive you nut's just reach around to the back seat and smack me.)

 Hi Timmy, The assembly was good. The rear railing cap was way oversize & I made a new one & then decided to shrink the kit one. I was going to build a whole new rail, but the kit one worked ok. A lot of sanding. Smoke stack was a lot of sanding. Nothing was without flash & in need of sanding. Lifeboats were real good & looked god. 

  I wrote up another post to get this a lot further 7 lost it. Too many pictuures I guess. The hull is about 17".    Smack. I had 6 kids so I got plenty of that. I have been building models for 75 years so when I see a rough model I gripe. 

     I will run the rest of the pictures again.

  Here are 2 more posts on the Great Western. I will post the pictures & comment later.

More on the 3rd post

  Her are more pics. I am really likeing the model now, especially since I made the railing. I made it with .025 posts  & .010 plastic rod. It worked pretty god for a first time with that.

  I will start the masts now & will paint the sails in a white & light gray mix. Not darker sails this time. The sails are in good shape, which is rare. The paddle wheels are Hull Red. I masked the 2 gold stripes on the side & sealed them before painting with MM gloss lacquer. The gold paint was a problem, MMgold enamel. Think I would just do white next time. 

     I wil mount it on the base now.

g'day gene , I haven't heard of this model , look's very nice , especially with you doing it . look's like a fun build , must look into it . really looking forward to more pic's . do you have a picture of the box art please mate .

steve5

A nice looking model.  The build really looks wonderful. Thought the ship was longer, seems there isn't much room for passengers when considering the space taken up with coal and engine room.

I wonder where do the passengers sit while on the deck? 

gene1

    I will start the masts now & will paint the sails in a white & light gray mix. Not darker sails this time. The sails are in good shape, which is rare. The paddle wheels are Hull Red. I masked the 2 gold stripes on the side & sealed them before painting with MM gloss lacquer. The gold paint was a problem, MMgold enamel. Think I would just do white next time. 

     I wil mount it on the base now.

 

Gene,

     WOW. 10 days?   I would still only be up to removing the tape masking the waterline.

 The Stack looks more detailed than I expected. Did you add a few parts to it?

      I will be in touch when I start mine. I have limited skill in Rigging so I will be watching your build closely.

     Jim.

Gosh you do such nice sharp work. As for the subject, it seems attractive for the first time.

I would be happy to send you my Airfix Endurance, I'll bet you could set it right.

Looks great!  I love ships from that era, wish there were more kits of ships from that period.

 ,Thanks to all of you. 

 GM what is the endurance, is it a sailer ?

Nino, the stack is stock, the only thing I did was build the front part of the steering railing because it was lost & I scratch built the whole railing around the center. It was a lot easier with plastic rod than brass rod. I used .025 posts & .010 top bar. I will do better if I ever do it again.

   Steve5, I cut the front of the box off & will take a pic of that. It is Airfix/ Craftmaster & is marked 1/144, but it came out earlier as 1/180 & that is what it scales to.

 Marcus, I don't imgine they did a lot of deck sitting in the north Atlantic. This ship made 64 trips from Bristol England to NY in 8 years & then was sold & went south, I think. There was deck room tho.

 Don, I would like to know what other steam/ sailers in plastic are out there. Does anyone know. I know about Lindberg's 1/124 Blockade Runner as I just got it for $19 + $7 shipping. I see the Harriett Lane by Pyro, but it looks jst like the Blockade Runner. There is also the Oriental Star in 1/100 by Minicraft & isn't there a Susquehanna?  Is it by Imai? 

  I don't know if earler Airfix Great Western's would be better, but it is some bad castings no matter when. It does build up pretty nice because the hull cast is good. Just something different.

   There are some great pictures of this ship at the London Science Museum, I believe it is. I used them a lot for details. I got that off an Airfix Forum.

Didn't Revell have a Great Eastern in it's 36" hull series?  Or is that just fickle memory?

