Image 1:
[ATTACH]304038[/ATTACH]
This is a 1:400 scale, 66cm (2ft 5 inch) plastic kit of the RMS titanic. The story is that when South-South East of Newfoundland she hit an iceberg during her maiden voyage in 1912 from Britain to New York. The ship was designed so that if up to two compartments were flooded the ship would remain afloat for a day or so awaiting rescue. However, the collision made several gouges in the hull spanning many more compartments and the Titanic took only 2 hours and 40 minutes to sink. The RMS Carpathia diverted and took about 4 hours to reach the site. It is also believed that a fire in one of its boiler rooms had weakened the hull. The total capacity of the lifeboats was well below the number on board, it being believed that this “unsinkable ship” would always remain afloat long enough to allow passengers to be ferried at leisure to a rescue ship. The captain gave the famous order “women and children first”. Of the 2,224 passengers and crew on board, only 710 survived. The sea was alive with 1,514 people, many soon to be described as bodies. A decision was soon made to require all ships to have enough lifeboat capacity for all on board.
This kit is highly detailed with many parts, some as small as a green pea. The hull is in one piece. There are 11 sprues plus the three decks and the stand. Assembly requires a lot of time, nimble fingers and patience. The rigging (and there is a lot of it) is finicky. The kit and its manual are of very good quality. With two exceptions all parts fitted together well and it was safe to follow the manual without fear that an item later should have been installed earlier. Every piece comes already painted or is in white plastic but I chose to airbrush the white plastic items because I don’t like the plasticky colour of naked polystyrene. I also chose to repaint the decks and funnels, the latter being a garishly bright orange. The makers of the original ship used “White Star Buff”. I chose to paint about 30 other tiny items. The hull does not need painting. There is no need for weathering – the poor old girl didn’t even complete her maiden voyage!
Construction starts with the three decks in order of upper and middle, with the lower later. Here are the upper and middle decks glued together (Image 2):
[ATTACH]304039[/ATTACH]
The bow (front) is to the left. The rigging for the funnels (24 strands!) were then installed. I used EZ line, black, 0.25 mm. This is very fine indeed and installing it is very fiddly. The size chosen looks to me to match the model. At a scale of 400, it equates to 4 inch diameter rope which seems think but what looks right on the mode is the decider. The kit comes with black thread which is much thicker, and instructions are given for pulling softened sprue. The gap in the middle of Image 2 is a sub-assembly (seen separated), as is the square item (which is installed) which is fenced in white and holds the rear funnel. The manual warns to glue the top and middle decks before installing the two sub-assemblies. This is because the sub-assemblies rest on the top of white shaped walls with windows in them which protrude above the upper deck. Once all in this image is complete the lower deck is glued in place. Gluing the decks needs some care because the top and middle decks are glued to other white walls on the deck below them and trial fittings are advised. The middle deck needed some attention (Image 3):
[ATTACH]304040[/ATTACH]
This was to allow its lower surface to fit accurately to the white walls in the lower deck (the first exception mentioned above). The item in the middle is the underside of one of 4 staircases although these cannot be seen after assembly
The next image (4) shows the lower deck being glued. I used Humbrol Polycement (polystyrene dissolved in solvent) for the plastic parts, and fast Super Glue (Loctite Precision) for the rigging because it sets in about 5 seconds:
[ATTACH]304041[/ATTACH]
Next came the highly detailed fore and after decks not shown here but so far without the masts and their rigging. After trial fitting of all 5 decks on to the hull the instructions say to glue all of them to the hull but I delayed this until the end in case of unforeseen difficulty (none emerged in fact). The edge of the upper deck on the port (left) side next to the front funnel rested slightly above the top edge of the white wall which looked wrong. Therefore I raised the edge of the wall on both sides by adding a narrow strip of polystyrene (image 5):
[ATTACH]304042[/ATTACH]
This was then re-airbrushed in white to match the rest. To protect the rest of the model from spray I used a sheet of polystyrene as a mask (Image 6):
[ATTACH]304043[/ATTACH]
This took some time. This is the second exception.
That is as far as I have got so far and I am having a break of a couple of weeks. Hard work but enjoyable. Its already looking like a very impressive model.
