Re: Another project nearing completion
Kenbo, yes, I am on Pend o'rielle. It is a great lake, but can get real rough sometimes. 112 miles of coastline, can't beat that. The fishing has diminished, and Bayview is one of the reasons people blame it on. They say that big arse underwater antenae they have down there has affected the fish population, but I doubt it. They are adjusting the way they manage the lake level to try to get the fish population back in order. I have the feeling that the enourmous armada of boats out there fishing may be a factor, more and more people fish out there, there will be less fish.<br /><br />Flashback, this Titanic is actually the second attempt. When I built the first one, I was not happy at all, and there were no plans or anything like that available, not even any decent books or pics to go off, so it was highly inaccurate. I gave it to my mom. The movie helped kick start a whole slew of interest, but there still wasn't any plans available, but more books came out, so I bought every book that had pictures and descriptions, and started. The frame is actually foam sandwiched between thin artboard, the stuff you can buy to mount posters on. It cuts and shapes easily. I basically examined pics from every angle, and had a small 1/570th model hull to guide me on the hull shape. I used artboard for the hull panels. I wanted to use evergreen sheet plastic, but at the time, I was considering this model as practice of a third model made of more "permanent" materials. It was still a pain making those hull panels, I had to sit there and count and recount all the panels in all the pics. I counted and cut all the portholes for the right hull plates, and uses clear document protector material for the glass. Once the hull was done, the rest wasn't quite so bad. Another miserable task was scribing all the deck planks. The afforementioned railing and rigging was hell, it was a steep learning curve that resulted in a lot of mess-ups before getting it right. I routed, sanded, and stained the base, and bought plexi and cut and bonded it for the case. I literally made everything. The masts were wooden dowels sanded down for the right taper. All the vents were bits of plastic sprue cut and glued together to get the various shapes. Even the funnels were assembled usung the right amount and shape of plates, rather than a solid sheet of material. Now, years later, the model has held up perfectly, so I see no need to go to the next level and use sheet plastic and all that. Of course, right after I finished the model, all sorts of plans and stuff came out. Now you can get 1/144 fiberglass hulls (perfect for RC), funnel kits, railing kits, you name it, but I still prefered to do it my way, totally from scratch. I even mixed all the paint from raw chemicals. Well, I didn't do that, but I would have if I could have...
