My Son's Dead Man's Raft build up!!

[fredmellini]

OK this is my 14 yr old son Michael's vintage 1972 MPC Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Raft kit. Michael bought this kit off of ebay with his own scratch from mowing lawns this summer. Kit was missing parts and partially started but with no paint on the parts. Came with box and instructions. Michael search ebay for awhile and was able to by a parts lot of piratre items and scored the missing parts to complete his model. This was finished just prior to posting these pictures.

Michael has been building models for the past 7 years since he was seven. He has entered several model show and has the hardware to prove it in the junior classes. He totally builds, paints, fabricates parts if needed, details all on his own. This model like all of his are 100% his work, I will give advise and direct him on how to do something but he will do all the work. His dry-brushing skills are improving with each model he does.

This model is 100% complete and operates with the zap/action perfectly. Skeleton in crate will pop out and his arm swings down with the knife right onto the map!!!






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[chief]

Fred. Tell Michael that is VERY NICE WORK and his skills are only GETTING BETTER!!! ;D I can see our hobby is in safe hands with builds like this,KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!!!!!!!!! Chief

[TheMadModeler]

WOW.. Great attention to detail Michael..
It's a build to be proud of..
BiLL..

[A.J.]

Yes sir Fred! You tell the boy that he is doing an outstanding job! I've seen adult builds from that series that didn't look that good! Very cool and very nice! So does have all of the Pirates kits yet or still trying to get some bargains? I know those kits can be bad on eBay.

A.J.

[chromecop]

Great build!!!!

[empyrium]

Whoa.... Great job on a nice model kit. I´ve never seen that one before... Fred, you can be proud of your son, that is outstanding work...
Great job Michael ;D

[robriley]

holy sh*t fred !! michael, that is one true price of art you have there !
this is the type of dry brushing i have always wanted to be able to do, but i can't get it right. this is just spectacular ! i am a big pirate buff (i was even before the new pirates of the carribean movies came out...i got a jolly roger tattoo about 15 years ago)
this is just too cool.....excellent work.

[Tim Nolan]

Man, that is just AWESOME!! I've never had any luck finding one of those kits. Wouldn't you think these idiots would reissue this and the others with the current popularity of the movies??!! Wonderful job Michael! Your following in your fathers talented footsteps!

[gwangiboy]

Wow ... that's the best kit in the series, and that's an incredible build of it!!!!! I still wish I had mine of that, but my paint job wasn't even close to as good as your son's is!!!!

[fredmellini]

Thank you guys from both myself and especially Michael!! Yours word of encouragement mean alot to him and I can see how pumped up he gets reading your comments!! .........I love this time of year here in New York when it is cold and snowy outside and you just want to stay inside and build and you do not feel guilty because you should be doing something outside (like yardwork) and especially with Michael working on a project sitting at the bench along side me. I know he is at the age when pretty soon his interest may start wandering away from the bench and building models....so I will enjoy it now while I can...

Michael has two other pirate kits, one is a built Hoist High the Jolly Roger-but the zap action does not work and it has the flesh pirate face/head on it. The other kit in the box with instructions is another Hoist High the Jolly Roger that he wants to build with the skeleton head/face and of course make the zap-action work........He is trying to collect the whole series and have them built and working!!! ........................Fred

[ShowRodFreak Don V.]

Nice Work Micheal. Keep up the Great work and some day you'll be up there with your Dad wait ........ thats not too far from what I see...LOL
Thanks for sharing

don v

[barten]

Very nice paint on that thing. . .and I had that kit when I was a kid. . . I forgot about it. . . till now!

GB
Barten

[rickg]

Thanks For Sharing That Fred..Nice Work Mike !!!....That's a great one from that set & you've really brought it to life !!!!

[vwcamperman]

Like father, Like son! Brilliant work Micheal!

[Honest Charlie]

Wow Fred, Michael does nice work. Maybe you should have him show you how to detail. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[Paul B. Canney]

I've never seen one of these ! What an AWESOME BUILD of it!!!

honestcharlie said:

Wow Fred, Michael does nice work. Maybe you should have him show you how to detail. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[JerryG]

What an absolutely Great build and paint job Michael! And what a Great vintage Model! Just thing I wanted when I was his age.

[donculley]

man, that is a great build ! it brought back a few memories for me too. i was about 12 when these kits were released ,and i had to have one. after much saving up,i bought one and made a complete ass of it - excess glue, poor paint ,and of course it didn't work right when i was done with it . i wish i had your sons talent when i was his age...maybe my long gone bugaboo, dragon wagon, etc would still be around !!