HMHS Britannic by Kevin - Trumpeter - 1/200 - PLASTIC - from Titanic kit - Started September 2022

[Kevin]

Good evening everyone

 

Welcome to yet another of my builds

 

The build is one of the Titanic’s sister ships, not the Olympic, but the HMHS  Britannic

Britannic (II), yard number 433, was the third Olympic Class ship, and the largest ship ever built for the White Star Line. Britannic is best known as being the sister ship of Olympic and Titanic, and also for her own sinking while serving as a hospital ship in 1916. Prior to her launching Britannic, had also been referred to as Gigantic, although it is uncertain whether or not White Star intended to use the name Gigantic.

In order to construct the Olympic Class liners Harland and Wolff constructed two massive slipways, 840ft by 270ft wide and up to 228ft high. Olympic was constructed on one side and Titanic on the other. Following the launch of both ships, on 30th November 1911, construction work begun on Britannic in the slipway that had been occupied by Olympic.

On 14th April 1912, Titanic collided with an iceberg and sank two hours and forty minutes later with the loss of around 1500 lives. As a result of the disaster it was decided to stop all work on Britannic until a safer design could be created following the Titanic inquiry – in an attempt to ensure that Britannic did not suffer the same fate as her sister, and also probably to increase public confidence in the ship.

When work continued on Britannic, a number of changes had been made to the design, most notably was the addition of lifeboats for all and large gantry davits to support some of them. Britannic also had her watertight double skin extended, a new bulkhead added and her bulkheads made higher.

Witnessed by some 50,000 people, Britannic was launched on Thursday 26th February 1914 at Harland and Wolff, Belfast. It was intended that Britannic would enter service as a passenger liner on the Southampton to New York service; however, World War One would intervene.

On 4th August 1914 Britain declared a state of war. As a result, work on Britannic was slowed down – as priority had to be given to ships involved with war services. On 13th November 1915, Britannic was requisitioned as a hospital ship.

As a hospital ship, Britannic’s duty was to transport wounded soldiers back home. To turn her into a hospital ship, Britannic’s interior was converted into wards, operating theatres…and accommodation for medical equipment and medical staff. So that Britannic could be easily identified as a hospital ship, Britannic was painted white with three large red crosses on each side, a green band going across the ship, and two further crosses on each side which were illuminated at night, this made sure that according to conventions, Britannic could not be legally targeted – providing that she was not used for military purposes other than transporting any wounded persons.

Upon completion Britannic sailed to Liverpool, where she arrived on 12th December 1915, under the command of Captain J Ranson. In Liverpool on 14th December, Britannic was officially commissioned as His Majesties Hospital Ship (HMHS) Britannic and given the identification number G618. Also on that same day Captain Charles A Bartlett took command of her.

On 23rd December 1915 Britannic’s maiden voyage began; she departed Liverpool bound for Naples, where she arrived on 28th December to take on coal and water, following Naples she headed for Mudros, on the Greek island of Lemnos, where she arrived on new year’s eve and took patients onboard. When Britannic left Mudros she sailed straight for Southampton, where she arrived on 9th January 1916. Unlike her younger sister, Titanic, Britannic’s maiden voyage – which had seen her crew celebrate Christmas on board – had been a success.

Britannic completed two more voyages, the first from Southampton (departing on 20th January 1916) to Naples, where the patients were transferred from smaller ships and the second from Southampton (departing on 20th March 1916) to Augusta, where patients were also transferred from other ships.

Due to the failure of the Gallipoli campaign, which had been supplying Britannic with casualties, Britannic was no longer needed, and was laid up at Cowes, Isle of White, UK. On 6th June 1916 Britannic was discharged from her war services, and returned to Belfast, so that she could be made ready for her true intended purpose, as a passenger liner.

Shortly after, due to new campaigns in the Balkans, Britannic was again needed, and was recalled back to war time hospital ship services on 28th August 1916. She departed Cowes on 24th September 1916 bound for Mudros, where she collected her patients from other hospital ships, and arrived home at Southampton on 11th October 1916.

Britannic made one more successful voyage, departing Southampton on 20th October 1916, for Mudros. On this voyage Britannic had been given permission to transport over 480 extra medical personal and tons of medical supplies that were destined for Egypt, Malta Salonika, India and Mesopotamia. Britannic arrived at her Southampton home on 6th November 1916.

Under the command of Captain Bartlett, Britannic’s sixth and final voyage started from Southampton on Sunday 12th November 1916. From Southampton she sailed to Naples, where she arrived on Friday 17th November for the loading of coal and water; Britannic was supposed to leave Naples the next day, but a storm had prevented her leaving until Sunday afternoon.

On the morning of Tuesday 21st November 1916, at 8.12am, Britannic was sailing in calm waters through the Kea Channel, when suddenly she was rocked by a massive explosion originating from her starboard side. The damage to the ship was serious, with watertight compartments flooding and bulkheads damaged. The situation was made even worse by the fact that many of the ships portholes had been left open – perhaps sealing Britannic’s fate.

