¹⁄600

Building the RMS Mauretania, (1907-1935)

After extensive study of photos I felt that the stern bulge above the rudder was too full and the bow was not sufficiently akin to a knife’s edge. To permit safe shape changes without penetrating the thin plastic skin, I applied autobody filler to the insides before extensive carving and sanding.






After this rough handling was over, I added some internal braces in plastic as well as the lower promenade deck. After a brief testfit of the paper printouts on a spare hull, I removed the lower hull using a dremel-type circular saw blade….






With the hull decals applied, progress appeared at first to be very rapid. This was to be an erroneous thought; as more and more problems and compromises in the kit starting point reared their heads… early dry-fit mock-ups however were very encouraging in the overall appearance of the model - through half-closed eyes I could visualise the end result - but it was to be a long journey…






Due to the 1964 vintage of the kit, there were a number of dimensional conundrums to be gotten around - the main problem being the excessive thickness of the various decks and the consequent lack of height of the internal bulkheads - not ordinarily a problem when finished in peacetime livery - however it would pose serious continuity issues with the dazzle pattern. I therefore elected to replace the boat deck with a new scratchbuilt deck of Evergreen sheet.
This in turn required increasing the vertical height of the bulkheads… With the assistance of a digital calliper I was able to gauge the correct amount of material to insert.






I did this by gluing appropriate thickness styrene sheet onto the existing kit items - horizontally - and then carved to the moulded shape of the underlying kit deck.