OK, I think I just buggered up my first ship of all time, and to top it all, this is the freebie Mike Durr sent me. Anyway, I'll tell you guys the story and let me know if it's salvageable. If not, I'll go out and buy another 1/700 as I'm determined to get into the Dreadnoughts camp.

I had assembled the hull of the USS Alabama, and prior to assembling the superstructure I decided I'd paint the decking and let it dry. Went ahead, but wasn't too thrilled with the shade of enamel (bit too light), so rather than add another coat, thought I'd strip and start again. The coat was still wet, so I took a big flat brush, dipped it in turpentine and started to swab the decks. Before I realised what was happening, I suddenly noticed that the whole ship was getting gooey and starting to stick to my fingers! Panicked and started to wash everything off with soap and water. Just made things worse and I noticed that the detail on the decking was disappearing. It looked as if all the surface detail was disolving. Trying to wipe the thing down with a soft cloth just made it even worse! Cloth started to stick and leave a texture! By now there were fingerprints all over the hull, and it was almost too sticky to handle. Deciding it was lost anyway, I just left it overnight. No improvement today. The ship's still sticky to the touch, as if there's a layer of sludge on it, or the surface is now liquid.

Seems hopeless to me, and I can't understand it. I've used turp to strip semi-dry paint before on figs and never had this problem. Only thing I can figure is that German turp is a lot stronger than the stuff I had back in SL.

Should I bin it and buy a new kit? Sorry about your kit, Mike, but I'll try and find another Alabama.

Hi David

Yes, it seems it really is a gonner!
I always use Oven Cleaner to remove paint (dry or not).
I use Essence of Turpentine for my oil washes - it is less powerfull than Turpentine...
I think there's nothing you can do to save your Alabama - sorry

Skipper

David,
Like Skipper I use oven cleaner alot and just recently had tremendous luck using Castrol Super Clean which can be purchased at most auto parts stores. The Super Clean completely stripped off some old enamel from an old Revell Hawaiian Pilot kit that I got on eBay. Left the plastic looking like it brand new again only 50 years later. It's very strong though so test it first. Tried to use it on some 50 year old Revell western miniatures horses and it made the outer layer soft to touch. However when it had dried for a couple of days it was fine...gave me a scare though.
Sorry that you've probably lost this kit though.
Best regards,
Gary

All right, at the risk of having the autocensor rear it's ugly head I've got to ask. "BUBAR?" What's bubar? I'm guessing B might mean buggered, but what does it all mean?

EDIT: DOH! I just figured it out. Never mind. The mind goes first.

It's the polite(or shall we say politically correct) version of FUBAR. :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)
Don't feel bad though, I didn't get it until you said Buggered!

Thanks, guys. Live & learn, I guess. It's been two nights now and the ship's still too sticky to handle. I'll drive into Koblenz (which has a couple of big LHSs) Saturday and see what I can get hold of. I'm just pissed off cos it was a freebie and Mike went to the trouble of sending it to me.

Any brands of oven cleaner that can be reccomended and available in Europe. Rui?

Johnson & Johnson brand (I am not at home right now :-) ) will do the job!

I'll check again the name during the evening!
Skipper

David,

I think I have an Alabama in my stash that you can have. Not sure what it'll cost to ship it to Germany, but if you need it, let me know.

Regards,

Jeff

David I did the same thing several years ago to the foredeck of a 350 Tamiya Tirpitz. I was luckier than you, I just lost the detail of the decking. I added a few pieces of thin styrene to replace hatches and scratched out a semblence of a plank pattern. It looked ok until you got up real close. Well, that one has been given away and replaced with the Bismarck. But I learned. I have had paint wash away when I was brushing on my weathering wash on tanks, but solved that with the use of future.

Thanks a lot for the generous offer, Jeff, but I went out today and got Revell's 1/540 HMS King George V, and it looks great. Will build that for Dreadnoughts. Thanks again

I think your Alabamam just became the beginning of a sunken ship dio-Unfortunately(?) none of this class were sunk-
All four South Dakota class battleships went into reserve after World War II and saw no further active service. When they were disposed of in the early 1960s, Alabama and Massachusetts became a memorials. The other two were sold for scrapping.
You have what we call in the Navy a sinkex-(scrapped vehicle destined to be sunk for practice)