It was not long before a distress signal was sent and the order given to prepare the lifeboats. In an attempt to save the ship Captain Bartlett attempted to beach the ship on shores of Kea. Without orders, two lifeboats had been lowered; in one of them was Violet Jessop, who had survived the Titanic disaster; once in the water these boats were sucked towards Britannic propellers, which where almost out of the water – resulting in devastation as boats and people were drawn towards them. Violet jumped out of the boat and despite hitting her head twice on something solid while struggling under water was able to get to the surface and survive the disaster.

Soon after, Captain Bartlett ordered the engines to be stopped and at 8.35am he gave the order to abandon ship. At 9am the Captain give the last abandon ship order by sounding the ships whistle, and he then walked off the flooding bridge into the sea, where he swam to a lifeboat.

At 9.07am, 55 minutes after the explosion, Britannic slipped beneath the waves. The cause of the explosion is now widely believed to have been a mine. Of the 1066 people onboard, 30 lost their lives.

The wreck of Britannic was found by Jacques Cousteau in 1975 – in a relatively intact state, lying on her starboard side. Britannic is now the largest passenger liner fully submerged on the ocean floor;the only other passenger ship bigger than her lying on the sea bed being the Costa Concordia, which sank in 2012, but will eventually be raised.

[yvesvidal]

Super idea. I have been hoping that someone would attempt that magnificent kit.

Changing it to Britannic, is also a great idea.

 

Yves

Edited September 2, 2022 by yvesvidal

[Kevin]

this is what i am aiming for, looks so different to Titanic those cranes dont do her looks justice 

[Kevin]

appologies to anyone who has read all my previous messages about not wanting to do 1/200 scale, this is possibly the biggest scale liner i can afford/home her she is compared to the 1/84 Amerigo Vespucci

 

[Kevin]

anyway i got carried away

 

here are some of the kit contents

Edited September 2, 2022 by Kevin

[Kevin]

the KA MK!  upgrade set goes on forever, 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 2, 2022 by Kevin

[Old Collingwood]

This is going to be so  Cooool   - and just look at them 1/200  figures  Wow.

 

OC.

[hof00]

Very nice indeed!!

 

Cheers....HOF.

[Canute]

Lots of PE, resin and 3D in that. I'm in on this one.

[Kevin]

1 hour ago, Canute said:

Lots of PE, resin and 3D in that. I'm in on this one.

enjoy the ride Ken

[Kevin]

16 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

This is going to be so  Cooool   - and just look at them 1/200  figures  Wow.

 

OC.

i might just leave some paint out and see if they paint themselves

[Kevin]

good evening everyone

 

day 1 hull - portholes

 

i dont quite know how many portholes there are, but they seam to be taking a while to do. i was originally going to do them by pin vice, my hands were never going to manage that, so the electric variable speed power drill came into use, the pin vice was put into the chuck for the very small size drill bits

 

i may have undersized the holes by using 0.6, 1mm, 1.5 and 2mm

i placed a white led in the hull to see what effect im going to get and quite happy with the result

 

 

although not ready for this the kit i purchased from a friend also had a set of internal bulkheads to keep the shape right 

made the stand up, wrong name of course

Edited September 3, 2022 by Kevin

[Kevin]

good afternoon everyone

 

Day 2 portholes

 

im so glad im not doing these by pin vice, but i am using a lot of 0.5mm drill bits  with the pin vice in my power drill chuck, the drill has seen better days, the brearing creates a wobble at the drill bit end, 

[yvesvidal]

1 hour ago, Kevin said:

 

This is starting to look very realistic. Also, it seems that between the parts supplied in the Trumpeter Kit and the PE add/on kit, you may have enough life boats to represent Britannic, correctly. This is a massive endeavor and I will be following your progress with awe and respect, Kevin.

 

Yves

[Kevin]

51 minutes ago, yvesvidal said:

 

This is starting to look very realistic. Also, it seems that between the parts supplied in the Trumpeter Kit and the PE add/on kit, you may have enough life boats to represent Britannic, correctly. This is a massive endeavor and I will be following your progress with awe and respect, Kevin.

