Sinking the Titanic
By Derek Barrett
The story of the sinking is so well documented that I will not attempt to describe it
here but go straight into the making of the model.
I normally build armour subjects, but occasionally like to dabble into other types of
model. A local model shop asked me if I would build up a couple of Revell's Titanics for
customers. These were "straight from the box" builds and gave me the idea of
building one up with more detail. While I was making the two models my local club, Milton
Keynes Scale Model Club, hit on the idea of basing the theme for their display at the
Nationals on the movies a couple of years back. Thus the scene was set.
After reading up on the liner, in books and on the Internet, I got hold of another
Revel 1/570 Titanic and started to build (why is it that as soon as you start on a project
something better comes along, in this case the Academy 1/400 kits?).
Having mulled over several possible scenarios, I started by drilling out all the
portholes so that I could put some lights inside. I then glued the two halves of the hull
together and prepared some of the decks and superstructure.
From the earlier models I knew that the best way to tackle it was to do as much
painting as possible before assembly, so I primed the parts with Halfords white plastic
primer. The hull was masked and sprayed with Model Master gloss Black and Guards Red below
the waterline. The white area was left in the primer. The wooden parts of the deck were
sprayed with Humbrol 71 Satin Oak. I assembled the fore and aft decks and the promenade to
give some strength to the hull when I cut it up.
Cutting it open
Now to the tricky part, I tried a few experiments to get an idea of how I wanted to
show the model and decided on the point where the front end was just about to go under.
That way I would be able to complete all of the rigging and also show some of the
lifeboats being launched. I scribed a line from a point about 5mm below the very front end
(excuse my ignorance of nautical terms but I'm an ex army man) and sloping back to a point
just at the end of the bilge keel. I laid a strip of masking tape along the line and
across the bottom on the side that I wanted to keep and carefully cut along the line with
a hacksaw.
To see how the model would look, I cut out a piece of 5mm foam board the size of the
eventual base and played with the positioning until it looked right. Marking along the cut
edge I cut a hole in the board for the hull to sit into. The hull now sat with just the
very tip above the waterline, just what I wanted.
The cut away hull, with the section removed at the back, resting in the
Foam Board base.
"She went down with all lights blazing"
Lighting the interior was going to be tricky, so I bought 4 miniature 6v bulbs and
soldered them to a length of Vero Board (strips of copper foil on a fibre backing used for
electronics experiments).
This was laid on the baseboard and wired up to a 6v transformer. With the room lights
off I could see where the light would shine through. I found that too much light shone
through the paintwork on the hull and through the decks, so I painted most of the interior
with silver paint, just leaving exposed the vertical deck sides so that light shone
through them on to the promenade.
The rest of the kit went together as per the instructions, with the exception that I
cut away the skylights and replaced them with thin plasticard, so that light would shine
through them. I also scratch built a new compass platform, as the kit item is abysmal.
I debated on the virtue of replacing the handrails with etched brass ones, but cost and
time prevailed so I just painted the tops of the rails brown to indicate the wood tops.
As I wanted to show the lifeboats either having been launched or about to be launched,
I made new davits from copper wire.
So much rigging
The most complex part of the construction was the rigging. On the earlier models I had
dispensed with the thread provided in the kit and rigged it with Lycra thread. To take the
strain of the elastic properties I turned new masts from wood (even then one broke and had
to be repaired by drilling it out and inserting some piano wire, bent and fixed to the
inside of the hull to give it rigidity). Aided by a cutaway diagram I found in the library
I started by adding the rigging to the funnels and then on to the main rigging. It is not
until you see pictures that you realise how much rigging was still fitted to a steam ship.
I certainly don't relish the thought of doing a sailing ship this way.
The passengers
Obviously, I needed to add a lot of figures to portray the right scene. I thought about
making them from scratch but soon realised that to produce enough would be a mammoth task
in itself. I found some etched brass ones from the USA but, again, cost prevailed.
Almost by accident, while in my local model shop, I came across the Plastruct
catalogue. Although most of us know them from the plastic sections they make, they
actually produce structures for architectural models in several scales. Among these items
I found some 1/600 figures at about £10 per hundred. I ordered two sets.
When they arrived I found that they were rather flat and in only a small selection of
poses, but when painted up and placed as groups they looked the part. I added patches of
white to represent the lifebelts and stuck them to the decks in fairly random order. Even
200 figures soon disappear and it looks a little sparse in places.
