Jon Archibald’s Lusitania

I got this kit for Christmas in 1983, and have worked on it in bursts since that time. The black hull I left unpainted, and initially brush painted everything else. Over the years nicks and abrasions appeared so I repainted most of it with Badger ‘Modelflex’ sprayed-on acrylic paint. Back when I started it I used Turtle wax over the hull (an idea I got from building 1/25 model cars in my early teens), after painting, to protect it. On buffing off the excess some wax stayed in the portholes, which I thought looked OK so I never changed it.

One lifeboat davit had disappeared so I used a cigarette lighter and heated some sprue, gently, and made one after several tries. I have read some of you use sprue to create rigging in the same way. I will try that for funnels etc. next time. I tied a weight to some thread, and after making sure all the twist was out of it I ran CA glue down it. When it dried I cut it into small, straight segments which I used between davits, and on the aft cranes. I used the stock flags, but wrapped them around thread instead of the masts themselves, using dilute carpenters glue. When dried I crinkled them with tweezers.

Jon’s impressive model, mounted on kit supplied display base.