 

Yves

the lighting being used is my winter dog walking beenie hat light, they are usefull for this at present

[Kevin]

good evening everyone

thank you for comments and likes

 

Day 4 Portholes, clearing raised detal prior to photoetch

thought the portholes would have been finished by now, but i have now run oput of .7mm drill bits

spent yesterday clearing the raised detail on all deck parts and filling in where stated in the KAMK1 instructions

this evening just place the hull parts on top to see the effect

hull work will not leap forward as my books of reference are in the post, with a mail strike

 

new drill

 

much easier than what i was using

 

[Kevin]

good evening everyone

than you for comments and likes

day 5 port side port holes done, another couple hudred left to do, trying to sort internal hull lighting

 

really pleased with myself completing the 0.6mm port holes, then i went and sanded the hull internally to get rid of the swarf, and it filled a lot of them in again, oh hum

internal of the hull has been primed in a Halfords yellow primer, 

made a frame for the internal leds attached to the bulkhead frames, but once the decks either end are in place i wont be able to remove it, so i may adapt it to 3 sections and actually secure the fwd and after sections with a removable midships sections, another 2 strips at least are required as well

the light gap between the top superstructure and the hull is caused by a few locating lugs,  the internal bulkheads which are not part of the kit  cause it to sit to high, not any more as i cut them off

 

hull primed

wooden frame attached to the internal bulkheads, allows it to be removeable for now

this light gap has now been eliminated, locating lugs were being hampered by the internal bulkheads

this with just two strips, another two planned

 

Edited September 7, 2022 by Kevin

[hof00]

Hi Kevin,

Very nice!!

 

LED Strip Lighting is definitely the way to go!! 🙂

Are you planning the same for the superstructure?

 

Cheers and Regards,

 

Harry.

[Kevin]

5 hours ago, hof00 said:

Hi Kevin,

Very nice!!

 

LED Strip Lighting is definitely the way to go!! 🙂

Are you planning the same for the superstructure?

 

Cheers and Regards,

 

Harry.

yes i will be doing everywhere, including funnel floods

[Canute]

Super job, Kevin. The lighting effects make this pop.

[yvesvidal]

18 hours ago, Kevin said:

Kevin, excellent idea to paint the inside of the hull in yellow primer instead of black: It gives that nice warm light, instead of the modern blueish color obtained with LEDs. This Britannic is going to be Titanic.... 🙂

 

Yves

[Kevin]

2 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

Kevin, excellent idea to paint the inside of the hull in yellow primer instead of black: It gives that nice warm light, instead of the modern blueish color obtained with LEDs. This Britannic is going to be Titanic.... 🙂

 

Yves

thank you it would be nice to say i built something i like

[Kevin]

good afternoon everyone

 

Been a very strange couple of days here in the UK, with everything going on, European war, a fuel crisis, change of government and the the desth of out beloved Queen Elizabith II, but with the BBC news on in the background, to enable keeping up with events my builds carry on 

 

day 7 portholes complete and hull lighting sorted

 

 

[scrubbyj427]

Looks good Kevin, this is a great project, you don’t see many HMHS Britannic models. I’ve been very tempted to do an Olympic 1911 with this kit.

Are you planing  to do all the modifications to her promenade deck windows as well as B deck? I wonder if the aftermarket has anything to offer yet. Britannic was quite different  from her two sisters 

[Kevin]

16 minutes ago, scrubbyj427 said:

Looks good Kevin, this is a great project, you don’t see many HMHS Britannic models. I’ve been very tempted to do an Olympic 1911 with this kit.

Are you planing  to do all the modifications to her promenade deck windows as well as B deck? I wonder if the aftermarket has anything to offer yet. Britannic was quite different  from her two sisters 

good afternoon, im not sure i will mess to much with the windows, but im not 100 sure what is involved, i will enclose the after well deck, and purchase the 5 crane sets from Shapeways, i may even splash out for the stern plate set, or attempt my own, other than that i could spend at least £1000 on upgrade sets which in all honesty will never been seen, the world needs vessels that are 100% correct, i personally dont know anyone who will ever see this build when complete (aprt from the wife) oh and me boi, but his social media friends are the same as mine 

here he is telling me what to say to @chris watton

[Kevin]

just put the build to bed for tonight, but got a slightly better photo of her with full hull lighting

[clearway]

Psst kevin i highly recommend a dremel with the chuck extension lead/cable (best purchase i ever made and sooooooooooo sexy) you end up with a very light and handy to use ergonomic hand held sleeve with a chuck on the end while the dremel itself is held up either in a stand or hanging from a hook😜

 

Keith

 

[Kevin]

i will most likely return the Bosch, it has not met my expectations, i never expected any play in the head, made worse by the loose hex shank mini chuck in the attachment holder,

[Kevin]

good evening everyone

thank you for comments and likes

day 8

 

after completing the portholes, i then redid them from the other side to clear the swarf, and then reprimed

a cheap shelf unit, will be the main stand,

holes drilled in the keel and base to keep her in place, and power outlet,  the nuts inside the hull are permanently  fixed with two part expoy

the main deck is now also inits final position and fixed

the forcastle will be the next part, after i have sorted the power run

Edited September 10, 2022 by Kevin

[Kevin]

good afternoon everyone

thank you for comments and like

 

day 9 after well deck

Britannic had lots of changes made to her, as a result of the titanic loss,, the after well deck was one of them

it was decided that 3rd class passengers needed somewhere to smoke and protected from the elements

to achieve this they removed the hatched to the after cargo holds (but at present i dont know where to)

Edited September 11, 2022 by Kevin