Greetings from Riyadh!
Before I left Glasgow for Riyadh I set myself the target of finishing the 1:450 scale model of the QE2 I had bought in early 2008.
If your wondering why, here is the background bit.
After BBC Scotland had aired the program "the Last Great Liner" and QE2 had visited Greenock in 2007 for the 40th anniversary of her launch I found myself once more fascinated by her. I wished I hadn't thrown out the airfix model I had built in 1969 so in a fit of nostalgia I bought the Revel model that was available. When it popped through my letterbox I realised there and then it was not going to be big enough! I assembled it with difficulty as I hadn't done anything like this for a very long time.
Then, while trawling through YouTube looking for clips about the QE2 I came across a clip of a large QE2 model suffering the indignity of being sunk in a bathtub. It was unpainted and the funnel was on the wrong way round but it looked good. I found out from the conversation thread on the bathtub sinking the model manufacturer and then found I could buy it online from a model shop in the US.
It arrived 2 weeks later and this time I had to answer the door as this box would definitely not fit through my letterbox. It was huge!
I was a bit intimidated by it and put it away until I knew I would have time to do justice to the building of it.
By October 2009 I had the time and the inclination and started. During it's construction I paid many visits to Jamiesons Models in the Saltmarket to buy paint, brush cleaner, paint thinner and miles of masking tape.
The model is Japanese so the english on the instructions is quite interesting. Never having sailed on the QE2 or really spent much time on board apart from the walk through in the shipyard in 1968 I decided to paint her with the colour scheme indicated on the instructions apart from the funnel which, as it was the original shape, I decided I would paint with the original colours. Anyway...iit was much easier!
I had never used masking tape before for painting a model and I have to say I was stunned by the results.
I now have a vintage airfix kit of QE2 courtesy of eBay but that will have to wait for another day.. What follows are 12 snaps of the assembly process. It has taken me 10 months elapsed time with many weeks of doing nothing between stages. I can honestly say that the most frustrating part of the assembly and painting was doing the lifeboats. I managed to break off the funnel at one point while sticking on the davits but luckily no damage was done....phew!
So, with some trepidation I release to the forum my pictures of the QE2. It is now waiting on a shelf to greet me when I come home for Xmas.
