Airfix HMS Prince WIP

Wow, an actual hobby post you say? With pictures?

Let me start by saying I'm not a sucker for vintage plastic model kits. I know some people like to torment themselves specialize in such things, but I'm not one of them.

However, Baroque warship kits in general have always been very appealing to me. I like their looks - and history - better than the later periods. So once I learned of this Airfix produce, I was constantly on the lookout for it.

If you are familiar with the Airfix HMS Prince kit (said variously to be 1/138, 1/150 and 1/180 scale), you might know that the secondary market price for it is, as can be deducted from the name, princely. So I was rather surprised one day when I found it on a local Facebook buy&sell group for about the tenth of the price it goes on ebay. Needless to say, I struck like a hawk and grabbed it. 

I got photos of the inside of the box before purchase, but checked just in case, and was very pleased that nothing was missing. Judging by the very crude assembly instructions (according to Airfix it takes four [!] subassembly steps to complete the whole thing) compared to others I've seen in video reviews, this should be a very early production one. The box matches the 1966 description on Scalemates.

The assembly started on a very wrong foot. The first thing I noticed that the one piece deck was extremely warped. I, being the genius I am, thought to recompense this, before any further assembly is made, by holding it over hot water then clamping the main deck down on a flat surface to straighten it just a bit. I put it over a pan of boiling water... which warped it even more, so much so that it became useless. Well done for me. This frustrated me beyond imagination and I shelved the whole thing for months.

Later on, I bought a large stock of plasticard, in 0.5mm and 2mm thickness. I built some 6mm buildings using plasticard and plastic cement. The idea then struck me that I could fabricate a replacement for the Prince's FUBAR main deck. I sawed the useless piece away, retaining the rest of the original deck, then measured, scored and sanded until I got a satisfactory result.

Once this was done, I started by gluing the hull halves together, then attaching the quarter and poop decks, which were not so warped and fit well. After some test fitting I also attached the scratch-built main deck piece, then the foredeck, followed by the various bulkheads, accoutrements and decorative elements. 

Now I must praise the kit a bit, because I have pictures of the original builder's model and Airfix did a very good job reproducing these details, even by modern standards. The entire thing has got a kind of no-nonsense approach to construction. Although fit is not the best at places and there is some flash, things go together quickly and there's nothing a bit of a filler can't fix.

I usually leave the masts last in a smaller scale build, but I needed someting other than the keel to align the rest of the masts with. The kit's masts have a 'rat-tail' construction, that is a small recess in the deck the bottom of the mast sits into. If you know anything about sailing ship design you know this won't do, it would put too much strain even on a proper wooden mast, not to speak about plastic ones.

So I reproduced the lower main mast using a 5mm shashlik stick, black cord and 1mm thick coffee stirrers sanded to shape. It is lengthened compared to the original piece and the bottom firmly sits on the keel. This might cause problems later when I'm painting the bottom of the hull and the ship has to sit bottom up, but that is a problem for future me. I'll reproduce the same procedure with the foremast. It is not so necessary for the mizzen (and I glued the piece of deck in before trimming of the slot from its bottom side), but I'm already thinking of other methods.

I needed the stern open so that I could see how the bottom of the mast aligns with the keel, but once that was done I closed it off with the elaborate strenpiece and galleries. I also glued in the rudder.

After all of this was done I went at it with some epoxy resin and added a lot of filling, especially at the foredeck bulkhead. Originally the main deck has a camber I could not properly reproduce on plasticard, so it had some issues to be resolved.

This is where we are now. Next I'll paint the decks and hard to reach places on the outer hull. I'll do the rest of the hull on the next separate step, as it is going to take a long time to paint. I have used oil washes on ships before and they yield excellent results, but only when applied to completely cured and varnished previous layers, otherwise one risks of destroying the paint job entirely. Once the basic colours are blocked in, drybrushed, varnished then a wash is added, I'll continue with adding highlights to the gilded details.