RMS Titanic by Louie da fly - FINISHED - ~1:700 - solid-hull waterline model - my first commission

[Louie da fly]

The title says it all. For the first time someone has asked me to make a model ship and is willing to pay cash money. Only a pittance, pin money, really - $200. But no worries, I'm not doing it for the money but for the experience and challenge. Second "modern" ship - the first was HMVS Cerberus - see build log 

 

This time it's the Titanic This is also a Men's Shed project, but this time I'll be paying only a percentage of the price to them (for use of facilities and materials), the rest for pin money, as I was directly commissioned to build it. A young guy I met has a girlfriend who's a total Titanic freak and he had the idea that a model of the ship would be a nice Chrissy present for her. And I'm happy to oblige. However, it has meant the Couta boat has had to go on the back burner for a while. It's nearly finished - the sails are cut out, but I have to sew (or get someone far more experienced to sew) them, add them to the gaff and boom and add the rigging. I'll get around to it whenever.

 

There are plans and photos on the Net of the original ship - not terribly good, but adequate for a $200 model, which will be 380mm (1'3") long.

 

The first thing I hadn't realised until I downloaded these was how long and narrow the ship was! Took me totally by surprise. Here are the plans I'm working from.

 

So, off I went cutting out wood and layering the decks - only to find that in my main source of info - the two sets of deck plans - two of the deck layouts showed not only the deck itself, but the superstructure between it and the deck above. So I'd missed out two entire decks - the superstructure was two decks too low.

 

 

   

 

Annoying, as I'd put a lot of work getting that beautiful stern right. But as I'd glued it all together very securely before I realised my mistake, there was no way of pulling it apart and adding the extra structures. So I had to start all over again, but at least this meant I could correct a couple of other errors I'd become aware of caused by the inaccuracy and imprecision of the plans. 

 

So here we go again, this time with the extra outlines.

 

Watch this space.

 

Steven

 

PS: If anybody can let me know the maximum and minimum diameters of the (oval section) funnels, I'd be very grateful.

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[hof00]

Very nice!!

It sounds like you are building this for a very good cause indeed!! 😞

 

Cheers....HOF.

[Louie da fly]

Oops. Further perusal of the plans has made it clear to me that I still hadn't fully understood them. In fact the superstructure is only a little too low, but the structures between need to be looked at more carefully. Which I'll do tomorrow.

[Jim Lad]

If you can calculate the scale of your arrangement plans you have the funnel size, mate, as you have both side and front views.

 

john

[Louie da fly]

Hmm, good point. Different drawings in different scales, but could be reduced to lowest common denominator. As Young Frankenstein said - IT --- COULD --- WORK!

[Louie da fly]

This thing is really doing my head in. Oh, for simple mediaeval models with only one or two decks visible! I'm still trying to reconcile the deck plans with how everything is configured in three dimensions, and it doesn't help that the plans I have don't agree with each other, or that due to inaccuracies in the printing process the deck plans in a given drawing don't line up with each other properly (sigh).

 

Anyhow, I'm still continuing with the two versions - the first one is definitely wrong (for a given level of 'wrong'), but should be able to be completed and sold separately from the one I was commissioned to make. It's all solid. The other (foreground) will show the promenade decks, which need to be made separately and added as separate (very thin) layers. The line of dark wood at the top of this one will be hidden by layers above it, so I'm not bothered about it.

Here they are with what I'd fondly supposed was the superstructure above the boat deck (top deck) but now turns out to be the First Class promenade deck. I've just discovered that the boat deck is yet another deck at the top I hadn't realised existed, and which I now have to make, along with its superstructure.

First ("solid") version.

Second ("decked") version.

I've been trying to keep the promenade decks as thin as possible so the ship doesn't get too tall, but as you can see, there's a limit to how thin they can be made - one of them now has a 'wave' in it and will need to  be replaced with a new one. These are of course dry fitted. I'm not going to use glue until I'm much more sure I've got it right.

Nonetheless, I'm (slowly) making progress in getting it all sorted out. All good. She'll be right. But I have yet to figure out how to make the pierced "bulwarks" that run along the edges of the promenade decks.

 

Steven

 

Edited November 10, 2023 by Louie da fly

[GrandpaPhil]

Have you thought about thin card for the bulwarks?

[Louie da fly]

I hadn't but it's a very good idea. I really don't think wood would be suitable - it splits too easily - but card might do the job. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

Steven

Edited November 11, 2023 by Louie da fly

[Baker]

Or thin plastic sheet for the bulwarks ?

[Louie da fly]

Yeah, I thought of that, but there would probably be gluing problems (I haven't used plastic sheet before) so I think card would probably be more suitable.

 

Here are the hull and deck and intermediate (tweendecks) structures so far.

The decks themselves I made from thin sheets of walnut but unfortunately they have "cupped" and I had to resign myself to heat straightening them. Then I remembered I'd been given some very thin sheets of (maple?) from cigar boxes. Nice and flat, so I'll be using them instead.

Steven

Edited November 13, 2023 by Louie da fly

[GrandpaPhil]

For best effect, make sure you seal the card on both sides prior to cutting.  

 

It prevents fuzzing and splitting/delaminating of the card.

 

Sealing card parts is especially important for smaller and high detail pieces.

Edited November 14, 2023 by GrandpaPhil

[Jim Lad]

Just back from a few days away, Steven. She's coming along very nicely.

 

John

[Louie da fly]

3 hours ago, GrandpaPhil said:

make sure you seal the card on both sides prior to cutting.  

Thanks. How is that done?

