๐ Mt. Washington - Dumas Kit
Hi guys. I have just completed my Dumas Mt. Washington. Almost 2 years in the making. I attached a link and hopefully you can view the running model.
I have to say that I was not at all happy with the kit as mine was the vacu-form kit with the decks all being of the PVC flavor and all other build parts were plastic.
I have over two pages of notes of things wrong with the Dumas instructions and they (Dumas) quit being of any help. I'm sure I'm persona non grata at this point.
Specifically, I learned right on the first couple of build instructions that there were major errors. The first being the keel pattern (which they said to make
from their full size plan) wasn't even close.
The hull vacu-form wasn't cooled right or something before it came out the machine as it was distorted and made it difficult to continue the build.
When they changed to all plastic, they did not update any of the plans or pictures except the hull if that was indeed fiberglass at one time. Soldering of railings on the decks which are plastic (previously wood) was not a good idea in their plans so the pattern had to be transferred to plywood with hope you got the transfer right, and then, move the built railing back to the PVC structure.
Not enough material provided in some cases, wrong material in others, wrong plans on the lifeboats and drive rod, step references wrong in some cases, set screws missing for paddle wheels, mounting screws wrong for motor, castings were very poorly made and body filler had to be used. On and on and on, but to finish it, even the flag was cut wrong with half of the top stripe missing.
While I do appreciate the amount of effort that went into the research, design and providing materials for this kit. I think some prudence could have been exercised when the kit materials were changed. Maybe even an updated PDF with corrected plans.
In the end, I think it came out great. I added lights, sound, smoke and deviated in a lot of cases from the plans particularly when melding the various decks and walking beam to the model.
Probably will never see the water but it makes a great shelf looker (my opinion).
One other note on the casting stuff. Before the Mt. Washington, I completed Dumas' large 52" Carol Moran which came out really well. The castings on this boat were made from some plastic injected stuff which almost looked like it was foam. All the fittings looked like Swiss cheese and a lot of work/body fill to get them proper.
So...... not sure I helped anything here but of great help along this journey was Nick Jacalone from Harbor Models and Peejay of this discussion when it came time for the paint scheme.
Switching gears for awhile at this time and working on and old Mantua HO Mikado steam engine kit I got off ebay. Tiny stuff!!!
Best regards,
Jeff
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-6RBCw-4QEKnZjj4MS-5Jxx_jYEwREY0/view?usp=shari |