"Why is my model melting?"

So I sanded down the main deck to remove the ropes that were molded to it. Doing so I was impatient and used to low of grit sand paper. This left deep scratches in a few places once I painted it with primer. My only option would be to remove the paint and try to smooth out the scratches. Well I used my paint thinner as a medium to remove the paint. It was working fine till I used it to much and my main deck started to melt.

That only left me with one option; scratch build (build it by hand from spare styrene) the main deck. With tons of sanding to mold it I was able to get the new deck right. I used clamps to hold the deck to the hull and glue it in place. Any extra styrene or unevenness I was able to sand down.

The life boat is designed to have a molded “tarp” cover to

it and tied down. The tie downs were molded to the

side of the life boat and smooth. The box has it as a life boat with 4” wood planks rather than a fiber glass boat. I sanded down the tie downs molded to the boat smooth and started to scribe .93mm planks. It is tougher than I thought to carve these lines on such a small item, but once I started I was committed. After all the lines were scribed I wet sanded with 6000 grit to smooth it out. In theory once it is painted it will show slight groves for the planks of wood.

I used non-drying clay to hold the main deck edge to my work bench so I could glue the two halves together. With the scratch built deck this brought a problem, there are guides on the bow and stern (front and back) that guide these edges. I had to make my own pegs to guide this. It is currently drying but my plan is to

mount it to the bow and stern, leaving the sides unglued. This way once the bow and stern are dried I can spread the rails where I want them.

The main stack to the tug has molded ladder going up the side. With a little bit of sanding I removed these moldings. I drilled small holes and made my own ladder out of wire. Each step is less than 1 mm wide and 1mm away from the stack.

So far I am letting stuff dry now. On the main deck (not shown) super structure it also has molded hand rails. This is something I ‘may’ sand off and add my own. Several hurdles I may have are the size of the wire (1/108 of a 4” pipe is .92mm, so a 2” is much smaller) and can I sand down the original one without hurting anything else.