 

Steven

[Wawona59]

Hi Steven,

Your Titanic model is coming along nicely.  With regard to the issues you have had with warping wood, I wonder if a more stable material would work better.  It would not be good if the decks warped AFTER you delivered the finished model to your client.  As suggested earlier, styrene sheet would be a good option for this application.  It's easy to cut and work with.  After scoring the sheet a few times with a No. 11 blade and a ruler it will break cleanly along the scored line when bent by hand.  Since styrene and wood are dissimilar materials, they can be glued together using CA.

 

I wish you all the best and success in your project.

Edited November 14, 2023 by Wawona59

[GrandpaPhil]

I’ve been brush painting that (or equivalent) onto one side, letting it dry, then brush painting it onto the other side.

 

It works quite well and can be adhered to with standard PVA or wood glue.

 

Plus it holds rivet detail.  That’s how I’ve been making my iron parts for my models.

[Louie da fly]

Change of plan. The decks are to be made of card, and apart from areas where they are open underneath, each will be supported by a layer of sheet wood, as thick as the distance between the decks. And the windows/portholes/whatever between decks will be cut into card and glued onto the sides of these layers of wood. The edges of the layers painted black, to suggest empty space behind the openings.

 

Though I'm thankful to Grandpa Phil for suggesting clear primer, I decided to go with white enamel instead, so all the "white" bits will match in colour.

 

I did a test piece first: The enamel (Revell tiny tin) turned out to do the same job of stiffening as the primer probably does - nice clean cuts. Reverse side with the openings marked out in pencil:

And the "face" side:

Here are the first two pieces:

 

And all the components:

Hull painted black, and the edges of the "tweendecks" structures painted white where they can be seen (except at the break of the forecastle - I'm going to try gluing card onto that face and see how that turns out. Note that the forecastle and poop actually weren't that high - the extra height was made up by bulwarks, but I've oversimplified the build (also I hadn't realised about the bulwarks till too late ).

A little tidying up needing to be done, but overall I'm pretty happy with how it's going now.

 

Oh, and the funnels (started with dowel and shaved it down to oval shape).  Paint drying. Once that's complete I'll paint the characteristic black "hoops" at the top.

 

 

Steven

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Javelin]

Coming along nicely. Very sharp cutting of all those tiny holes!

[Louie da fly]

Thanks everybody for the likes, and Javelin for the comment. Brand-new No. 11 blade in a craft knife.

 

Steven

[Roger Pellett]

Steven-  You’re doing a great job!  Your customer should be pleased.  In addition you should qualify for the MSW Time Traveler Award.  San Marco Ship- Titanic 800+- years apart.

[Louie da fly]

On 11/21/2023 at 4:25 AM, Roger Pellett said:

 Your customer should be pleased.

They'd better be! Much more work in this model than $200 worth!

 

On 11/21/2023 at 4:25 AM, Roger Pellett said:

 In addition you should qualify for the MSW Time Traveler Award.  San Marco Ship- Titanic 800+- years apart.

Oh, no. Woodrat beats me hands down. From 1600 B.C.E. Mycenaean galley to 1440 C.E. carrack/nao - that's over 3000 years - still more if we include his 18th century Gros Ventre. But I think I can claim the widest chronological gap for two builds going on simultaneously.

 

Steven

[Louie da fly]

Still waffling around on this build. Not the way I usually work - normally I'd spend a lot of time researching and getting everything worked out before I started building, but with a deadline - and over-confidence - how hard could it be? (famous last words) I rushed in before I had everything sorted out and made even more mistakes than usual, which is why I've ended up with two versions, neither of which I'm terribly happy with.

 

So - here's version two, with card for the decks so the promenade decks can be seen through the "side walls". Painted and with filler to hide some problems - with a fault in the timber and with the shape of the stern.

Funnels made and painted.

Card decks

At which point I got hold of another, better side view of the ship which I blew up to 1:1 with the model and discovered I'd added a top deck which didn't exist. Plus the card was very fragile and bent when I looked at it. 

 

I've gone back to version 1, and I'm afraid the client will have to be happy with what he gets - I doubt that anyway he and his girlfriend will see the inaccuracies it took me all this time to notice. (BTW those things at the bottom of the pic are the lifeboats).

 

I think it won't be long before it's all complete. I don't think in future I'm going to accept commissions for ships I'm completely unfamiliar with, and certainly not with a built-in deadline.

 

Steven

Edited December 3, 2023 by Louie da fly

[Louie da fly]

Well, now that it's (almost) finished I'm feeling rather better about the Titanic.

 

I made strips out of card and cut the openings, portholes etc along the bulwarks and promenade decks into them. Not perfect, but hey, they're pretty small . . .

 

Started gluing the strips along the sides:

Actually starting to look quite good. Now for the superstructure for the boat deck, the funnels and masts. Tilted at 5 degrees from the vertical - fortunately my drill press has a swivelling bed.

 

Just need to add some guy wires for the masts and she's done. Oh, and wax the raw edges of the base so it doesn't look so freshly cut. Turned out rather better than I'd feared. I think the client (and his girlfriend) will be happy with it.

 

Steven

Edited December 6, 2023 by Louie da fly

[Jim Lad]

Your 'yet another 'Titanic' is looking first class, Steven.

 

John

[Louie da fly]

Thanks everybody for the likes and comments (and 'Wows!')

 

Guy wires added - and she's done - finished - complete.

Steven

[Baker]

congratulations.
Nicely done. Your customer will certainly be happy with this model 

[GrandpaPhil]

Congratulations!  Nicely done!

[Louie da fly]

The client took delivery of the model yesterday. Very happy with it. I didn't think to take a photo of him holding it, unfortunately.

 

Steven

[KeithAug]

Lovely little model Steven.