This is the 1:600 scale model by Airfix of Cunard's famous 1906 ocean liner RMS Mauretania.
Cunard had Swan Hunter build this record-breaking ocean liner as a twin with RMS Lusitania. Unlike the second ship, the Mauretania (named after the Roman province of North-West Africa) served for 27 years, and held the Blue Riband speed record on the North Atlantic for 20 years with a speed of nearly 50 km/hr. It was the first ocean liner to utilize steam turbines instead of pistons to carry over 2160 passengers across the Atlantic in five days. It was the largest ship in the world until 1910. During the Great War it served as a troop ship and as a hospital ship.
This is the very old (1964) and very rough Airfix kit, and was part of a series of kits of British ocean liners. The whole build was an exercise in nostalgia, as I attempted to imagine myself as a small boy who received a paper-wrapped kit in about 1966 and proceeded to glue it all together and paint it from little pots of British Humbrol paints. It all went together in a week and was very much the fun model build of a child. It was a rough finish but I had fun, and it took me back to what building was like as a kid. Paints is a mix of Vallejo and Tamiya, with an overspray of sepia ink to yellow and age the model. All flags and pennants are cut paper from a sheet provided by Airfix. These include the UK merchant marine flag, the Cunard pennant and the Cunard house flag. Smoke is made of cotton wool with Vallejo soot powder added. It is not good, but it was fun and a blast from a childhood past.
POSTSCRIPT, 26 September:
I was cleaning and moving stuff and re-arranging the storage closeet to make room for my 11 new kits. That was when I discovered ANOTHER boxed Airfix RMS Mauretania kit. Really. I already had one. The one you see finished in this blog I found shrink-wrapped under my bureau drawer and immediately set to build it like a kid. Well when I looked inside this new discovery I discovered some work has been done. I had drilled out several hundred port holes, and spray painted some parts. But nothing was glued together. I do not rememebr any of this. Well I am NOT going to build another one of these things. Do you need an ocean liner kit? No, probably not.
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| Cunard's RMS Mauretania (1906-1934) |
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| Cunard's RMS Mauretania (1906-1934) |
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| Cunard's RMS Mauretania (1906-1934) |
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| Cunard's RMS Mauretania (1906-1934) |
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| Cunard's RMS Mauretania (1906-1934) |
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RMS Mauretania in the Swan Hunter Shipyards,
which just so happen to be in my spare bathroom |
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| Cunard's RMS Mauretania (1906-1934) |
