Queen Elizabeth II 1/1200 by Revell

[Boatman]

I must confess, while on my summer vacation this year, far from home, tools, paints, and everything else, I wanted to take something easy to build with me. Because every time I look at ships anchored in the sea, ships moving in and out of the port, checking each one on MarineTraffic to see where she came from and where she’s bound, I want to build something! And if I don’t, it will torture me!

This is why I left my incomplete Tovarisch build at home and bought another "small" plastic kit from Revell - Queen Elizabeth II, in 1:1200. With a minimal set of paints (I borrowed the white from my current build - I wish I wouldn't do that!), I've started my new vacation build!

I thought it would be a relaxing fun to assemble it looking at the sea and ships in the harbor. That was the plan....

PS
Dear @Lorenzo , I saw your build of Queen Elizabeth II when I got back to Belgrade, it is amazing and helped me a lot to realize my mistakes (I am not too familiar with the prototype) and get some ideas to improve my own afterwards. Anyway, thank you very much! This one and the other ocean liner builds are awesome!

 

[Boatman]

The first thing I realized, was that I forgot the masking tape at home - as I said, "no tools"!

I started with the red underwater part and decided to paint the stand orange. Originally, it should be black with a golden ribbon — but not in my case. I still have some doubts about this decision regarding the stand, but it gives the model a festive, tropical and extraordinary look.

No primer - remember, no tools! The orange one still needs several coats - done, just saving the HDD place on the server.

I was considering construction masking tape for walls and so on — there was a construction shop nearby — but I remembered my childhood in the ’80s, when I attended a small youth ship-modelling club. We used electrical tape for waterlines, long before the fancy tools from Revell and Tamiya. I took a black roll and moved on!

The most important thing is that electrical tape is flexible and stretchy, so you can’t just stick it on — you need to control the resulting line carefully.

The best practice in this case with an ordinary brush is to keep the tape up and paint only down from the tape - so the paint could never leak under the tape. Even keeping that in mind, I still did some mistakes in the bow section - I will fix them later with smaller parts of the tape, first with white - then with black under the line:

Using the daughter's pencil and few EUR coins, I marked the waterline, applied the resin tape and turned the hull upside down to paint the board down from the tape, over the red paint:


This was the result. I also painted some decks and other parts (basins, etc.). @Lorenzo - you should notice, that I painted by mistake one superstructure deck gray instead of white and around the funnel also gray instead of green. I am still thinking of repainting these parts, but not decided yet.



(to be continued)

 

[Lorenzo]

These little ships are fun to assemble.
The other day, I bought the Revell Bismarck—also in 1/1200 scale—at a second-hand shop.
There are still a few Revell passenger ships left, but they have been discontinued.

Salud

 

[Boatman]

These little ships are fun to assemble.
The other day, I bought the Revell Bismarck—also in 1/1200 scale—at a second-hand shop.
There are still a few Revell passenger ships left, but they have been discontinued.

I totally agree, it was a real fun! Especially in terms of the effort-to-result ratio. The kit is highly detailed and quick to assemble at the same time. I can also feel a technologist behind it, designing the kit in a way that simplifies its painting - giving access to areas that are hardly accessible on an assembled model. You can get a sharp border between colors simply by painting the parts separately, even without masking tape, as in my case. So, with a relatively small effort, you get something valuable, while simply having fun in the process!

 

[Boatman]

Just a small update to keep posting.... I fixed most of the problems with white/black border line (now I see at least one place I've missed!)



Cut off the decks with an office scalper I bought in the closest bookstore and gave a dry test to the decks, to see how do they fit:


(to be continued)

 

[Boatman]

The lifeboats were painted white and orange. I’ve also darkened the portholes and so on with my daughter’s pencil, which I used for the waterline, so they contrast somewhat with the white board - first of all on the superstructures, like here:



Then on the hull as well. The decks were put & glued in their final places, and the most intriguing part was putting the lifeboats with davits inside the hull, because there is almost no space for them. But with some patience and a thin kitchen knife as a kind of ruler, everything is possible!


Then I had to put on a lot of small parts, like the main mast, flagstaffs, etc. - but I decided not to glue them, because they could easily be damaged on my flight back home, since I decided to take the model with me. Also, there was still some work to do:

• the waterline - it was very hard to make such a thin waterline with two strips of electrical tape, keeping the spacing between them exact. I thought about using a small white thread to glue over it, or even a thin paper strip, but decided to do that later.
• the decals - I was afraid to lose them with only warm water and no tools with me.

Taking this unfinished state into account, the final photo gallery is on its way...

 

[Boatman]

When the time has come and all the parts were assembled... The final session before packing and going home!







PS I will get back to her for some improvements, the waterline and so on. but now it is a small thing on my shelve reminding me about this summer!