The sun has decided to show itself today, and Spring has returned. It looks like the four ships will receive their first coat of grey primer either later this afternoon, or tomorrow morning. Before I do that, here's a look at a couple of small alterations to the forward and aft decks.

In this photo you will see her after decks. Note that this piece belongs to s/s Argentina ca. 1964, so the upper area remains; whereas on the other three models (see page 1) the hatch and pool section has been discarded. The lower deck bulkhead has had two openings cut, and small details (pennant locker, fire extinguisher locker, and vent covers) have been added. The large (partially hidden) opening near top has been cut in the deck to allow for the insertion of her aft swimming pool. The model kit provides only a piece of green tin foil for this - I will be fabricating both of her pools to their full (scale) depth. Porthole and gangway openings have been cut in the upper bulkhead as well.

The arrows above point to the hawse pipe openings that have been drilled and filed open. This will allow for actual chain to come out of the deck, wrap around her chain winches, and go back down into the chain locker. The location for the two forward-most holes (top arrow) is indicated in the original casting of the deck, but the two "return" holes do not exist at all, and must be placed in relation to her anchor winches. Also, "collars" must be built up around these to simulate the iron hawses that protect the surrounding deck from the running chain when the anchor is dropped. This is done simply with a small sliver cut off of the end of a piece of styrene tubing of the proper size - the sliver is cut at an angle, so when the collar is placed on the deck it is raised at one end, and nearly flush with the deck on the side where the chain rests. As stated earlier, plastic chain link was cast into the original deck surface - this is scraped/sanded away, since real chain looks so much better! A note here: the hulls were modified in a similar manner, with raised "collars" added and hawses drilled open at the location of the anchors port & starboard. The kit hull is perfectly smooth in this area, having only a tab slot to secure the anchors in its position. The hawse pipe openings on the hull are a prominent and recognizable feature on the ships, and make for a nice, added detail on the models - a "must-do" as far as I'm concerned.

The arrows above point to an unexpected alteration that pushed my painting schedule back a bit. This is the forward deck on s/s Argentina, ca. 1964. On the original kit, there are deep cut-outs in the curved bulkhead between her two forward hatch openings. These are meant to help locate the ship's forward kingposts. Unfortunately, these do (did) not exist on the ships, so they had to be filled in. I then added two short sections of styrene pipe, split lengthwise and sanded to the proper angle, to simulate the projecting "half-circle" base, which is true to the construction of the actual vessel.

And here's a last look at the four "white ships" in their unpainted state. Next time you see them they should have a grey primer coat, as well as red anti-fouling bottom paint and boot topping (that's the band of colored paint between the red bottom and white hull). The boot topping is green on s/s Argentina, and blue on both s/s Bermuda Star and s/s Universe Explorer. This is also a farewell to those ugly plastic stands - the mounting holes have been drilled into the bottoms along the keel, and temporary working bases have been cut from plain pine board. As soon as the bottom paint has dried, the ships will be secured to their modeling bases and will then not be removed until it is time to place them in their permanent display cases. In the foreground above you will see some of the small pieces prepared for painting. Since I am using an airbrush almost exclusively, each piece has to be trimmed, filed and/or sanded, cemented to a small bit of styrene rod, and then secured to a base for spraying. Above are her anchors, stabilizers, bits and winches, propellers, and propeller shafts, as well as the three hatch covers needed for s/s Argentina (long gone on the other ships).

(click to enlarge)

Well, I found some additional flaws in the hulls that needed putty, so painting is postponed until tomorrow. I decided, instead, to undertake the alterations to the funnel for the s/s Queen of Bermuda. She had a fancy "streamlined" peak added when she became s/s Liberté, and this was still in existence when I sailed on her in 1989. I didn't really much like this "over the top" alteration on the actual ship, but it will make for a nice detail on the model. Modifications like this are relatively simple, so long as you approach them as would have the designers for the full-size version. Additional structure had to be properly attached, and framed in a logical manner. Also, it must be kept in mind that a portion of the interior of the funnel opening will be visible from above, so it must look believable and "finished" within. In the first image above I had not yet plugged her aft windows, but did so shortly afterward. Above right is the final result after today's effort. A funnel "cap" with a raised rim still needs to be cut and added, but this will have to wait until the cement is set and the top edge can be trimmed and sanded smooth to accept it. I did not have a perfect broadside shot of the funnel, or any scale diagrams, so I had to do my best with a number of photos taken from various angles (and memory). Not bad, heh?

