Great thread mates. First, my only brush with the SS United States came in 1979-1980. After I graduated from architecture school I got an apartment in San Francisco with one of my college classmates. I was working at a big firm called SOM and he was working for a small one downtown. They had the commission to do the redesign of the interiors of the ship. I went over to their office a number of times and they had these great big drawings pinned up, on the desks and lots of nice interior renderings. Remember, no CAD.
One thing that sticks in my mind from looking at the drawings was the great amount of sheer.
Second, I tried a few paper models quite a few years ago and it was fun. I started out with a nice little ice breaker that went together pretty well, then got ambitious and bought an oil tanker that i never put together.
It’s definitely a different skill set, and I suspect CA wouldn’t work so it takes patience, but I agree with the other post that there is a nice quality to the prefinish. The plates were shaded, fittings stood out even if just printed, and it generally was much less monochromatic than we get used to. Well worth a looksee.
I can’t find my copy of “The Big Ship” right now, but it seems to my fading memory that therein was a story told of how Capt. Alexanderson docked the S.S. U.S. in New York City on the Hudson River without the help of any tug boats as they happened to be on strike at the time.
I have no idea about things such as this, but it seems to me that, that was a pretty darn good bit of seamanship!
I remember that story about the tugs too - and I’m pretty certain it’s true. The commodore, however, was a gracious and modest man; all he conversations I ever had with him (not many, unfortunately for me) were about the ship, rather than him.
Inkjet printer technology has come a long way in the past few years. The stuff my printer uses (Epson #78 “Claria” ink - six different cartridges) has no tendency whatever to smear on any paper I’ve ever used in it - and it dries in a few seconds. I suppose some combinations of ink and paper might cause problems, but I imagine a quick spritz of a fixative would solve them.
The ads for paper/card models (I think the two terms are used interchangeably - though “card” seems to have a slightly more sophisticated ring to it) seem to recommend two adhesives: Seccotine and Uhu. Seccotine (I may be misspelling it) is a British product that I’ve read about in magazines for decades but never seen or used. Our British friends swear by it as a superbly versatile material; Donald McNarry, for example, has used it since the thirties. Uhu is available in the U.S.; it’s a transparent glue in a tube with about the consistency of Duco cement. I think any modern, permanent paper adhesive (such as the ones Dreadnought mentioned) would work; I know from experience that Franklin Titebond does. And I don’t see why any of the modern glue sticks shouldn’t work - provided one avoids the “washable” ones. In a complex model in probably would be a good idea to lay in several types of adhesive for different applications. Whatever adhesive you use, there are two important tricks: don’t smear it on too thick (thereby making the paper warp), and don’t get it anywhere it doesn’t belong. The latter problem used to be fatal; nowadays it could be solved by running off another copy of the damaged part.
If I were starting a card model I think my first step would be to make copies of all the sheets, on ordinary, high-quality printer paper, to serve as masters for as many replacements as I might need. I suspect by the time I got done with a battleship or ocean liner the work room would be knee-deep in copies.
Here’s a little hint from some sci-fi and architectural modelers… Scale downloaded paper model patterns to whatever size you want and print them (if your printer can handle it) on thin styrene stock. Laminate the stock onto other styrene to the thickness you want. If the pattern is for a cylinder shape, wrap it around a dowel or other form of proper diameter to give it substance. The compound curves of a ship’s hull can be a problem. But paper model patterns usually take these into account and styrene can be sanded and filled to make transitions much smoother than could be made with paper. Wood decks can be overlaid with real wood planking sheets or grooved styrene. Masts and other fittings can be made from dowels or tubing. If built to a common scale, PE ladders, rails and other fittings are available. repetitive pieces can be made once and cast as many times as necessary (Boats, davits, vents etc.). MIcro Mark and others have complete sets of styrene punches that will make round portholes.
Basically, we use card models as pre-engineered scratchbuilds!
Jack
P.S. Do not print with a laser printer… They get too hot and will warp thin styrene.
Concerning the old Revell kit, I had asked Revell of Germany whether they would
reiusse the “United States” kit. The last time the kit was issued/sold in Germany
was around 1992. I was told that there were some difficulties to get back the
tool, because it was leased to another company. Could this be Glencoe too ?
It seems to me that I had seen a smaller than 1:400 scale “United States” kit from
Glencoe few years ago…
A great website for oceanliners is a virtual museum:
I have the 1:400 Glencoe kit of the France and other than being just a little too narrow in the beam, it’s a pretty good model. The transition from the France to the Norway was pretty dramatic (it included the addition of two new decks), so I’m going to have to be content in modelling her as built. It would be nice to have a comparable kit of the “Big U” but that’s not very likely.
If you’re content with smaller scales (1:570 to 1:600), you can put together a nice collection of classic liner models from the 1950’s / 60’s including the Queen Mary I and United States (Revell) and the France and Queen Elizabeth I (Airfix).
Sadly, I doubt that the “Big U” is going to be restored. The NTSB’s final report on the boiler explosion on the Norway in 2003 was pretty harsh and it may have diminished NCL’s enthusiasm for restoring and operating another vintage liner, especially given the huge costs involved.
Another reissued Revell kit which still should be available is the british passenger ship
“SS Oriana”, (in box-scale due to it´s age). This kit hasn´t been around for long years
and was reissued with original boxart in 2006 as one of 10 modelkits celebrating
Revell of Germany´s 50th anniversary. In the last two years ROG also had reissued
the tanker “Esso Glasgow” and freighter “Hawaiian Pilot” as well as “SS Savannah”,
all in different scales. So we might hope to see a “SS Brasil” or the “United States”
in their “Classics” - Series to.
Airfix had reissued their “SS Mauretania” several times, the kit is not listed in their
current catalog but their old kits are returning regularyly, so we have to be patient.
For those of you interested in a large scale SS United States I have found a site that has in stock the card model version in 1/250 by Wilhelmshavener - Möwe Verlag. The cost is steep, 48 Euros. It can be found at www.moduni.com. You will also find a huge assortment of civil ships in card/paper that will in all probability amaze most people from the USA. WS