M.V. MARCELI NOWOTKO by MM in 1/600 scale

[Jim Krauzlis]

I just finished a quick build of a repaint I did of an old Maly Modelarz kit, the motor ship "MARCELI NOWOTKO". It's a nice looking little cargo freighter that caught my eye, but as is sometimes true with the earlier Maly Modelarz kits, the print was a bit rough, so I scanned the pages and used my Adobe Photo Elements software to recolor a few parts. I didn't do a drastic re-coloring, just a bit of touch up to correct some of the bleed and uneven coloring. As I built this I thought of a few other areas I might have considered editing a bit, like touching up the life boat davit bases on the deck, which was a bit of an eyesore being so large and out of scale, but I ended up covering it with printed sections of the deck I printed out on bond paper.

The original kit seems to have been designed in about 1/400 scale and provides a water line version, very similar to the JSC series, in fact the construction was very similar to JSC's designs as well, and I wouldn't be surprised to find the designer also worked for JSC (if I could read Polish I might discover this, but, alas, I don't). I reduced my version to 1/600, which is a scale I like to build in these days. I didn't try to do too much detail on this, just playing around with the basic design, actually, but I think it came out fairly well, despite a few bumps along the way. The main idea was to see how the repainting worked, and to give me a little experience in re-working some of these old kits from MM I have stashed away. Some of the older versions, even with the print problems, are of very interesting subjects and produce a pretty nice and unique model, at least I thought so.

Anyway, and for what it's worth, here's a few pictures of how it came out.

Hope you like it. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look!

Cheers!
Jim

 

[shoki2000]

I did not realize how tiny this ship is until I saw the third photo...

Knowing those old Maly kits I must say that you did an outstanding job reviving it to look like a new kit.

 

[Stev0]

Yes incredibly well done. I like the waterline addition.

 

[Larry Marshall]

I just finished a quick build of a repaint I did of an old Maly Modelarz kit, the motor ship "MARCELI NOWOTKO". It's a nice looking little cargo freighter that caught my eye,

Really nice, Jim. It's inspiring to see what you can do in such a small size. When you build ships to 1/600, what kind of card/paper do you use? Are the masts all rolled paper or something else?

Cheers --- Larry

 

[barry]

1/600 freighter

My you kept that one a bit quiet young Jim !!!!

Looks beautiful as always "squinty"

As the poles would say RESPECT in capitals

 

[Bowdenja]

Dang Jim..............you did it again!

Post a picture of this in TWE Tiny Challange thread................ummm the one with the giant pair of tweezers in it.......... I gotta get me some of those trick tweezers:twisted:

I still don't see how you do that! Maybe that's my problems.............not beeing able to see that small :grin:

john

 

[airbob]

1:600 sHIP

Jim,
A really clean build of this litttle freighter...I like your "water"...freighters have such "personality"....Excellent!!!

 

[Gil]

There You Are!

Jim,

I've been wondering where you've been. With things that small it takes a good dose of concentration with zero distractions to get something together.

Ray is no longer Squinticus Maximus as you have proven once again that you are the Supreme Proctor of the Optivison Squints....,

Best, -Gil

 

[Jim Krauzlis]

Wot ho, mates!

Thanks so much, I'm glad you enjoyed this build...gotta admit, it was a project I needed to build just to get me head back on track. I've been busy at work lately and needed something to just settle things down a bit. I appreciate the very kind words, I really do.

@ Larry, I use 67# cardstock for most of the parts. As I built the life boats I thought regular bond would have worked better in some respects, but the heavier bond did make it easier to assemble, I figure. For the masts I used regular bond paper wrapped around florist wire; the wire gives it good strength for withstanding the rigging added later on and the paper wrap provides the right amount of thickness needed for the lower part of the masts. The booms are just thin wire painted with acrylic paint. It tried using just rolled paper on an earlier model but at this scale it just doesn't have enough strength to hold up to the tension of the rigging sometimes, so I started using a wire core which seems to work out well.

@bazzer...yeah, it's been too quiet here in the model shop, so I had to do something to keep my sanity...or what little I have left.:grin: Actually, my young daughter was asking me one night to work on a new ship, which surprised me, actually, since she never seemed to take an interest in them before. So, this is going in her room as soon as I get a plastic case together to give it some protection.

@ John, I hadn't noticed the new challenge (told you I've been too busy lately), so maybe I'll post a photo there of this build, and perhaps one of my earlier Krefeld...that one does fit in the palm of you hand. I get the tweezers at the same store that sells those incredibly large dimes I show from time to time.

