Airfix 1/72 Severn Class Lifeboat

[Bigfoot57]

So whilst waiting for the missing kit to the U 96 to arrive I built the Airfix 1/72 scale Shannon class lifeboat which was a very good kit letdown by it’s useless decals which seemed to disintegrate as soon as they hit the water if they were Cartograph they must’ve had a bad day when they made these they were so bad that there aren’t any on the port side as regards to serial numbers because they just disintegrated into nothing so I’ve only got the starboard side and the red and yellow and white demarcation lines are made from .5 mm brass rod painted and stuck to the side of the boat
Anyway this led onto the new construction which is the Airfix 1/72 scale Severn class lifeboat
so the first thing I did was to wash the whole set of parts in soapy water as they have mould release agent on most of it and the paint would never have taken in the first place however it took five coats to get the depth of colour that I needed for the orange and blue so I don’t know if washing it made any difference at all
Next off was to start constructing the main hull which was an absolutely awful fit necessitating a fair amount of filler to be added and sanded smooth before you could proceed with the painting and like I said it’s took five coats
with this done well then started proceed to construct the rear of the boat. I don’t know what they’re called. I’d call them diving platforms Airfix didn’t bothered to tell you what they were either and that brings me to another complaint. The instructions are absolutely awful. As regards to what colour things should be painted. You have to search through the instructions further than where you are actually to get the colour of the part that you’re actually putting on at the time if that makes any sense
Next we come to the parts and the diving platform struts are too short either by design or short shot Either way, I think I’m gonna cut those off and replace them with .5 mm brass rod at least they will be the correct length

[Bigfoot57]

[flyjoe180]

Looking good. Being a more recent release you shouldn't have any problems with the decals on this one. Was the Shannon one of those older kits with yellow in the Airfix logo?

[Airborne01]

Looking forward to seeing this in the bath!
Steve

[Bigfoot57]

Going back to the filler side of this kit here is a picture showing the amount of filler that had to go into the rear of the deck to get it to actually fit or make it look like it fitted
The finish result after the filler have been sanded smooth and all repainted and I extended the diving platform attachment rods by about 5 mm using brass .5 mm rod as the struts were too short to reach the platforms. We are now ready to start doing the super structure.

[Bigfoot57]

Well I have to say something.
This is a bloody awful kit. nothing fits and it’s devoid of detail inside so first off the two side panels that formed the inner sections have added to the decking and the roofing part supposed to fit over the top it’s too short, so I have manufactured additional length by adding a chopped up coffee stirrer and if this is anything to go by, I bet it won’t be the only problem with parts not fitting correctly
The instructions are next to useless for colour callouts and I based my colour scheme on another modellers photos which I found online

[Jim R]

Yes, it is a rotten kit as you have found. When I built mine a few years ago I had all the problems you've come across.
However you're doing a fine job of it. Patience and skill will get you there. A few choice expletives will help 😁

[flyjoe180]

Despite the challenges you are experiencing it's coming along nicely

[Bigfoot57]

Okay, just a quick pictured. Show the repaired top section now that the connections have been extended using an old coffee. stirrer to fabricate the extended pieces required so that it will actually join up and look like a framework and not a disaster

[Geoffers]

Your doing a sterling job with this awful kit 👍

My son tried building this with my help many years ago and we ended up binning it as it was so bad 😔

Geoff.

[Bigfoot57]

Time for some more painting this time the main cabin sides and the so-called instrument panel which was completely blank and was told just paint it black. Well I’ve added loads of little dials and bits of paint here and there to make it look a bit more interesting whether it is anything like the real cabin, I doubt that very much, but at least It’s something other than a blank canvas Whether you’ll see any of that or not when cabin walls etc are glued together, who knows at least there is some detail that might be glimpsed
I noticed that some of the blue paint is flaked off from the bottom that’s probably due to the masking tape that was applied to paint the red squares underneath the vents so that will need touching up again as you can see there’s still some tape around one of them, I’ve still gotta give it another coating as the orange is still showing through hopefully next time we’ll have a cabin assembled. All the bits have been painted. It’s just a question now of letting the paint dry before assembly.

[Bigfoot57]

So now we come to the main cabin assembly and as predicted by other people and as what I’ve seen on the net it was a right pig to put together the cabin sides and top are welded with superglue over glued with Tamiya extra thin and once that had all dried It was sanded smooth and painted over then we come to fit in the front Of the cabin and oh dear, as you can see from the amount of filler that I’ve had to put around it it was a pathetic fit. I can see why people have thrown his kit in the bin now but it will not defeat me once I start a project I follow it through
To do this kit, you have to be able to adapt and change things and bodge things because it does not fit as the instructions tell you it does in actual fact the instructions are probably in the wrong sequence as well because you’ve have to sometimes undo what you’ve already done to get the other part in for the next section
But once the cabin has dried thoroughly and I’ve sanded smooth and repainted the front, we’ll see if it fits on the boat. I’m not gonna try it yet because still waiting for the glue to set fully on the front along with the filler and I don’t want all the seams splitting open again trying to force it to fit onto The deck before it’s ready
That disgusting looking container underneath is actually a brush cleaner with washing up liquid in it and it’s just the colour of from the last colour of paint that I used which looking at that was an orange although it looks horribly brown I should’ve removed it I forgot about it sorry about that

[Bigfoot57]

For my next project as you can see I’ve got a theme with boats at the moment in 1/72 scale. How about something? Totally different at 1/35 scale hovercraft used by the US in Vietnam.

[Bigfoot57]

Well the main deck housing is now installed and let’s say it’s fits where it touches and leave it at that Christ knows what I’m gonna do with the gaps at the end. I might just put some card in there to fill it. I can’t put more filler in there it just melt everything.

[Jim R]

All the fun of this pig of a kit. Having built it I feel your frustration. Good on you for sticking with it. It's looking like a Severn. Deep breath and carry on. 😁