1) I started by weeding through the sprue trees and parts bags from both models, and collected all the small parts that will be kept and used: capstans, anchors, stabilizers, masts, ladders, etc., and set these aside for later trimming and sanding in preparation for painting.

2) I cemented together the exhaust uptakes from both models. Due to the alterations to the ship, the lower portions of the uptakes are now enclosed within the superstructure. Either holes will have to be carefully cut in the decks to allow for the uptakes to pass through, or the uptakes themselves will have to be sliced into pieces, and then realigned. I will decide this later as construction progresses.

3) Almost every major piece of deck from the original kit has at least one pair of ladders (stairways) attached to it.  I won't need the decks, but will need some 21 ladders per model, so I cut away all the ladders from each piece and set them aside. These were "rough cut," and will be trimmed later to remove the railings and excess thickness. Also, the long ladders that were meant to descend from the open hull doors are saved - with careful trimming and small landings added, each long stairway should yield three deck-height ladders, greatly reducing the number I will ultimately have to fabricate from scratch

4) I filled the two small locating holes on each side of the hull where the above-mentioned ladders were meant to be attached. This is accomplished with small pieces of styrene rod.

5) At the stern, I added some small details to F Deck. No need to go into this in minute detail - suffice to say that (using photographs and my memory for reference) I will be adding small details in a number of places around the decks - equipment lockers, fire plugs, fan covers, and the like. As these pages are meant to be more of a chronology than an actual instruction manual, I will omit mentioning the truly minor details of construction.

6) I began trimming and filing the capstans - there are seven small and two large for each ship. As with all cast styrene parts, these will have a visible seam that should be scraped, filed, or sanded away. The devil is indeed in the details, and nothing can ruin the look of a model more than poorly trimmed and finished fittings!

5) I began drilling out the portholes with a .039 drill bit. The designers of this model were kind enough to cast the portholes with raised "rims," making them easy to locate and drill out accurately. Were this Titanic, with over 1,000 portholes, I would probably use a Dremel tool. For Brasil, I'll do it by hand. Tedious, but the final effect is well worth the effort.

6) On the underside of the stern, there are two, small, projecting triangles meant to aid in the alignment of the propeller shaft boss arms. Not needed, and certainly not on the actual vessel - snip!

1) Two halves of the ship's mast cemented together. Her mast has been greatly altered, but I cemented this "as is," and will make the alterations later.

2) Instead of the plastic stands provided with the kit, I will be mounting the model(s) on turned brass pillars or brass rod. In order to do this, two long screws will have to pass from beneath the finished oak base, up through the brass fittings, and into the ship. I can't screw securely into a hollow plastic ship, so I cut some ½" x ½"  squares of styrene, and cement them together in two ½" high stacks, inside the hull, at the points where the screws will come through. The outside of the hull (bottom) has some raised bars that help align the model with the plastic stands - since I'm not using the stands, I cut these locating bars off, and will sand them smooth later, when the entire hull is ready to be sanded.

3) At the aft end of the shell plating on E Deck, there are three rectangular ports, close together, p&s. These need to be plugged, and are.

4) Major surgery begins! It's time to start removing railings - all railings are to be replaced with beautiful, photo-etched brass fittings, so her ugly, over-scale, cast plastic railings must come off! Even those on her mast platforms will be removed. The image above will show a before and after image. Lots of careful cutting with a very sharp knife, and then some filing to smooth the work. The arrow in the second image points to an area where there are two sets of mullioned windows cast into the surface of the model at the forward end of her promenade, just beneath the bridge wing. These, for the most part, must be cut through, except for a small section (arrow) which, at some time, must have been plated over, and is now sealed. This section must be filled in (putty) and sanded flat. I finished the "surgery" on hull #2, but didn't yet start on hull #3.

5) My last job for today involved making a decision regarding her dining room ports - 21 large (comparatively) rectangular ports appear amidships on F deck. These may have been added when the ships were refit for Holland-America service. Regardless, this is a tricky alteration, and one I did not need to do on s/s Bermuda Star, as she her dining room ports had been sealed, and she had no sea view from the dining room at all! I decided that, since the hull is white, these ports (or the absence thereof) will be quite obvious. On the model, of course, the ports are rather small, and very evenly spaced - virtually impossible to cut each one of these out by hand and make them look right. My decision was a relatively drastic one - I cut out one long, 3½" slot across the area where the ports will be, about 1/8" high. It will be much easier to fill this in with small pieces, leaving nice, evenly spaced openings. This is a bit more difficult than one might think - as you may know, ships' decks have "camber," meaning they curve downward in the middle, and bow upward towards the stem and stern. The slot had to be cut not perfectly horizontal, but with a very slight curve to match the line of the remaining portholes. I made this cut-out on hull #2, leaving hull #3 for tomorrow. Good night!

