A Surprisingly Bad/ Good experience!

General Discussion General Modeling Discussion
1

Hi Ya’ll:

I know,"Here’s the Tanker-Builder with story and no Pics.Yup, Its me! Sorry about no pics. Got to do it and now no Camera! Anyway.

As you know I picked some models at the last show. Three boats to be more accurate. The REVELL of GERMANY-River Steamer(Paddlewheeler) “GEOTHE”/ The Hobby Boss Pegasus Hydrofoil /Fast attack craft and last but not worst? The Catamaran"Playstation". And some REVELL built up ships from who knows where(But built cleanly)

Started the “Playstation”, it’s set aside for now. Started the “Pegasus” It too is set aside.The GOETHE was the biggest so I figured I would go ahead and build it first. That was a BAD decision! The “Goethe” is almost done. But Not without the wrinkles of an old kit. I believe the kit was, Besides missing the Decals, exposed to long term heat then cold etc. Why?

I don’t know if there’s a term for it. The hull, it turned out was not slightly twisted and the deck curled at a crazy angle, but the hull also had a curve in it! Not from top to bottom, but side to side. The deck popped off twice while glueing!.Turns out the hull, when laid upside down on the tabletop had a curve from bow to stern, starting about a third of the way aft. I figured if I could get the deck to stay on this would help correct this. WRONG!!!

So after fighting all the inadequasies of this condition, I must say, She’s almost finished. She doesn’t look to bad after all. I removed the deck to put it between two TwoxFours and poured boiling water all over that puppy then filled it with ice. THAT seemed to do the trick! Still had other quibbles to deal with, but, you know what? As an example of Germany’s River transports she is a great looking example thereof. I have managed to get her at about 99% with just careful building and good paint detail. I have rustled together lettering and decals from model cars that are similar but obviously not, the “Goethe” so she will have another name.It’s sad,But I don’t know if the kit came with a stand (Mine didn’t ) so for display she sits on Drydock Timbers!

I don’t know about you, but I would take a chance on another off the wall model from 1990! I will let you know about the REVELL “Built Ups” later but they are certainly dis-assembling easy after a week in the freezer!

2

Hi TB,

Had to quickly read the first paragraph again, thought you were turning into an avid gamer in my ignorance. I’ll look that one up. Many of my earlier kits are Ravell and Airfix bought in the 1990s, I’m not a collector so I have every intention of building them.

3

That is a really neat looking ship. Yes, a good subject for a build.

Pricey online though.

It has a kind of dominant feature which is the overhead on the top deck. Have you studied the actual ship (if it exists)? I wonder if its a canvas cover that could be removed or partially tied back to show benches on the deck below.

You do have to name her “Goethe” though. Bad luck to change a boats name!

Bill

4

Maybe the curl/warp has something to do with Revell plastic? I mention this because as a kid, I was going to put together the 1/96 scale ‘Constitution’. So this was in the late '60’s-early-70’s. As I was working on the upper deck, I discovered the middle section of deck was badly-warped. This was as it came out of the box!

“No problem!” 10-ish me though, “I’ll just warm up the oven and put it in there for a bit, then pull it out and lay it flat on the counter!!” [H] After setting the oven at the lowest setting and putting the piece in there for a couple of minutes, I was, as you can guess, surprised to discover a deck piece that was not only warped more, but also heat shrunk!! [:|]

Luckily, the kit instructions were at a 1:1 scale with the model, so I was able to save the day by getting out my balsa sheet and building a really nice replica of that section of deck, saving the entire kit. Sadly, the assembled model didn’t survive a subsequent move. One of the hazards of being an Air Force Brat.

5

Uh Oh!

Most folks don’t know that the "brats’ that accompanied their Services members(Armed Service kids) had it bad. Build some kick butt kits, Dad or Mom gets orders and it’s pack up and move again. Models didn’t stand up to much of that.