I started this Airfix Great Western kit about 10 days ago & was anxious to build it. It is probably Aifix’s worst & roughest kit, but can be cleaned up to make a real interesting model. The castings are terrible & require a ton of cleanup. It has been different & fun. I will do it in 3 posts so I can get a bunch of pictures as sometimes I loose the whole thing.
I always add a piece of 1x2 with the bottom planed to fit the hull & AC glue it in.
The deck I tried a lot because it was pretty bad, so I just used Tamiya wooden Tan & washed (sprayed) it with oil raw umber, & then used a colored pencil to mark some planks. Looked pretty good. The bottom is just masked Floquil Copper.
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.
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.
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 .
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
