Titanic by kpnuts - Academy Ltd Edition - 1/400 - PLASTIC

[kpnuts]

Hi all thought i would post a build log of my first plastic ship kit in years.

this is how the kit came from The Model Dockyard

After opening the box this is what i got

and withe the sleeve removed 

the box has a real feel of quality about it.

So thats what you get lets get started.

i have decided to light her up so first job is to drill out all those port holes all 806 of them.

i know you cant see it from the photos but trust me all 806 are drilled out 

This is showing the decks after the bit have been removed to have the wooden deck atatched.

 

and this is with the wooden deck atatched(i must say its the first part of the model that has disappointed me i thought the wooden decking was precut but it is not only the outline (and that not very well) ) there is an outline for you to follow but 1 mistake and you have ruined the whole kit since you have already removed parts of the plastic decking ready for the real wood decking.well thats all tonight what do you guys think.

[JeffT]

Great looking kit. Enjoy the build!

[kpnuts]

Some of the PE is so small.

I had fun bending that i can tell you. 

Got a slightly bendy mast here.

Sorted 

[Sailor1234567890]

Nicely done. How do you think you'll go about fixing that slightly bendy mast? Hot water?

[kpnuts]

Yes I was given that tip by jockster on britmodeler

[kpnuts]

Oh well been knocked back several steps my had the foredeck in the box and my missus put the lid on when she was tidying the dinning room. The mast is bent almost at right angles and the pe ratlines on one side look like a consetina don't know how I am going to straighten that out or if I can straighten the mast this time (she says she didn't notice when she put the lid on it must have been difficult to shut it would have thought).i will have to get another set of PE i recon.

[kpnuts]

Hi all its been a little while since i last posted but i lost heart a bit after the last catastrophe, but i am back now.
the window photoetch turned up and i have ordered the led's (still have to get some resistors for them but at least they are ordered).
i have cut out my first window and applied my first PE window


there will be more to follow shortly now i am back i mind to do it.

[kpnuts]

hi just a small update

i have discovered cutting out the windows is best done from the back of the piece,  i did damage the side of one of the windows when i cut it out as they are so small(luckily it don't show now i have stuck the pe on but just to be on the safe side i will cut all the rest from the back).

[kpnuts]

well the led's have arrived, i had to laugh at the size of the box compared to the contents.

So i have lined the insides with foil (with the hopes that it will reflect the light from the led's back and forth then out the portholes thus increasing the brightness and spreading the light more evenly)

[kpnuts]

here are some pics of the led's lit up 

i got the wiring diagram from the Led wizard on line its a free site (sorry dont know how to setup a link to the site) but if you type in led wizard in google it will come up, i have used it for loads of projects and it always comes up with the goods.

[kpnuts]

another small update.

[kpnuts]

Another small update

[HonuJaye]

I will be following your build, as i am considering building the  Titanic Centenary Edition, and installing lights!

 

Great job!

[kpnuts]

Yet another update 

I have realised i will have to cut some of the inner decking out to let the light shine up from the led's as there is no room between the decks to put led lights.

as you can see from the picture of the decks resting on the hull there is no room for led's between the decks so I will have to rely on the light from the led's inside the ship (although once i have cut the inside decks out i may be able to add a couple of extra led's between decks) i wont know that till i cut the decks out.

[kpnuts]

hi all here's tonight's update.

i have cut out the holes in the decks to allow the light to shine up and illuminate the upper decks

and as you can see i think it is going to work quite well.

[Craigie65]

Doing a great job

[kpnuts]

i have made a jig for bending the pe seats as they are so small i made it from the seats i cut out to make room for the pe.

this is how small the seats are

and here is my jig

and with the pe laid on the jig, there is a slight gap between the jig and the piece of plasticard in front so i can drop the pe between the jig and the plasticard then when i bend the pe the front edge gets held in place and gets the little bend where the backs of your knees would be on the full size seat (if you see what i mean its difficult to explain and i dont know how to ring the photo to show what i mean not good with computers)

this is with the seat bent over jig

and here is the seat positioned on ship

[kpnuts]

Hi all sorry its been such a long time since my last post but i sort of lost interest in her for a while for several reasons, 1 the mast got bent again also the pe seats at the stern got bent up as did the railing running around the raised observation area at the back (came home from work to find her on the floor upside down, got there from the back of a unit up against the wall. but no one touched it, it just moved 18" across the unit and on the floor on its own) 2, never used pe before and finding it really hard it is so small 3, and the main reason the pe windows i got from Toms Model Works does not include all the windows, the ones i have done so far (which the kit included) wont even be seen once i put the sides on, the ones that are missing are all on the top decks so could be seen(see pic)

as you can see the tall windows with the arches at the top are not present in the pe kit.

Still all that aside i have decided to build and paint what i have got so if there are no pe windows for the part i will just paint the plastic parts ( its a good job i didnt cut the plastic windows out before i checked the pe which is what i have been doing, i would have been right up the creek without a paddle then).

so here is a pic of the plastic windows painted, i dont think it notices that bad actually.

[kpnuts]

here's another update

[Jase]

Interesting build. I have not seen so much built up on the deck before it is removed from the sprue before.

 

Jase

[kpnuts]

Its just the way i work jase

here is yet another update

[kpnuts]

Here's another update on her so far.

[channell]

Great work so far!

[kpnuts]

Well she is starting to look like Titanic now, still loads to do yet though.

[hexnut]

It's really fun watching this come together. It looks like drilling all of those tiny holes is really paying off with the lighting effect!

[kpnuts]

Thanks hexnut yes I did think maybe I would need some more leds inserted in the top decks but I think cutting the holes in the decking to let the light through seems to have worked quite well.

Edited April 16, 2014 by kpnuts

[kpnuts]

Hi guys well the other night I had a bit of a disaster I was trying to straighten the mast, which had started to bend again and it snapped off Oops said a few choice words which I am sure you can imagine words like umm....... Flipping Heck!! and Oh my gosh!!! that sort of thing.

Anyway today i resolved to cure it .I tried a piece of copper wire but being the same width all the way up it did not look at all right, so i thought about using the end of a paint brush and that worked extremely well. Here is the result, I think if you didn't know it was snapped you wouldn't know.

[kruginmi]

Everything is fair game in the hobby of modeling!  You always view things with a slightly different eye around the house.  Great use of the brush for a great recovery.  Probably ended up being better than the original.

 

Mark

[kpnuts]

Thanks I wish I had done that in the first place, should have known it would just keep bending, trouble was you could not correct it with the rigging as the bend was traveling in the direction the rigging was going

[kpnuts]

Hi all sorry its been so long but I am back on it now  here is where I am now, all the lifeboats are on and a few of the PE crane gantries