Raffles Hotel, Singapore; 1/200 scale

[chris190]

Thought I'd have a change from aircraft since completing the Latecoere 631 and so I had a review of un made kits in my model drawer. I came up with this which I bought quite a few years ago on a visit to Singapore in the days when we could actually afford to stay at this famous hotel.

I thought it might be fairly simple to put together as it was a souvenir then available from their shop and was an attractive production in its own right.

I scaled it down from its published size of 1/150 by 75% and made a start using my usual cereal box material for the walls with 1.5mm mounting board for the base and varying thicknesses of card for the architectural features such as string courses, mouldings etc. Columns in the frontage were from bamboo cocktail sticks, wrapped with paper until the right diameter was achieved and a great deal of white gouache has been applied to cover up the card edges on the various relief details.

The kit itself is an odd bit of design and, if made to its designed scale, would be very wobbly indeed; it also incorporates strange inaccuracies, such as the horizontal elements on the frontage being drawn in places not quite horizontal, causing huge problems when butting one section against the next. I sorted this by cutting on the nearest "horizontal" line and butt jointing after cutting to the correct line using my set square.

Next stage is the side elevations, not quite as elaborate as the frontage with its columns etc. but again involving much repetitive work.

Best wishes to all

Chris

[Madbrit]

Impressive build. Look forward to its completion

Derek

[Philip]

This is going to be a treat to follow.

[Viator]

Looks really great, though I imagine that the geometry faults must be difficult to be fixed as you described it. Well done!

[chris190]

Thanks for the interest gents and in answer to Viator, look what yesterday's "progress" has revealed

After cutting put the parts which butt together to form the side walls, I found that there is one section which is seriously misaligned with all the others, not only in height but in pretty well all the other drawn architectural features which should run through in an unbroken line - terrific!!

Plus the rear walls are about 4mm too short in length and I have just noticed that the floor level on the back also deviates seriously from those elsewhere; not sure whether I'll bother about this as it's well back from the outer building face which I'm now working on and will only be seen by looking through the outer colonnade.

I'll let you know when I get all this lot sorted!@

Best wishes

Chris

[FRD]

Absolutely perfect...

[DougH]

Chris an interesting spot of nostalgia. I visited Raffles on my first visit to Singapore in the 60's
I don't know what the cost of a room was but at the time there was a Sterling Foreign Travel Allowance and a £25 port allowance for seafarers which limited what you could spend. So even then wouldn't have been able to afford it. Our visit was to get vaccinations for something or other.

[chris190]

Thank you FRD, a nice compliment!

From last time, I discovered that all the side components are wrongly drawn and wouldn't line up with the already installed front elevation. A great deal of cutting, trimming, adding extra card and then trimming down has been necessary, always cutting on a line already drawn on the component then butt jointing with a good bit of additional glue on the back face.

None of this is very strong or neat but most vertical joins will be covered by the later addition of pilasters (flat columns) or string courses. Also, I now need to add two layers of cereal box card to the rear of the elevations after cutting out the various arched openings, in order to represent the wall thicknesses.

Best wishes to all

Chris

[Erik Zwaan]

Wow, the famous Raffles Hotel on Beach Road in Singapore! Been there several times, to walk through the arcades, gardens or to enjoy a drink in the Long Bar. My wife was born in Singapore and every two years or so we visit her relatives. Always nice to stroll through the old (colonial) city centre and have a glimpse at the Raffles.

There's a souvenir shop along one of the corridors but I've never been able to spot a paper model of the hotel. Lucky you Chris, despite all the challenges that you need to overcome. Look forward to seeing the end result, you're doing a great job.

Cheers,
Erik

[chris190]

Glad you like it Erik, it was a long time ago that I bought the kit, wonder what happened to all the other copies, probably chucked away in desperation part way through construction by unwary purchasers!

It would be 23 years ago when we first visited the city and have been back many times since, especially over the past four years when our son and his family moved out there for work. We are glad that they are now back in cold, rainy old England but we will miss our visits there, it really is a lovely place but the expense of getting and staying there, plus the exhausting long haul air journeys will not be missed!

Have now cut out six arched top floor openings in one side wall - a slow and repetitive process awaits for the next stage of construction!

cheers

Chris