@airbob, thanks, I'm glad you like the way that came out. I know many prefer the whole hull look for ships, but I really think they look great under way so I usually build waterline hulls and like to add the water when I can. It's just a printed page that I developed using some textures which I coat with future floor polish (clear acrylic) and then add the wakes using white paint. I'm thinking of trying to apply the future using a spray bottle rather than the brush method because it sometimes gets too soaked too fast than I like and warps the base at spots. My preference is for freighters, as you may have noticed.

@ Gil, thanks, I really do appreciate that, however Ray does do magic with his planes...actually, I suspect he has developed a shrinking machine, but I just haven't caught him in the act yet.

Again, thanks to all for stopping by and having a look...I'm really glad to be able to find the time to mince some paper again!

Cheers!
Jim

 

[Texman]

Jim,

That is absolutely gorgeous! I have yet to find any mistakes. And as
it is an old MM kit, it comes closer to a miracle. Wish my builds were that
flawless.

And each of us does have specific skills with our preferred vehicles. Ships
will never be one of mine. I can do Aviation, armor, and I am working on autos.
Takes a special skill set to pull off a nice ship.

'tis a beauty.

Ray

P.S. - you will never find the "shrinker!"

 

[thewoodengraver]

Jim,
Quite incredible as always!

You mentioned warpage when you coated the base and I thought I would mention this tip;
If you cut the base out with an extra half-inch border all around, use thumbtacks to attach the four corners to a piece of flat wood. Then when you spray, paint, or in your case MOP your finish on, the page will resist warpage, and you can cut the extra border off when it dries. It is trial and error of course, but if you take your time, and try not to glob it on, the results are quite impressive.

Floor wax! I am always amazed at the different techniques we all use!

 

[eibwarrior]

Great work as always Jim. I like the addition of water to the model. I think waterline ships look naked out of the water...

I've often thought about taking MM or JSC models down a few size in scale to. In order to do dioramas. I think that your work shows it can be done masterfully.

Great work Jim.

 

[lizzienewell]

Yum,
The colors are great. I like how the blue of the water works with the color on the rest of the ship. It seems to be some sort of warm place, maybe the Mediterranean.

---Lizzie

 

[Jim Krauzlis]

Thanks, everyone, I'm really glad you enjoyed this build...it was fun building her, although as with most builds I learned a few things along the way that I hope to improve upon next time. I didn't trim the tabs on the house structures like I normally do, not sure why I didn't this time around, but there was a few fitting problems that cropped up here and there as a result. The outlines on the parts were a bit thick, and it became clear as I was working along that the design was based on the inside edges of the lines being the cut off plane...oh, the fit wasn't all that bad, but I noticed when I didn't trim the lines close enough it showed up during construction.

@ Ray, thanks, mate; funny, I thought your builds were the flawless ones, certainly not mine...and you can be sure I will not rest until I find that shrinker!:grin: I figure it will come in handy for Constitution when I start the rigging and need to figure out how to make those tiny deadeyes and all....

@ TWE (a/k/a Jim), thanks, and also thanks for the tip! One of those "duh" moments, for which I do appreciate...sometimes I get a bit rushed towards the end of the build, so I'll just have to put on the brakes next time and take a bit of extra care to do it right; your tip will be a big help, I know it. I figure I can either spray the future acrylic wax next time, or maybe try a can of clear gloss acrylic spray (frankly, the future works out as a cheaper solution and probably will work out just as well). I'm always picking up great tricks here and there in the threads, just one of many great things about this forum.

@eibwarrior, I've taken to the smaller scales lately not just because I like working in the smaller size but it really keeps them small enough so storage space isn't as big a problem as it had been...no pun intended.:grin:

@ Lizzie, thanks, the end color was actually lighter than when I started out from the printed sheet, the future acrylic finish seemed to lighten it up a bit...and the interesting color scheme of the ship seems to give it a lighter overall look as well, as least to me. Really glad you like how it came out...it does look like the Med, come to think of it, or the beautiful waters of the Caribbean. When I did the Mexico Victory for my Father-in-law, the water base was a bit darker as I was trying to copy the darker waters of the North Atlantic which he sailed when he was a Navy gun crewmember in WWII...this time around it was not intentional, just happened to work out this way, but I'm glad you like it.

Thanks again for the very generous and kind words, everyone!

Cheers!
Jim