The lifeboats as supplied are only one sided, so I built up the other side with filer.
It would have been nice to make them hollow but that would have entailed trying to vac
form them. As it was I painted the tops matt black and cut some of the figures in half to
populate them. A couple of lifeboats were glued to the hull side and Lycra ropes added, as
well as to the empty lifeboat stations.
A closer view shows a couple of the lifeboats being launched.
Setting the scene
With the model complete, it was time to construct the diorama. As it is to 1/570 scale
and reports at the time suggest that the Titanic was sailing through calm seas, it would
not be proper to model large waves, so I borrowed an idea from one of the club members.
Taking a piece of cooking foil slightly larger then the base, I scrunched it up and them
carefully unfolded and almost flattened it again. This left small ridges to suggest some
ripples in the sea. I sprayed the Foam Board sub base with Photo Mount adhesive and
smoothed the foil over it. When dry I carefully cut out the section where the boat was to
fit and sprayed the base with Humbrol Satin Black. When dry, I lightly went over it with
fine emery paper to reveal some silver at the top of the creases.
The model was glued into the recess and Winsor & Newton Medium Acrylic Texture Gel
was carefully applied along the join between model and base, to represent the foaming
water. Some was also added over the edge and into the forward well deck. The medium is
white when wet but dries almost transparent and gives a realistic water look. When fully
hardened it was dry brushed with white to emphasize the watery effect.
A couple of lifeboats were glued to the base and oars added from stretched sprue.
Icebergs ahead!
To set the scene, I decided to add a couple of icebergs to the base. My wife commented
on my rather puny first attempts, so I started again with some larger 'bergs. These were
roughly carved from a block of polystyrene and built up with plaster. After several
attempts at getting the colour right (a bluish sheen is seen in photos of real icebergs) I
eventually settled on a sampler pot of pale blue emulsion which was given a wash of
diluted blue ink. After fitting in place I added more of the Acrylic medium around the
bases and also in a few places on the bergs. Finally, I added a touch of white artists'
acrylic and blended that round the bases with blue and black artists' acrylic to give the
impression of the bulk of the icebergs below the water.
This view shows some of the rigging around the front end. Being Lycra
it is flexible and allowed one strand to be held out of the way while others were glued in
place. It also shows the Acrylic Medium used to create the foaming water as she sank.
With all that work going on I found that the edge of the foil tended to lift and tear
so I added a border from 5mm wooden strip, which I painted black.
To add a finishing touch I tried an experiment and added some smoke billowing from the
three main funnels. I put some cotton wool in a jar with some black pastel dust and shook
it up. When removed it was teased out and stuck in place. To retain the shape a length of
black painted wire was threaded though the wool. Several people have commented
on how realistic it looks
This frontal view shows the general arrangement of the model, the
icebergs, lifeboats and smoke.
Finished
The final thing was to add a nameplate, scanned from a book title, and a small strip
details what the model represented. The wires from the bulbs were taken to a socket at the
back of the base where another wire could be taken to a 6v lantern battery or a 6v power
pack. It was intended to build a shadow box so that the model could be seen with the
lights on. Another couple of lights with blue filters could give a moonlight effect.
However, time prevented this final stage, as the Nationals grew ever closer and I had
other things to prepare.
Conclusion
This was an interesting model to make. Many lessons were learnt. If I am ever mad
enough to try another one I will use this experience to change some things. But that is
the way of all models, isn't it?
All I can say is that at it has received a very favourable reception
wherever it is shown. I do sometimes put the lights on, but with the ambient light
it is only when I pointed the
lights out to visitors does anyone notice. Perhaps one day I will build the shadow box to
enable it to be seen in its glory.
Update 2008
I had a problem with the lights at ModelKraft so bit the bullet and bought a strip
of 12v LEDs from Maplins. These give a much brighter light and allow them to be
seen clearly at the lighting levels seen at most shows. Her first outing was at
Hinckley in April and she got some very complimentary comments from the
visitors. Unfortunately, one of the masts got damaged on the way home so some
major surgery is required. I also plan to take some new photos to show some of
the details that are not very clear in these old ones. Watch this space,
as they say.
References
I borrowed several books on the Titanic from my local library, one I found particularly
useful was Anatomy of the Titanic by Tom McCluskie, PRC, ISBN: 1 85648 482 3
There are many Internet sites devoted to the Titanic, one devoted to making models
(mainly the 1/350th Revell one) is http://titanic-model.com
Last updated 29 April 2008
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