MILITARY DIORAMAS by Paul Asaban

Photo Album 34 - Restoration Project II

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Photo Album 1 - The Road to Minsk
Photo Album 2- The Road to Minsk
Photo Album 3 - The Road to Minsk
Photo Album 4- OS2U Kingfisher
Photo Album 5 - Flakvierling
Photo Album 6 - Building the Flakvierling
Photo Album 7 - Dauntless SBD
Photo Album 8 - Dauntless SBD
Photo Album 9 - Channel Gazing
Photo Album 10 - Stuka and Matilda
Photo Album 11- ME-109 and Spitfire V
Photo Album 12 - Anzio
Photo Album 13 - Anzio
Photo Album 14 - Bastogne Aftermath
Photo Album 15 - Normandy Ambush & more
Photo Album 16 - The First Time I Saw Paris
Photo Album 17- Aachen 1944
Photo Album 18 - Aachen 1944
Photo Album 19 - PT109
Photo Album 20 - "Corner Kick" Curtiss P-40
Photo Album 21 - Building "Corner Kick"
Photo Album 22 - Black Widow
Photo Album 23 - Assorted models
Photo Album 24 - Somewhere in Saudi (A-10)
Photo Album 25 - Top Gun Air Show
Photo Album 26 - Top Gun Airshow 2
Photo Album 27 - The Mother of all Battles
Photo Album 28 - The First Night - F-111
Photo Album 29 - My kids are in on the action - Christian's Dioramas
Photo Album 30 - My kids are in on the action - Nicole's Dinosaurs
Photo Album 31 - Coming Soon - Operation Market Garden
Photo Album 32 - The War Room
Photo Album 33 - Antique Ships Restoration Project
Photo Album 34 - Restoration Project II
Photo Album 35 - Restoration Project III
Photo Album 36 - Restoration Project IV
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THE BIG SAILING SHIPS - WHAT THEY LOOKED LIKE BEFORE AND AFTER RESTORATION

The following photos show the terrible condition of all the sailing ships pictured in the next few pages. I took pictures of all of them in the "before" stage, but somehow lost some of these photos. Take my word for it - all the sailing ships looked as bad as this. My issues here were many - first, I had never done this type of work before. Research in methods to clean, products to use, and techniques to employ had to be done. I reached out on the web to people who do this stuff all the time. For help, I contacted people in places like Malta, South Africa, and Spain. You will see from the shots of the ships in my shop that I used every type of wood and cleaning products, as well as tools from high pressure air to Q-tips, to get the job done. I used everything I had in my arsenal and then some. I was so tempted to just throw the ships in the shower and just rinse them down with hot water, but the wood and sails were so dry, and the rigging so dry and fragile, I was afraid of what the water would do.

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Another issue is that this was not just dust - It was years of dust, then grease, then dust, then grease and so on. Kitchen fumes, kitchen grease, cigarette and cigar smoke, years and years of dust...all had contributed to a daunting task. Just hitting the dust with high pressure air was not enough. I used combinations of products and applications to get the ships clean enough to start restoring the wood - I used a shop vac, a mini vac, degreasers, brushes, Q-tips, sponges, paper towels, compressed air - you name it.

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Above and Below: These pictures are of the two "Big" ships - the two that were 3 times the size of the rest. Both were made in Germany and signed by the same builder...but no date. These ships were twins, sister ships as it were, but for one distinction. One flew the Pirate flag, one flew a national flag. Both ships were simply disgustingly filthy. However, in terms of actual damage, like broken yardarms, rigging or the like - these ships required much less repair time than the others. However, in terms of cleaning time, it was triple the other ships and then some.

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Below: THE FINISHED PRODUCT - Quite a difference, yes? Patience does pay off. The ship has new life. She's vibrant, clean, and ready for display. New stain, varnish, some touch up paint...after a good 40 hours or more on each of the big ships, they're now back at Old Europe Restaurant in Washington, DC.

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BELOW: The War Room with the vast array of products I used on this project. The larger ship is on the table - she's almost ready to go. A small portion of my hundreds of reference books are on the wall.

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