[ATTACH]304038[/ATTACH]
This is a 1:400 scale, 66cm (2ft 5 inch) plastic kit of the RMS titanic. The story is that when South-South East of Newfoundland she hit an iceberg during her maiden voyage in 1912 from Britain to New York. The ship was designed so that if up to two compartments were flooded the ship would remain afloat for a day or so awaiting rescue. However, the collision made several gouges in the hull spanning many more compartments and the Titanic took only 2 hours and 40 minutes to sink. The RMS Carpathia diverted and took about 4 hours to reach the site. It is also believed that a fire in one of its boiler rooms had weakened the hull. The total capacity of the lifeboats was well below the number on board, it being believed that this “unsinkable ship” would always remain afloat long enough to allow passengers to be ferried at leisure to a rescue ship. The captain gave the famous order “women and children first”. Of the 2,224 passengers and crew on board, only 710 survived. The sea was alive with 1,514 people, many soon to be described as bodies. A decision was soon made to require all ships to have enough lifeboat capacity for all on board.
This kit is highly detailed with many parts, some as small as a green pea. The hull is in one piece. There are 11 sprues plus the three decks and the stand. Assembly requires a lot of time, nimble fingers and patience. The rigging (and there is a lot of it) is finicky. The kit and its manual are of very good quality. With two exceptions all parts fitted together well and it was safe to follow the manual without fear that an item later should have been installed earlier. Every piece comes already painted or is in white plastic but I chose to airbrush the white plastic items because I don’t like the plasticky colour of naked polystyrene. I also chose to repaint the decks and funnels, the latter being a garishly bright orange. The makers of the original ship used “White Star Buff”. I chose to paint about 30 other tiny items. The hull does not need painting. There is no need for weathering – the poor old girl didn’t even complete her maiden voyage!
Construction starts with the three decks in order of upper and middle, with the lower later. Here are the upper and middle decks glued together (Image 2):
[ATTACH]304039[/ATTACH]
The bow (front) is to the left. The rigging for the funnels (24 strands!) were then installed. I used EZ line, black, 0.25 mm. This is very fine indeed and installing it is very fiddly. The size chosen looks to me to match the model. At a scale of 400, it equates to 4 inch diameter rope which seems think but what looks right on the mode is the decider. The kit comes with black thread which is much thicker, and instructions are given for pulling softened sprue. The gap in the middle of Image 2 is a sub-assembly (seen separated), as is the square item (which is installed) which is fenced in white and holds the rear funnel. The manual warns to glue the top and middle decks before installing the two sub-assemblies. This is because the sub-assemblies rest on the top of white shaped walls with windows in them which protrude above the upper deck. Once all in this image is complete the lower deck is glued in place. Gluing the decks needs some care because the top and middle decks are glued to other white walls on the deck below them and trial fittings are advised. The middle deck needed some attention (Image 3):
[ATTACH]304040[/ATTACH]
This was to allow its lower surface to fit accurately to the white walls in the lower deck (the first exception mentioned above). The item in the middle is the underside of one of 4 staircases although these cannot be seen after assembly
The next image (4) shows the lower deck being glued. I used Humbrol Polycement (polystyrene dissolved in solvent) for the plastic parts, and fast Super Glue (Loctite Precision) for the rigging because it sets in about 5 seconds:
[ATTACH]304041[/ATTACH]
Next came the highly detailed fore and after decks not shown here but so far without the masts and their rigging. After trial fitting of all 5 decks on to the hull the instructions say to glue all of them to the hull but I delayed this until the end in case of unforeseen difficulty (none emerged in fact). The edge of the upper deck on the port (left) side next to the front funnel rested slightly above the top edge of the white wall which looked wrong. Therefore I raised the edge of the wall on both sides by adding a narrow strip of polystyrene (image 5):
[ATTACH]304042[/ATTACH]
This was then re-airbrushed in white to match the rest. To protect the rest of the model from spray I used a sheet of polystyrene as a mask (Image 6):
[ATTACH]304043[/ATTACH]
This took some time. This is the second exception.
That is as far as I have got so far and I am having a break of a couple of weeks. Hard work but enjoyable. Its already looking like a very impressive model.
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