Easily removed dust cover for model ship?

"howard miner" carefully cut the following from his sprue and glued it together: news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com...

Go to your local aquarium shop and see if they have a acrylic plastic aquarium that might do the trick. Alternativly - why not try for a large cardboard box - PC monitor boxes are often big enough...

Treadhead

"Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination. Do not become the slave of your model" - Vincent Van Gogh Howard Freeman IPMS(UK) 9169 snipped-for-privacy@afvs.co.uk

Another thought might be to get some very thin polyethylene sheet - the kind dry cleaners use when returning your clothing. Drape it over the model to fight off the dust bunnies...

Frank Kranick

1. For my really fine models with complex rigging, I spend the bucks to make a proper glass case -- quite expensive about 0 for a model that size by the time you add in the glass -- a lot more if buy it already glassed. That's the best.
2. For work in progress (in the shop) I just cover the model with an old piece of bed sheet. That keeps the workshop dust off during construction. Old bedsheets are nice and soft. I would not use plastic. It does not drape properly and can thus stress outlying spars. Also, plastic does not breathe so you could get a buildup of moisture within the tent -- not good for models.
3. Never vaccum -- unless it is one of tiny ones or an attachment for "computer" use. I have that, but I find that it is much too clumsy to do a good job.
4. One of the conditions set down by "She who must be obeyed" of allowing my models to be displayed on shelves and mantles in the living room and other rooms was that I dust them once a week. I use an artist's paint brush. I use a #12 brush designed for use with acrylic paints. The bristles are about 1" wide and 1-1/4" long. Handle is about 12" . Very soft, fine bristles, but stiff. Properly handled, it does not damage rigging or displace deck furniture -- but yet gets all the dust off quite nicely.
5. Procedure. Assuming the model is rigged with sails and displayed in the usual fashion, showing the starboard side on starboard tack. Start with the leeward side of the sails, then do the windward side to put the sails back in place again. Start at the top of the rigging and work down the shrouds, do the sails, etc. always working from top down so the dust falls down. Gently does it -- very gently. When the rig is done, do the deck and then the hull. Takes about 3 or 4 minutes for a model that size. There's always going to be some dust left over, but this gets most of it off and keeps it from accumulating.

I have a friend whose late husband was a very good modeler. He gave most of his models away, but she kept one -- and exquisitely executed Charles W. Morgan. Their cleaning woman is destroying this fine model, spar by spar. I've urged her to get a case made and have done some repairs -- but each time I see it, there is a new insult -- it will soon get to the point where I can no longer fix it. Needless to say, cleaning people (and the wife) are strictly hands off when it come to model dusting.

Boris