1/600 RMS Aquitania conversion

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Aug 20, 2022
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This is the wrong scale for me as I want 1/600 for liners it might seem stupid to buy this kit when there are a 1/600 scale. Titanic from Academy bu I saw a build on the net that inspired me.

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As I have a saw this kit is just what I need to build RMS Aquitania in 1/600. First I removed 10,3 mm from the hull.

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After the hull has been put together again more parts were removed. Now I have a hull with the dimensions wanted.

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As Aquitania had four propellers while Titanic had three, work has to be done to the stern. A piece of thick plastic card was cut

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and bent in to shape.

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Glued in to place it gives a deeper rear. A piece of the bottom has been removed. The paper rudder is just there to help me at the next stage of the rebuild.
I don't understand why I get in to this mess. I have a similar project that has been sleeping for lots of years. That time it was a 1/800 scale Titanic that I started to convert in to a 1/600 scale MS Kungsholm.

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Now I need to get some Magic Sculp before I can continue. I wish that I had a complete Mauretania hull to take the stern from. It would probably heve been less work adapting it that this way. At least I have some details like the propeller shafts from a Mauretania kit that I can use.

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I had a look at the Mauretania prop shaft. The rear ones has the right size for this build while the forward ones are to small. Building them will be the lesser problem of building the rest of the stern.

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Among the leftovers of a Mauretania I found the vents. I don't think that there are enough but I will convert one kit into Lusitania and will need to make new vents on it. Then I have the vents from that kit to use here as well.

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Maybe this will work.

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The shape is starting to get there.

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Well. There have to be a first sometime and using this kind of sander on a plastic kit is a first to me.

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I was happy with the shape of the stern but then I started to cut out the deck from plastic card and realized that the hull was to wide.

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I added plastic to the inside of the hull so I would have some material to sand into and went for a very course paper with the sander and once again thought that I had the shape for the hull.
 
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But as it turned out I didn't add enough material. It got so thin that it split at the rear so I have to cut some of the deck away to be able to reinforce the hull. Everything looks horrible and will need lot of putty.

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When I removed the deck I discovered it wasn't a crack at all. It was just a large gap between the plastic strips but as it turned out I had to remove the deck anyway. I had been so focused on the shape of the hull that I totally forgot about the lower deck that I had to add. My little motor tool had to work hard to remove enough material inside the hull for a new deck to fit.

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Now I need to smooth everything out but things went better than expected.
 
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But as it turned out I didn't add enough material. It got so thin that it split at the rear so I have to cut some of the deck away to be able to reinforce the hull. Everything looks horrible and will need lot of putty.

View attachment 337478
When I removed the deck I discovered it wasn't a crack at all. It was just a large gap between the plastic strips but as it turned out I had to remove the deck anyway. I had been so focused on the shape of the hull that I totally forgot about the lower deck that I had to add. My little motor tool had to work hard to remove enough material inside the hull for a new deck to fit.

View attachment 337479
Now I need to smooth everything out but things went better than expected.
That's some solid conversion work. Good luck with the build and looking forward to your progress. :)
 
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