Queen Mary 2

I have a big Christmas present. Wondering what's inside? :-D 

Molding quality is quite average 

A lot of cleaning awaits 

 

I'm not sure what are those round markings, there are totally four of them on the hull. Anyway I'll sand them off. 

 

 

 

Main deck part has an irregular edges. Don't understand how they manage to do this. 

 

 

Opening entrance to lower deck (completed on right side) 

Flash... 

A lot of flash... 

FLASH!!! 

One of parts is cleaned. One more to go... 

Balconies of hull are finished, these parts will be glued from inside of hull. It's strange that all windows on kit are expected to be leaved empty, so You'll see through the finished model. That will look silly so I'll cover all windows from inside with thin transparent film and then paint black from inside. 

 

Clean some openings in hull 

 

Radar antennas, molded perfect parallel. That should be corrected 

Mast with lights. Total mess due to molding forms misaligning 🙁 Don't know what to do with this, I'll think about it later.
 

Fitting test 

A lot of aligning / filling / sanding awaits 

Radar antennas with some PE parts 

Some more PE parts on funnel. 

 

More parts prepared and sorted 

Some progress. Hull is primed in white and top and bottom parts are painted. Masked for black painting. 

At start several thin black paint coats applied on windows (or should they be called "portholes"?) 

Black. A lot of black! 🙂
It's time to drop masks. Fingers crossed! 

Perfect! Not a single paint bleed under masking tape! 

Looks good. Now it's ready for varnish coats and decals. 

First problem with decals on stern. If You follow it's shape You'll get such curved line. There are two options to solve it - cut off excess part in straight line immediately after applying and then add thin white line (luckily they are included in case You prefer to apply red paint instead of decal) or make a big cut in decal and then try to align it in straight line during applying. I've tried both methods and IMHO first option works better. 

Second problem - there is a mess in instructions with small decals. I've prepared corrected version to help in case someone will also built this kit. In original instructions some decal numbers doesn't appear at all and some appears more than they are on decal sheet. 

Decals are on! 

This rectangular piece of packaging material was used as handle during painting. Was really helpful but now it's time to remove it. 

Securing of "handle" was pretty easy 🙂
 

Hull and stand are modified to be attached by screws. I've ordered quite long screws what will allow attach both of them to temporary base, it will make moving and working with model very comfortable. 

To be continued...