1) Work continues on the dining room alterations. Shown above is the the long cut, which extends the full length of her dining room. Note that in the top image (hull #3) some panels have been placed on the inside of her hull, behind the cut. These help align the hull, and will also support the outer panels. The bottom image (hull #2) shows the ports in place. Some minor filing will be required to make everything "perfect," but at least we'll now have a view of the sea as we dine!

4/20 addendum: I noticed that I forgot to mention that this alteration is on the starboard side only! Her dining room only extends 2/3 of the ship's width, and she has stateroom portholes on her port side, as the original kit indicates.

Looking back through my references, although this alteration is not specifically mentioned, I now believe the ports may have been added during her 1985 refit. Originally, neither Brasil or Argentina had any dining room ports, and there was a long, flat, unbroken section of hull plating in this area. Revell must have thought that this was unacceptable, as small, round portholes appear on the model in this location.

A couple of notes: the yellow patches, visible in the images above, are initial applications of putty. Styrene models always exhibit small depressions in that casting that need to be filled in order to obtain a nice, smooth finish. When you see the actual ship close-up, you'll notice she isn't really nice and smooth; but she does appear smooth as a 1:400 scale model. In fact, when I sailed on s/s Argentina, she had a rather serious "dent" starboard side, aft - the captain was still fuming over this (a docking accident) at the time, and I chose not to model it!

I've also noticed, in working with the two kits, that the older kit is very brittle - this could be due to age, the formula for the styrene used at the time, or a combination of both. If building an early kit, be aware that the material is not nearly as flexible as that in today's modern kits. Though I have experienced no major problems so far, I've paid special attention to joined areas to insure a good bond between cemented parts. Modelers will know that styrene cement basically melts the styrene, fuses it, then evaporates to let the two pieces re-harden as one. We certainly wouldn't want the Universe Explorer "bursting apart at the seams" at the slightest hint of rough weather, now would we!

I'm back! For those of you who have been following along - sorry to have been away for a while, but business has been brisk!  Also, I have acquired two more model kits, and am now constructing four models simultaneously. Time spent on the models has been devoted to bringing the two new ships up to the same level of completion as the first two.  I will now be building one model as s/s Argentina, circa 1964; one as s/s Queen of Bermuda, circa 1989; and two as s/s Universe Explorer, as she appears today.

At this point in construction, it's a bit difficult to illustrate progress, as the white styrene offers no contrast.  Primer application to the large pieces is now not too far off, and this will make the models much easier to photograph.  Below, however, are some images of the ships' funnels in various stages.  Though the funnel will be one of the last pieces actually put in place on the model, it requires some major alterations, so I have begun these in order to make assembly later on a bit simpler.

The image above shows the funnel just after being cut from the upper deck. The funnel is actually molded in three separate pieces: the main structure, the floor of the observation platform, and the funnel top (foreground, above) which includes the "wings" that covered the observation platform area. Of interest, and probably for purposes of simplicity, the top of the funnel is entirely closed, whereas on the actual vessels it was open to allow the sun to reach the nude sunbathers!

Also visible in the above image is what is considered by modelers to be one of the few design flaws in this otherwise excellent Revell model: the outer bulkheads (walls) are split in two, horizontally.  You can clearly see the upper half in the image.  This leaves a nasty horizontal seam running right through the center of the portholes/windows, which is almost impossible to disguise.  It's also nearly impossible to get both halves to align perfectly - this is the main reason these parts will be disposed of, and re-built from scratch.

Reconstruction: only two of the three funnel pieces are retained; the main structure, and the top.  The observation area floor section is discarded (or consigned to the parts bin).  For all four models, the "wings" are removed.  For s/s Universe Explorer and s/s Queen of Bermuda the funnel cap is entirely opened.  For s/s Argentina, 1964, only the forward 1/3 is cut open.  The image above shows the two pieces cemented together.  Styrene strip is added within.  This supports the "fill" pieces that must be inserted to make the funnel a complete, "solid" structure.  Above, fill has been added to the forward openings, but not yet to the aft sunbathing area windows.

Above we see the funnel after all openings have been filled, an initial application of putty has been added, and the piece has been sanded.  For s/s Universe Explorer, the funnel is now virtually finished.  It will be primed, examined for small flaws, and will likely require some additional putty and sanding.  For s/s Queen of Bermuda, the funnel top will need to be built up - a stylish (debatable) "tail" was added to her funnel when she became s/s Liberté.  This would be removed circa 1990, presumably so she would again match her sister more closely in appearance.

The funnel for hull #4, or s/s Argentina, 1964.  The 1964 refit of the vessel involved the covering-up of the sunbathing area in the aft 2/3 of the funnel, and the removal of the forward observation platform.  She and her sister would now boast an observation lounge, known as the "Birdcage," located just above the bridge - a unique location (at the time) and immensely popular.  The image above shows putty has been applied, but not yet sanded.

Continued.....