Roter Löwe - Red Lion - Mamoli 1:55 - Restoration by Valmiki [COMPLETED BUILD]

Valmiki

Valmiki

Joined
Jan 25, 2023
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Even though this model wasn't built by me but by my father over 30 years ago and it is actually a restoration, I was advised to create a Log and here I am.

Just bear in mind that this project is already finished but I will detail it as much as possible. Also I would like to point out that I have no experience with ship building. Picked my skills from around in the web and ideas that came up. This is second work and hopefully I got things better than my first.

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My father built this ship around 1988, so quite a while ago. He had no idea what he was doing, always had huge hands and working in building construction had not patience nor practice with tiny pieces. I have no idea how he made this ship but last year I went to visit him and found out that the ship crashed while moving to his new apartment.
This below are a few pictures to give you an idea of the situation.
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As you can see plenty of dust. Rigging completely gone. All cannons broken. The paint was pealing off all over the places

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And under the dust a lot of details were missing or were wrong.

My idea was to give credit to my father's work and give him back something worth of displaying at home.
 
First things first.
I had no idea how to do the rigging. I needed some plans. So after some research I found the main plans for this ship but no details for the rigging. Well, it is a beginning.
Secondly, in order to fix things I had to be able to get my hands inside the belly of this beast ... or at least a pair of tweezers.
So I started dismounting as many parts as I could and cataloguing everything in order to help me out putting things back.

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... and started to toy a bit with the planking coz I was getting a bit bored with destroying
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And why not carrying on with planking. I know I am not that good but I have no idea what I am doing here...

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I had no idea how to do this part ... but there was something I could do to make it better at least.

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I couldn't possible do this part piece by piece: I had no space for my hands and have no longer tweezers. So I decided to prepare the floor out on my desk and then glue it in in place. I came out pretty ok.
 
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Now I noticed something on the plans. My father missed to build a pair of stairs and in order to add them into the project I needed some floor inside the ship.

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Also here, since I didn't have any choice I had to prepare the floor before hand and then put it inside. The problem was that I could fit it all through that whole so I divided it in 4 pieces and joined them together inside the ship. A bit tricky it worked out pretty well.

Now I have a base for the stairs.
 
This part was tricky. I had no skills or tools to make anything fancy our of wood or metal...

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And for sure I couldn't leave it empty
So I prepare a curved piece of wood, print on canvas a design that I made and that hope is quite correct and coat it as well as I could. I am not very proud but it should do the trick.

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I know, I know. The pictures are horrible. There is a lot of gloss that it is not actually there. My phone usually makes pretty nice pictures but so closed up ... they are not the best. I have no options here.
 
And here is the part I don't really like much ... scraping the old paint away. Here on this project I like it less because the wood is very thin so I can't afford to scrape too much material ... hopefully I made it.
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And here is a new project: the rowing boat.

Ok. Just to have an idea of what we are talking about ... This is before. Sorry I don't have another shot.

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This is after...

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I know. There is something that doesn't add up... everything is not centered. I followed a mistake that was made previously but I will correct it later.
 
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Oh! I am so happy. I couldn't just dare and make my own doors and windows so I bought some online and started mounting them all over the ship ... yuppi!

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Here I also created the 2 new sets of stairs ...

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A part of the railing is missing. I found out in one of the posts here in the forum that this is wrong and later on corrected the mistake adding extra railing at the end of the stairs.

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I hope none were missing.
 
Ok. Time to make a stable base. The one that comes in the kit is horrible, too small and the boat keeps tilting every time you stare at it ... can't stand it anymore.
Also my father has space issue and I have to make the display case as low as possible ... so why don't I start here?

I previously made a test with some balsa wood and worked wonderfully. So proceeded printing on paper, apply it to some plywood and ...

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Not very elegant I admit it but very stable ...

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Also in this picture I already gave a finish to the bottom part of the wood...


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Re-did the end part near the rudder matching it to the plans.

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And finished also the other side.
 
Now ... a big problem for me. I am not good at carving sculptures. So I had to find something as close as possible to the Lion figure.

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This can work but ... I have a problem. There is no way I can fit it on the ship coz there is no space for the keel ... or can't I?

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Not sure about it but what do you think? Better with golden hair or all red?

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Lets' keep going ... more pieces to build from scratch ... and without any machinery. I know for most of you is normal but is the first time I do this stuff.

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Not sure is easier to place the chains here or on the boat ... I guess I will discover it pretty soon.
 
Ok. Now, I am not sure I will be able to do a super-great-job but I will try. Have to finish scraping and sanding the upper part of the hull and paint it accordingly.

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As you can see is pretty messy. The hatches are all badly aligned and I have no idea what a shape is that for the upper deck hatches ... surely I have to patch it somehow.

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Coming up nicely... but is a really perfect paint job. I don't know why I can't get a fine line in the cracks ... not used to wood I guess. Or this is just something that needs to be done before mounting the pieces ... mah!

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I did all my best with the tools I have.

Only thing I won't touch is my father's design ... this is his ship after all. Like this many other details that are on the borderline between change it and leave it.

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and rudder time I guess ...

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The new version against the remains of the old one ... LOL!

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Ok... I know, what is it with the planking ... I don't have nice wood except the strips I bought for the planking. So in order not to show the plywood from the original keel and in order to match it with the rudder ... I see no other solutions ... Sorry guys.

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I made a mistake here ... but I will notice it only when mounting it ...

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No good ... but it will doooo ...
 
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Ok! So this is the part where I take 5 seconds ... look at the model and think about what I am still missing ...

Oh! Yeah! The rigging right?!

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Railing done.

For those who knows the project the railing is a bit off and not according to the plans ... but I couldn't correct it, not with big consequences.

LOL
 
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