By the way, in answer to many questions I have received; with the exception of the model of s/s Queen of Bermuda, these models will be offered for sale at the time of the December-January Panama Canal cruise. If you would care to reserve one of these limited edition, one-of-a-kind conversions for yourself, please contact me for information. If you would like a customized model of s/s Brasil or s/s Argentina as they appeared at any other time during their careers, I will be accepting commissions for three more models of the vessels, bringing the total to eight only; two of which (s/s Bermuda Star & s/s Queen of Bermuda) will remain in my personal collection.

(click to enlarge)

Painting went without a hitch, and no major flaws were revealed in my work! Above, I have attached the ship's rudder and propeller shafts. This could have been done prior to initial painting, but the hull has many complex, compound curves in this area, as well as seams and alterations - any of these areas could reveal flaws after painting, and would be difficult to get to in order to repair if the shafts had been attached previously.

Why grey, you ask? Well, a smooth, even coat of grey paint (some modelers prefer a shiny aluminum or metallic paint) will reveal any flaws, scratches, missed seams, depressions, or any other surface anomalies that might require additional putty or sanding. Also, the ship is indeed grey beneath her paint! Models of a small scale such as these ships (1:400) should, ideally, be painted with very light coats. The main reason for this is so that fine details are not obscured. Paint, regardless of color, has a translucent quality when applied thinly, and what's beneath always shines through, to a degree. This mid-range tone, applied to the entire model, will unify the colors applied afterward. Models painted directly over white plastic tend to look like, well, like plastic models! I use Testors Model Master Dark Gull Gray (FS 36231). It's a very nice grey - not too warm or too cool, not to mention not too far off from the marine primer that would have been applied to the actual ship.

This should end my work for today. Tomorrow, the cement on these parts will have set, and I will re-spray this area. On Friday, the ships will be ready for their anti-fouling red bottoms!

Bottoms up! Sunday saw the application of red bottom paint, and our ships indeed now begin to go their 'separate ways' as s/s Argentina's decking will be a pale grey, while that on s/s Universe Explorer and s/s Queen of Bermuda will be green, as the parts in the foreground of the above image indicate. Painting the bottoms revealed an unexpected error in the Revell model. The model's hull is cast with two, fine, horizontal indicator lines. One is supposed to denote the water line, which separates the white area of the hull from the green boot topping (s/s Argentina). The second line divides the boot topping from the red paint below. This second, lower line is incorrectly placed, and is approximately ¼" too low! Had I realized this earlier, I would have sanded this line completely smooth. Thankfully, I had sanded most of it down, and left just a hint of it visible as a guide, so it will not really show on the finished models. I ended up masking the upper border for the red paint at about 3/16" above the indicator line. This is fine for s/s Argentina, but it really should be even higher for the other three models, making for a much narrower band of blue above the red.

Just visible in the image at left are the ships' stabilizer fins. These will not be attached to the hulls until construction is near completion, but they were painted at the same time to be absolutely certain that the color matches! By the way, if the color looks too red and too shiny to you.....it is! It will be toned down to give it a more rusty appearance, and will sprayed with "Dull Cote" to eliminate the shine. Note that when the bottoms were painted, in addition to masking the main areas of the hull, I wrapped small pieces of scotch tape around the propeller shafts so they would remain grey as well. And here's a trick to make the shafts look like "metal." After the hull is complete and sprayed with Dull Cote, rub the shafts with a #2 pencil, which will cover them with shiny graphite. Applied over the grey primer, this will look just like bare metal, and is a really great effect!

Continued....