Gunze Sangyo 1/350 Lusitania

Tanker-Builder

Member since
October 2019
From: New Braunfels, Texas

Posted by Tanker-Builder on Saturday, April 25, 2020 9:49 AM

Oh My !

You are a very lucky person. In all the years I have looked for her specifically, most shops or sites said they didn't know if one existed. And 1/350 at that? Good luck and I will be watching this build.

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ChrisSC

Member since
February 2020
From: South Carolina, USA

Posted by ChrisSC on Saturday, April 25, 2020 9:38 AM

Thanks. Lots of good ideas from you all. It's all very helpful to me!

As far as Entex is concerned, I had bought an old used Entex Titanic for spare parts and the quality of its parts was much better than the Minicraft version. I don't know much about all the history of these kits but I know a lot of people on other more Titanic oriented forums rave about how great the updated Minicraft Titanic is. That's why I bought it. I found it to be horrible, bordering on junk parts. I can't emphasize that enough! It almost turned me off to the idea of getting into this hobby. I'm glad they all don't appear to be like that. I don't know how hard it is to scratch build stuff but it almost seems like it would be easier to start from scratch than try to fix all the mess on that kit. This one is lots better.

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surfsup

Member since
March 2009
From: brisbane australia

Posted by surfsup on Friday, April 24, 2020 11:33 PM

Watching this one with interest. If I am correct the Kit was originally done by Entex in the mid 70's. Gunze got the Moulds and re popped it in the mid 80's.....Cheers mark

If i was your wife, i'd poison your tea! If Iwas your husband, I would drink it! WINSTON CHURCHILL

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GMorrison

Member since
September 2012

Posted by GMorrison on Friday, April 24, 2020 10:59 PM

Looking good. I like to build on a construction base and switch to the final one when I get to deck level.

I have a collection of them. The feature I like is a upturned piece at one end. It really helps because it allows the ship to be layed on it's side on the bench.

Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

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Rick Sr

Member since
October 2019
From: Cape Cod, Mass

Posted by Rick Sr on Friday, April 24, 2020 10:08 PM

Chris, drill out the port holes and fill with model masters clear glue and window maker. It takes time but makes a world of difference. Do that before p[ainting the hull.

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ChrisSC

Member since
February 2020
From: South Carolina, USA

Posted by ChrisSC on Friday, April 24, 2020 9:25 PM

All the plastic railings are removed. It was a lot of filing and sanding. So far I'm really impressed by the quality of this model kit. Everything seems straight and clean. The Minicraft Titanic I recently built was a total horror show quality wise compared to this one. I think I'm going to enjoy building this one a lot more as I hopefully won't be wrestling with all the warped junk like I did on the Titanic.

I cut and routed a piece of Mahogany for the display base. I just have to give it a few more coats of Polyurethane.

I also bought a color laser printer and some decal paper and printed up some decals. I was pleasantly surprised how nice they came out. Now I just have to figure out how to apply them correctly. I made a lot of spares for this Lusitania so now I can afford to mess up a few. I guess I'll have to shoot the hull in gloss to apply them and then put a coat or two of flat clear over it. I learned from my mistake on the last one not to paint it dull until the decals are on. I am also going to mess around with panel line accent and see what that's all about.

I got a hold of some stencils, tracing paper, hole punches, and a 24x12 piece of uncut Scaledeck.. I am going to try and make wood decks for it. I am not really holding out much hope for that though. There are a lot of tiny details molded onto the decks that I don't think I can cleanly cut out. It's worth a try though.

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ChrisSC

Member since
February 2020
From: South Carolina, USA

Posted by ChrisSC on Wednesday, April 22, 2020 8:05 PM

I removed one bow railing on the hull. I had to do it by hand. With the smaller pieces I did yesterday I was able to place them down flat on the bench and use my Foredom tool to remove some material and then finish it off by hand. With the whole half hull the railing sits off the bench in midair and doesn't have enough rigidity and support to use the tool. It's too risky as the whole piece jumps around too much even at low RPM. One slip would gouge a chunk out of the plastic. So I'll just have to take my time and remove the rest by sanding and filing.

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ChrisSC

Member since
February 2020
From: South Carolina, USA

Posted by ChrisSC on Wednesday, April 22, 2020 7:53 AM

djrost_2000

Looks like a nice kit!

Thanks. Yes it's in as new condition. So far the parts appear to be mich nicer in quality than the Minicraft Titanic I just completed.

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djrost_2000

Member since
February 2003
From: Where the coyote howl, NH

Posted by djrost_2000 on Tuesday, April 21, 2020 3:06 PM

Looks like a nice kit!

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ChrisSC

Member since
February 2020
From: South Carolina, USA

Posted by ChrisSC on Tuesday, April 21, 2020 3:03 PM

Three down and one to go. Very time consuming working with tiny files in tight places. Then come the railings on the hull which I am a little worried about removing. This kit is old and probably brittle, and there is quite a good length of railing on the hull.

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ChrisSC

Member since
February 2020
From: South Carolina, USA

Gunze Sangyo 1/350 Lusitania

Posted by ChrisSC on Monday, April 20, 2020 5:45 PM

I got this kit from Australia on ebay. They are hard to find. It was brand new, all the parts still in the bags. The first thing I’m doing is removing the molded on plastic railings so I can replace them with brass. Some are easy to clip off, others are impossible to get to. For the tightly placed ones I’m using a Foredom Tool to make enough room for me to get small files in there to fine tune the openings. The tool works great for stuff like this as it can operate from 0 RPM and reverse which helps to stop any climbing.