My 2nd Ship Build Restoration Help

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I built this ship the Thermoplae approx. 9 years ago it was the second Ship I built. The first was the San Mateo that ship was destroyed by a cat 2 weeks after I gave it to my uncle lol that one is no more. I didn't know to wax my threads back then so they look ratty. I have honed my skill a bit since this ship
What I have here is a dusty ship I cleared the cob webs out but the dust on everything is gonna be hard to get to so I'm requesting info on the best option to do it. I don't want to take the rigging down because I no longer have the instructions but if I must do that I guess a lot of pictures are in my future. This ship belongs to my sister given to her the day I finished it. she kept up with it with those cans of compressed air, but at some point she stopped caring for it. any help would be awesome
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G'day Epicdoom
Did you say this was your second model that you made? It looks great! It took me many models to get that good.
Is this the model that you mentioned that there's no wax on the rigging. If that's the case, it would be better not to wax the ropes if it was not going into a case. You would have found if the rigging was waxed, the dust would cling to the rigging and it would be very hard to clean.
So, this it what I would do. Go and get some unscented baby wipes and CAREFULLY wipe down all the surfaces, including the rigging. What kind of finish you did on the timber surface? If you didn't use any, I would get some wipe on Polly, best to be Matt finish and using a ladie's makeup wipes pads gently wipe one or two coats on the wooden parts. You could also wipe one coat on the rigging so they wouldn't be so furry.
Before you do the whole rigging, try a little bit on some areas of the rigging that would not be easily seen and do a test. Some non cotton ropes, might react to the Polly, but if it's pure cotton, it SHOULD be ok.
Havagooday and happymodeling
Greg
 
This is my second ship 4th Water type model. I built 2 small boats prior and the San Mateo was my first Ship. I have a lot of experience building Balsa Planes and I was a carpenter Right out of High School for 2 years till I went into the Marine Corp. The threads are cotton and the ship was coated in sanding sealer then 3 coats of acrylic Poly Matt finish. My dead eyes rotated so I'll have to fix that as well as see if I can get them even height again. I have a few sagging lines on the rigging that will also need the slack pulled out those shouldn't be to difficult. I have baby wipes from my Grandson so Ill try those to clean the dust from the Deck, Mast and Spars. There isn't a lot of dust but there is a good coating of it on every part of the ship. I didn't want to use compressed air as I'm not sure how well the Glue has held up all these years I used Super glue on most of the deck fittings and I know from Balsa Planes it keeps evaporating over time and eventually looses it grip. I'll try the baby wipes today and see if I can get her cleaned up. Thanx so much for the Help This was one of my favorite ships to build the Hull design was easy to plank way more so then the San Mateo. The San Mateo was a major undertaking for me as my first ship build I made a ton of Mistakes and then Bought every book I could find on ship building and started reading all the articles online I could find that greatly helped me understand not only the names of things but also better construction techniques.
 
I built this ship the Thermoplae approx. 9 years ago it was the second Ship I built. The first was the San Mateo that ship was destroyed by a cat 2 weeks after I gave it to my uncle lol that one is no more. I didn't know to wax my threads back then so they look ratty. I have honed my skill a bit since this ship
What I have here is a dusty ship I cleared the cob webs out but the dust on everything is gonna be hard to get to so I'm requesting info on the best option to do it. I don't want to take the rigging down because I no longer have the instructions but if I must do that I guess a lot of pictures are in my future. This ship belongs to my sister given to her the day I finished it. she kept up with it with those cans of compressed air, but at some point she stopped caring for it. any help would be awesome
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From you photos it looks very clean now. I like the wood tones balance that you produced. The two things that I saw and am sure that you will improve upon in future builds are the unevenly tensioned deadeyes lanyards and the long stub ends of your ratlines beyond the shrouds. This was an excellent build when you did it so my congratulations are in order. Rich (PT-2)
 
The last time which was many months ago, I found out that he was ill and therefore, I have not personally heard from him since. I hope that things are better for him. It is undetermined as far as I am aware of when he will or if he will respond to any of these posts.
 
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