by Elaine F.
1/250 Ark Royal (Lindberg)
I built this Lindberg kit straight out of the box and didn’t add anything to the finished kit. It took a lot longer than the other two ships I have built because of the colorful and complicated paint job – I spent about three times as long painting as I did building.
Everything except the sails was hand painted with Testors and Model Master bottle paints and I think I used just about every color my Dad has. We used flat white from a spray can for the sails. We did do a little research on this important ship but since no one could agree exactly what the Ark Royal looked like when Admiral Howard faced off against the Spanish Armada, no one can say my paint scheme is wrong! Some of the details were so small I used a toothpick to apply the paint. There is a lot of raised detail, which was good, because it really makes the final model appear intricate and detailed, and bad, because it took a really long time to paint.
The kit went together OK but there were some problems, especially in the bow platform and where the anchors and bowsprit attach. My Dad had to saw a half-inch off the bottom of the lowest sail on the two front masts because otherwise they hung down too far and looked silly. We also had to add some styrene strips to the stand to strengthen it enough to hold the model steady. I did bore out the cannon barrels to make them look more realistic. I decided not to rig the model when I was done, although the kit did include some tan thread if you want to do so.
I think next time I’m going to pick something that won’t take weeks to paint!
