A Quick Rescaling

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general rocket
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A Quick Rescaling

Post by general rocket »

The "Robert E Lee" was a side wheel paddle steamer in use on the Mississippi river and its tributaries.One of literally thousands of such vessels in use on this river sytem from the early 1800's to the 1900's when diesel power slowly replaced the steamers. Flat bottomed and of shallow draft these boats opened up trade to large portions of the central United States by utilising these extensive water ways to carry cargo that other transport methods found impractical.
This model portrays the vessel during the 1860's, at the time of it's famous race with the "Natchez" from New Orleans to St Louis. As is not untypical of Revell, especially for the period - early 1970's, it is built to the odd scale of 1/271. This is not a problem as it is my intention to rescale it to "N" scale, for possible inclusion on my model railway when it eventually gets built. The rescaling will take the length from the equivalent of 297 feet to approximately 170 feet.
I bought this from a trader at Scale Model World as a "started painting". Not much had been painted, but what had been done, had been painted with Tan and Dark Brown, badly and apparently left for years, if not decades.
First job was to strip the paint. This took several days bathed in oven cleaner, it looked like ancient Humbrol paint, and military vehicles should be painted in this stuff.
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Having glued the hull to the main deck a little filler was used to fill the join at the rear and a small bit of damage to the hull visible in the above picture. A coat of Citadel "Skull White" was then blown over the assembly.
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Comments and critcism is welcome.
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Re: A Quick Rescaling

Post by JohnRatzenberger »

I think I understand - you declare a 297' boat is really 171' and everything else adjusts itself proportionately ?
Off the top of my head, I'd be concerned about the cabin doors - there would be almost twice as many half-size cabins ?
The rest I think would work out.
Somehow ... :)
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Re: A Quick Rescaling

Post by JamesPerrin »

The kit originates from Pyro and has been repopped many times. I think most recently by Revell. I some else here started one but I don't think I've seen one completed so look forward to following your progress should be impressive once completed
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Re: A Quick Rescaling

Post by Ratch »

An interesting project :razz:
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general rocket
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Re: A Quick Rescaling

Post by general rocket »

"Off the top of my head, I'd be concerned about the cabin doors - there would be almost twice as many half-size cabins ?"

Fortunately there are not that many doors to worry about. Most can be easily be dealt with by recribing. The main problem will be the Grand Staircase at the front of the boat, I'm leaving my options open for that at the moment.

The next part to be added, before butchery.
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The staircases where removed, as where the floors as far as the walls. The back of the part was glued into position as it was slightly warped, as can be seen in the above photograph. Once dry, the pillars where clamped into place, glued, and left over night.
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Test build to ascertain how much to build up the walls.
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Plastic card was used to increase the height of the wall and cover unwanted details, such as doors. A quick smear of filler was applied, and sanded back.
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The vendor assured me that the kit was complete. They did not assure me that all the parts where complete.
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general rocket
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Re: A Quick Rescaling

Post by general rocket »

Little progress.
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When viewed normally this very basic repair will be out of sight so as far as I am converened, it will do!
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Due to alterations elsewhere, the large gap was very visible. So in went a piece of plastic card.
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2 Thin pieces of plastic card cut to size and scribed, and a quick smear of filler, to form a door that is more to scale.
The colour Yellow, will be dulled down and is taken from pictures from pictures found on the web, they just looked more workman like for a working boat than white, which rightly or wrongly looked a bit to touristy to my limited knowledge on the subject.
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Re: A Quick Rescaling

Post by Clashcityrocker »

An interesting project. You don't see many of these being built.
When I say many, I really mean none... :)

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Re: A Quick Rescaling

Post by Dazzled »

This is certainly something different, and interesting 8-)
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general rocket
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Re: A Quick Rescaling

Post by general rocket »

Thanks for the comments.
I bought this as a quick Christmas project, fat chance of that.
Progress is slow on a project like this, as you probably know, as you can't really do work on the next part till the previous part is complete.
The progress to date. Such as it is!
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One side of each wheel has been cut so that the wheel can sit flat on the water line when in situ, but will rotate to show the paddles for display.
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The deck has been painted in Tamiya "Wooden Deck Tan".
The hull was a bit of a sod to paint.
I started to paint it in Precision "Dark Wood", the tin being about 30 years old, and it did not like being used. Several frustrating coats later, I switched to Precision "Track Colour", equally frustrating. Switching finally to Tamiya "Dark Brown". The hull has ended up with a dappled effect like reflected water that will be no be visible due to the decks overhang. Pictures to follow.

