Saturday, April 18, 2015

Building Trawler by Maritime Art Pt.1

This is a little unusual for me. It isn't a structure. It is a boat but for the purpose of adding notches on my craftsman kit stick I will count it.
The manufacturer of the kit is gone and search for Maritime Art produces a long list links which have nothing to do with HO scale models. A little hint to future kit makers. Don't pick a name for your company or product line that has very broad meaning. If you do you will get lost in a sea of Google search results. Anyway, I have managed to find few pictures of other kits by the same manufacturer and that was it. No reviews, no on-line builds. I figured I was on my own.
First thing I noticed after opening the box that kit had big number of small parts and the hull with very uneven surface. I started with filling all nooks and crannies with epoxy. I don't know if that was the best way to do it but it worked somewhat. In some places the epoxy layer peeled off. Perhaps because it was very thin. I thought of using automotive filler but whenever I use it to fill bubble holes in resin detail parts it comes off. I was afraid I was going to get same results here too since the hull is made of resin. After I got through this step I found that instructions were a little hard to read. They were full of ship terms which I was not familiar with. The diagrams with those terms and arrows pointing to appropriate parts of the boat made it easier though. After I figured out what I was supposed to do I needed to glue some pieces of styrene to the hull. I thought epoxy would do the job but styrene kept detaching. Then I tried CA. In general I don't like using it but I find it useful in certain situations. I guess it was certain situation.
The progress is slow as there is some learning curve. I do one step and then go to the next. Sometimes it means I can't do it right away. I will get through this eventually. The next one will be much easier.


Friday, April 17, 2015

Building Majestic Theater by Laser Art Pt.1

Yet another Laser Art kit. I knew it was coming some day. I agreed to do it awhile ago. The kit itself isn't very interesting but I am adding Miller Engineering signs so that may bump up interest level a little.
When I agreed to do it I didn't know how challenging it may be. The signs are on larger side a little, there are laser cut holes in the front wall for marquee and theater sign that come with the kit, the marquee from the kit can't be used because it has 90 degree angles and ME sign can't bend like that.
As the first step I plugged up two theater sign holes with stripwood before painting. I cut and sanded it flush with clapboards. Then I proceeded to making new marquee. My first attempt was a belly flop. I made it out of matboard. The problem with this material is that it likes to separate into layers when it is shaped to wrap around an arch. I soaked the edges with CA but I still wasn't confident that the sign wouldn't peel off with a layer of matboard later on. The other issue was that I made it wrong size and didn't account for ticket booth. Therefore, I scrapped it. I don't have much love for styrene but I couldn't think of any other material that would do the job. After built new marquee out of styrene I cut slots in the front wall for sign connectors. The rest is pretty standard i.e. priming, painting, weathering...


Thursday, April 2, 2015

Building The Waterfront by Bulders in Scale Pt.6

The time is flying, pictures are accumulating and I am falling behind... I have one excuse and a good one.
This past weekend I attended Finescale Model Railroad EXPO 2015 in Scranton, PA. I had couple of very busy days. My goal was to see as many clinics as I could. It was a mistake. Primary goal should be to talk to as many fellow modelers and manufacturers as you possibly can. I went to a number of clinics, got very tired, and lost some interest somewhat. I ended up skipping one clinic on Friday and one on Saturday because of that. Also it is no secret that the EXPO is built around structure aspect of the hobby. How many new things get invented, discovered related to structure building every year? I would say not so many. Then how many don't get posted on the web? Even less. Therefore if you are not living in a cave most likely you know about many inventions and discoveries already. If you are newbie then the clinics are good place to learn. Make sure you take notes because handouts usually are very compressed or none at all. As far as I know only Brett from Sierra West Scale Models has his clinic available online. So if you don't take notes you won't remember even 5% right after you leave and even much less after a week. As for myself, I picked one or two things I can use from each clinic. Some of them will make my live easier or more interesting and I could perfectly continue with my life without knowing the others. Anyway next time I will focus more on social aspect of the gathering.
What does this all have to do with The Waterfront? Absolutely nothing. I shipped it to its owner right before I left for Scranton. It has been delivered and all I have left are the pictures.