Queen Mary

[Defiant911]

Guess it sounds like I need to get the turps back out and give the deck another scrub..

[Dave Ward]

We were not allowed to socialise with the passengers, or use any of their facilities - only above a certain rank were given this privilege! As junior officers, we couldn't use the main officers mess, we had our own rather spartan mess - we could only go on the aft lower deck for fresh air ( no passengers there ). I never spoke to any officer above the rank of Junior Second Engineer. The Senior Seconds, Staff Engineer & Chief Engineer were only ever seen occasionally, and never seemed to speak to any other ranks. I learned virtually nothing, if you showed interest, it was thought you were after someone else's job! . It was boring, the ship sailed at 1:00pm on Friday, and arrived in Capetown 11 1/2 days later ( 22 knots average ) she did this for 17 years! Senior officers loved it - they knew exactly when they could go on leave & most had been so long on the ship they didn't need to do much work. Had stwards looking after them, and 5 star cuisine! I only ended up on her because a normal junior broke his leg! I loved the general cargo ships, a lot of the time you didn't really know where you were going to end up and when!
Dave

[boatman]

WELL Dave it sounds like you poor devils got the short end of the stick an all the top lot were on a full paid cruise no wonder they stayed on they knew a good thing when it appeared an on the cargo ships it was a mystrery tour then lol well im now goin on a cruise as im takeing my HMS NORFOLK for a cruise up sheringham pond as its such a lovely day an almost no wind OH A LIFE ON THE OCEAN WAVE
chris

[Guest]

Guess it sounds like I need to get the turps back out and give the deck another scrub..

Hi Carl.
Just a suggestion.
If you try using thinners on it now it will end up looking a mess.Leave it as it is and treat it as a learning curve and next time just use less wash.
There is nothing actually wrong with the way you have approached it and to me it looks OK :smiling3:.

[Defiant911]

Hi Carl.
Just a suggestion.
If you try using thinners on it now it will end up looking a mess.Leave it as it is and treat it as a learning curve and next time just use less wash.
There is nothing actually wrong with the way you have approached it and to me it looks OK :smiling3:.

Yeah, I was wondering if that might happen. I will continue with the other deck pieces and do the same process but go easier on the wash. If it looks far better then I can always strip this one bit back or if not I’ll just match it up and put it down to a bad set of junior sailers cleaning that week..

[Tim Marlow]

Hi Carl. If it was me I would strip back and repaint. It will bug you every time you look at it otherwise. It also won’t match with the others. If you go this way it might be worth the thinners wipe down first? Was it a home made wash by the way? If so, sansodor thinner is less aggressive and easier to control than white spirit.

[Defiant911]

Hi Carl. If it was me I would strip back and repaint. It will bug you every time you look at it otherwise. It also won’t match with the others. If you go this way it might be worth the thinners wipe down first? Was it a home made wash by the way? If so, sansodor thinner is less aggressive and easier to control than white spirit.

The wash was just some acrylic burnt umber watered down with thinners.
I have several brands of thinners I can try.
I’m not too bothered about stripping it as it was the first attempt although had I not of had the feedback I might well
Of continued with the rest the same. I’m in no particular hurry so it’s all a learning curve. That said it’s a lot of work to get to the final wash which ruined it so I need to make sure it’s very thin next time. I might even use a lighter colour wash.

[Tim Marlow]

Hi Carl
i would try some Vallejo game colour Burnt umber wash 73.203. It’s made for jobs like this and dries to a nice graduation without tide marks. Home made acrylic washes are pretty difficult to nail in my experience. It’s hard to get the right amount of flow improver. Not enough and the water surface tension make the paint bead up, and too much and it breaks down the paint, leaving a patchy finish.

[JR]

It’s certainly the way to see the world but I dont doubt that it was hard work Dave.
I imagine some pretty good stories and memories though.

Carl probely the least said about those stories the better !

[Defiant911]

Hi Carl
i would try some Vallejo game colour Burnt umber wash 73.203. It’s made for jobs like this and dries to a nice graduation without tide marks. Home made acrylic washes are pretty difficult to nail in my experience. It’s hard to get the right amount of flow improver. Not enough and the water surface tension make the paint bead up, and too much and it breaks down the paint, leaving a patchy finish.

I think you are right and it was clearly
Difficult to stop the darker colour from settling in random spots creating the tide as you put it. Might order some proper wash for next attempt then.

[Defiant911]

I used some weathering carrier to try and water it down. It’s a bit lighter apart from
Around edges but what you think. The tide marks seem to have come out and of course the bumps (not sure what the proper word for them is)around the edge will be painted black

[Tim Marlow]

That looks loads better to me. Really nice variation in wood colour with defined shading to make the details pop. Nice one!

[Defiant911]

That looks loads better to me. Really nice variation in wood colour with defined shading to make the details pop. Nice one!

Cheers Tim, yeah it cleaned up better than I expected and where it’s a little dark around the edge details as said these will be black and at the edge of the hull where they will be mostly in shadow anyway.

[Defiant911]

Hi, I’m not sure what you call these bollard things on the boat deck, (the white plastic thing) presume they were to tie the ship to the docks etc. Anyway, these look rediciloisly big on my model and I’m sure looking at an actual picture below they are probably nearer half this size in reality. They ruin the look of the deck as they look more like trees. Can any confirm?

[Ancientmariner]

Hi Carl,

Just reading through your post, some great work so far!

Regarding your pic above the white plastic component is a mushroom vent, either an air intake or exhaust, possibly forced or natural. On a ship of that scheme this would have been white, was going to say with light rust streaking, I very much doubt this on a Cunnard vessel though!
Size wise it does look big but these are generally big (though they do vary) but as I am assuming this would be the natural vent for the S/G flat it likely would be somewhere near this size.

Hope this helps.

James