The Lindberg kit is the Pyro kit, just with a different label.

Capn, I think Revell did have the Great Eastern, but I don.t know what size. I know Lindberg is not great, but I think they have a few winners. I built that big plastic Robt. E Lee back in the 1950's & that was real fun. I think it was Pyro then. I grew up in St. Louis back in the 1930's & rode the real wood riverboats.

 I even have a picture of my ganpa & ganma on a riverboat in the late 1800's. Maybe I will find it & put it on here sometime.

CapnMac82

Didn't Revell have a Great Eastern in it's 36" hull series?  Or is that just fickle memory?

The Lindberg kit is the Pyro kit, just with a different label.

 

CapnMac82 you are right.

     Revell did have the Great Eastern but at a 1/380ish scale. It was 22" long. It's a shame they could not make it a similar scale to the Airfix Great Western in 1/180  but at 693' long it would have been one heck of a long box for an LHS to display. ( Hull about 44".)

    That Lindberg Civil War Blockage Runner aka Pyro Harriet Lane aka Heller Le Sphinx  is a really good kit to learn on as it is a larger scale at 1/124.  It has been re-re-released by Lindberg and is still for sale at Active Power Sports for about $16 +SH.

    As regards the 1/100 Heller/Minicraft Oriental Star it was also a Side paddle wheeler and used the same hull as Hellers Pourquoi Pas? and Brigantine. I understand it was also released as L’Occident by Heller and Sirius by Zvezda. http://www.modelships.info/debrisfield/reviews/sirius/Sirius.html

       The 1/150 Susquehanna was an original IMAI kit then Monogram used the molds and released it too.  It was finally reboxed by Aoshima.  I have the Monogram production of the kit but it’s still sealed. Please give me a reason to open it.

        http://modellmarine.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2660:aoshima-uss-susquehanna-1150&catid=7:aos&Itemid=1 

   Nino.

gene1

 Don, I would like to know what other steam/ sailers in plastic are out there. Does anyone know. I know about Lindberg's 1/124 Blockade Runner as I just got it for $19 + $7 shipping. I see the Harriett Lane by Pyro, but it looks jst like the Blockade Runner. There is also the Oriental Star in 1/100 by Minicraft & isn't there a Susquehanna?  Is it by Imai? 

  

The oriental star is the only old time liner I know of, except for a model of the Fulton North River (Clermont).  There are quite a few 20th century liners, Titanic and sisters, plus the more modern queens and even one of an American liner, forgot the name.

Capn',

Revell did have the Great Eastern, but it was in the middle series (appx. 24"). It was a nice kit, but is rare.  They did not produce it for very long.

Gene,

Great work as usual!

Bill Morrison

It was a beautiful model. I think it was in cable laying mode and was missing a funnel.

Nino

 

 

CapnMac82

Didn't Revell have a Great Eastern in it's 36" hull series?  Or is that just fickle memory?

The Lindberg kit is the Pyro kit, just with a different label.

 

 

 

 

CapnMac82 you are right.

     Revell did have the Great Eastern but at a 1/380ish scale. It was 22" long. It's a shame they could not make it a similar scale to the Airfix Great Western in 1/180  but at 693' long it would have been one heck of a long box for an LHS to display. ( Hull about 44".)

    That Lindberg Civil War Blockage Runner aka Pyro Harriet Lane aka Heller Le Sphinx  is a really good kit to learn on as it is a larger scale at 1/124.  It has been re-re-released by Lindberg and is still for sale at Active Power Sports for about $16 +SH.

    As regards the 1/100 Heller/Minicraft Oriental Star it was also a Side paddle wheeler and used the same hull as Hellers Pourquoi Pas? and Brigantine. I understand it was also released as L’Occident by Heller and Sirius by Zvezda. http://www.modelships.info/debrisfield/reviews/sirius/Sirius.html

       The 1/150 Susquehanna was an original IMAI kit then Monogram used the molds and released it too.  It was finally reboxed by Aoshima.  I have the Monogram production of the kit but it’s still sealed. Please give me a reason to open it.

        http://modellmarine.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2660:aoshima-uss-susquehanna-1150&catid=7:aos&Itemid=1 

   Nino.