Comments and criticism welcome.
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general rocket
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Re: A Quick Rescaling

Post by general rocket »

Having fitted the side walls.
The bottom set of windows in the wheel well have been scraped off and the holes filled.
The name "Sabrina" was applied using Letraset letters, and has nothing to do with the busty blonde actress from the 1950's. If you're not familiar with her, think Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield or Diana Dors, but reputedly lacking their talent.
The name was chosen after either the ancient (Celtic) name for the river Severn, Sabrina was a water nymph who drowned her self rather than succumb to the advances of a god, or alternatively, to the Romans Goddess of the river.
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With the alterations made so far, the floor of the first floor left a hole over hanging which was taken care of with the aid of plastic card.
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The walls of the first floor, which I assume to be the passenger deck, have been built up using plastic card to an appropriate height.
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The Grand Staircase to be mounted at the front of the boat. Alterations are purely done by filling alternate stairs with filler. Steps are probably a bit high in real life, but are largely in shadow. The original height of the steps can be seen at the top and compared with the new step height.
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Comments and criticism welcome.
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Re: A Quick Rescaling

Post by Ratch »

Good work so far 8-)
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general rocket
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Re: A Quick Rescaling

Post by general rocket »

I have not done anything at all to this since January, due to the fact that I had just started a new job and really hated it. So had no interest in anything.
Fortunately they didn't like me either so got shot of me, and just in time for the "conversion" group build. A quick build into which I could really sink my teeth was just what was needed.
So mojo is restored.
I have done a lot of work on her over the past few days, not a lot of which really shows.
Such as rescribing the some of the doors, which still need highlighting.
Drilling port holes, I tried cutting square windows on the crew quarters (not shown yet), but they did not work satisfactorily (badly cut by me). Holes filled with filler, and redone by drilling portholes. I have no idea if this is in any way correct to real river boats, but it looks okay to me behind the balustrade in a test build.
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I have also started remodeling the safety rails.
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The top floor has been cut back so that the over hang looks less unconvincing without the support of the remodeled balustrade.
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So if you can remember that far back................feel free to comment.
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Re: A Quick Rescaling

Post by ShaunW »

This is excellent General, I can see that a lot of work is going into this and I'm sure the end result will be well worth the time and effort.
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general rocket
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Re: A Quick Rescaling

Post by general rocket »

The progress.
The top deck, which I am assuming is the crews quarters. It has had its roof height raised using plastic card.
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The base of the wheel house was then cut down to suit the height of the figure who will be the boats pilot, and a floor glued into place.
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The wheelhouse components before surgery and assembly.
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The struts have been removed from the aperture to open the windows
The almost complete wheel house. The wheel is from the kit, tables are plastic card. It is just awaiting the pilot, back panel and roof.
I don't know whether the crew of such boats ever wore any form of uniform, but I am using Graham Farish "N" scale station staff. Passengers will by "Model Power"
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As she stands at the moment. The structure in the centre is scratch built as the side walls are not provided in the kit. I have not used the front wall provided, partly because it is not very visable and partly to give options not yet decided. That is to say, I may not use the double smoke stack as it is damaged,not well molded and was badly put together by the previous owner of the kit. That, and given its intended destination, being a clumsy sod I will probably keep catching it.
I did consider leaving this area open for more and varied cargo, but in test builds it made the boat look structurally weak, and would look wrong if the smoke stacks are used
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Test build.
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The support pillars at the front will need some attention as the mounting points pull them too far forward. This will involve nothing more than cutting off the spigot from the base of the pillars, gluing it into a more correct position, and then filling the original holes.
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Re: A Quick Rescaling

Post by general rocket »

Despite a couple of test builds, the crew quarters would not sit properly.
I'm not sure if this was due my fault.
My measuring the height of the walls incorrectly?
The inner curve of the walls being incorrectly accentuated by annoying maths?
Or just badly made parts?
Probably a combination.
The problem was over come by forcing the height of the deck up slightly with differently sized bits of sprue and plastic used like pit props. The crew compartment still sat clear, but a little bit of brute force got them join okay.
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The balustrade around the forward passenger compartment is now fixed in place. The original alterations left the rail sitting too high when compared to the n gauge figures that will people the boat, so a further millimetre was trimmed from the height of the rail. It now stands at a more "lean-onable" height.
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Benches and passengers in place on the forward passenger deck, starting to give her some life.
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Part of the rear railings have been fixed in place. There are two more pieces to this railing which have been left off for my convenience, but will be fixed in place shortly
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Tidying the work done so far, up to date. Before rigging of the decks.
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The rigging from the main deck to the passenger deck (guy ropes?) was slow and meticulous work. I followed the plans for the rigging shown in the instructions, but to me it didn't look right, only strung alternately, so I went back through and put a few more in so that it is now strung along the whole length. To my mind, it looks better like this. It was then tied off, glued and trimmed.
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Next job, providing some life boats, as the boats in the kit are for obvious reasons far too small.
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