Well since my 1/350 Lusitania project has been indefinitely suspended as the parts I’m waiting for never arrived I figured I would try out a few 1/600 ships and see what that’s all about.
My initial reaction is that I’m not a fan. I can’t paint any detail on a scale this small, and most everything is already molded to the model. I really had a hard time painting the windows, they came out quite bad but they’re just too small for me. I have 3 in this scale, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary, and Mauritania. I think I’ll do the two Queens just to fill up some time.
I have a 1/450 QE2 which unfortunately also has a lot of stuff already molded to the decks but at least it’s not as tiny as these. I also have a 1/400 Queen Mary 2 which looks like a nice build with a lot of parts. I enjoy 1/350 scale and would not like to go much smaller than that on a ship.
On this Queen Elizabeth I tried painting the windows three different times with three different techniques and none of them worked. I finally said that’s it, it will just have to be good enough. Lots of paint on those windows lol.
Looking great so far. For fine painting on 1:600 and 1:700 kits I often use the tip of a round toothpick as a brush. I shake a bottle of paint, take the cap off and lay it upside down on the benchtop. Then I dip the pick vertically into the paint film in the cap. Puts on just the right amount of paint. I usually just daub the paint on the model making a point- a line is just the repetition of closely space points. It is possible to just draw lines, but it took me a lot of practice to do that.
I love those old 1:600 scale sailing warships- wish someone still produced them.
Your paint job is impeccable so far! I recommend using a fine tip marker for the windows, or cut them off entirely and replace them with photoetch railing, filling the windows in with a clear glue. I have successfully used this technique with both 1/600 and 1/700 ships.
PS. As for 1/600 scale, it was my favorite scale for ships growing up, because things weren’t as small as on 1/700 or 1/720 scale and there were a number of ships of ships in that scale, which was nice. Plus the fact that 1/600 worked out to 50 scale ft per inch and the fact that there was about 25mm per inch, helped make scratch building a bit easier. Now a days though I find that I like different scales for different subjects, especially as my eyes get weaker [:P]
Thanks guys. It took me a couple of hours just to mask and paint the chain runs! This forecastle may take a week lol. I’m having to slice 1 mm masking tape in halves or thirds to fit in these tight spots. I need younger eyes.
I tried to get real chain but the smallest I could order still looked too big.
Thanks. I took some 1mm masking tape and sliced it lengthwise into thirds and then just boxed off squares with that. I masked everything else off that was white and sprayed it with black paint.
Thanks. I did some more masking and painting on this little guy. I ran out of my Tamiya black paint for the poop deck and had to use some Krylon. It doesn’t look nearly as good as the Tamiya. I will have to wait for my Tamiya to arrive before spraying anymore black.
Chris, You are doing a beautiful job on these ship. If you are looking for a great model n 1/600, look at Academys Nuke Carrier. Enterprise #65. It is a beautiful ship & I know it is not a Cruise Liner but it builds easy.here is a quick look at it & keep in mind I will be 90 in a few months. Gene
Thanks. Very nice looking build Gene. You have a few years on me but you’re an ispiration with your work. I need to stop complaining about working with smaller scales as I’m 57 lol!!
Good to know Bill, but you remember I have a big Victory to finish.I remember seeing the Forrestal in Jacksonville. I bet you saw it a lot. That little 1/600 Enterprise was a very clean kit that went together great.
Gene, I didn’t know if you were asking specifically about cruise ships as opposed to ocean liners. I have no idea relative to cruise ships as they aren’t of interest to me. I know as previously mentioned this ship and Mauretania were produced by Airfix in 1/600. Airfix also produced a 1/600 QE2, QM2 and a 1/600 France which I understand is very rare. Revell produced a Queen Mary in 1/570 which for all purposes is the same scale.
That’s about all I know as far as ocean liners built in this scale as it’s the first time I have built a 1/600. There may be others.