 

Airfix kitted Scott's steam/ sailer Discovery on 1/144. Gene, I did mis-identify her as Endurance, Shackleton's ship. They are similar.

By their very nature, these can be the basis for all sorts of sealers, freighters or such.

Don Stauffer

 There are quite a few 20th century liners, Titanic and sisters, plus the more modern queens and even one of an American liner, forgot the name.

Interesting that one. The one in my stash probably will be built as a troop ship of the General class. 

Hi,

Revell of Germany has also re-released their Waterline SS United States recently too.

Pat

GMorrison

 

The Pourquoi Pas? is a very nice and accurate model of Charcot's polar exploration ship. Zvezda reboxed it as well. In true form, she's a screw ship. Those side wheel clones are horrible.

  Bill,

      I had to go search my list about the Pourquoi Pas?.  Looks like it was also re-boxed by Minicraft as Polar Wind.  And It is a very nice kit.  

     Heller does have a bad rep for re-using hulls and making minimal mods to existing molds and renaming kits to stay in business.  Now I wish IMAI had done it more, (Spanish Galleon/Pirate ship), and maybe they would still be in business.

     Jim.

PFJN

Hi,

Revell of Germany has also re-released their Waterline SS United States recently too.

Pat

 

      PFJN,

     Revells’ SS US is not quite "waterline" but if you cut it down to the actual waterline it looks much better.  It was one of Revels’ Flat Bottom Boats circa 1953.  The old ITC/Glencoe version released in1954, has a full hull but is poorer IMHO as it is dimensionally wrong- It Looks squashed Bow to Stern. Kinda like Fujimi's Chibi-maru kits.

     Check out its History. Fastest Liner ever. It's docked a few miles from me.

    Since we are also discussing Passenger liners, For Early 1900's there is the old Airfix Mauretania from WW1 fame.  Other than those kits already mentioned I can think of no other plastic kits for Passenger Steam ships for the 1819 thru 1906 timeframe.

      Nino

Squeezing in the back door of your time frame, Gunze made  a 1/350 RMS Lusitania, there's even PE for it. (She was launched in 1906).

I have to agree with Mr. Morrison, nice sharp work,really liking the decks.

Re: GMorrison post: "Squeezing in the back door of your time frame, Gunze made  a 1/350 RMS Lusitania, there's even PE for it. (She was launched in 1906)."

Thanks Bill,

       Please squezz'em in.  I wish there was more.  I would have extended my date range but then we would have to include the Titanic et al.   Still not certain if the 1819 date is good. Some Historians say the Savannah was not fully steam. In that case my starting date range would be 1833ish.   

          Jim.

Edit:  My thoughts on subjects for this topic were Steam ships able to cross the Atlantic.  There were many ships that steamed in the area of the European, and North American continent earlier then 1833.  I was in the midst of a late lunch and did not take the oppurtunity to look further than my  Men, Ships, and the Sea book.

My grandparents had a copy of M,S and S in their house when is was young. I read it forwards, backwards and upside down.

It's where I first learned about Wasa, among other things.

It goes without saying that two other notable steam sail plastic kits are Kearsarge and Alabama.

GM, The problem with me is I built those 2 big Revell kits when they first came out & that has been a hundred years ago . I really like what you are doing with your Corvette. It looks like a lot of work & looks really good. I just dont know the history of a lot of ships & the Corvette was one. I would like to read The Cruel Sea. 

   Are any of the ships you all are talking about like the Great Western, a paddle steamer. 

Bronco sold a couple of really nice Chinese Steam Navy pre dreads some time back. The bigger battleship which was built by Stettin was pretty much fully rigged.