Revell 1/700 Titanic - WiP

[HoolioPaulio]

This will be a slow project, and also my first ever maritime build.  I'm building it as a gift for my parents, as they love anything to do with the Titanic.  I plan on taking my time, and doing it to the best of my abilities.

 

 

But I also plan on modding it with extras.  I already have some warm white LEDs, and will be working on a base to house the battery.  So I'll have to line the hull with foil to stop light bleed, and then probably paint some parts aluminium that are fiddly to line with foil, work out how to stop it bleeding out where the deck all join together etc.  Of course, I'm going to have to drill out all the holes in the hull.  I'm aware that Academy did a lit version, but after reading several reviews I decided on the Revell kit being the slightly better of the two.  I gather there isn't much in it, but from what I read the hull is slightly better rendered on the Revell version.

 

I would also like to get the Toms Modelworks RMS Olympic detail sets (#781 and #782) to bring out more detail on the deck.  PE will be another first for me, but I've built plenty of those Metal Earth models so I'm confident about using it.

 

I also contemplated getting a wood effect deck kit, but currently the only one I can find is from China on Ebay, and the seller cancelled my order as they are unable to ship it until further notice.  But I'm wondering whether to skip it, and just paint and wash the deck as is.  I have plenty of time to come up with a long term build plan though, as the base and the holes to be drilled in the hull will keep me busy for a while.

 

I already have the build below book marked (which is what actually inspired me to come up with this project), but if anyone has any tips about maritime building in general, or this specific kit, please feel free to share them in advance of me making any common beginner errors when building ships.  TIA.

 

 

Paul

[HoolioPaulio]

Todays project was to cannibalise an old PS3 controller to utilise the vibration motor and casing to make a little battery powered drill, which I hop will make the drilling of the port holes some what easier.  I originally guessed I might have 150 holes altogether, but looking at it again I reckon there might be more than that per side 

Anyway, as I said, used an old PS3 joypad, and power is supplied by the LED base from an old night light using 3 AAA batteries with a handy on/off switch.  The drill works as well as I'd hoped and is pretty easy to hold.  But before I can test it properly I need my dads plunge drill to hopefully get the holes in the dowel 'chuck' straight, something I just can't do with my cordless drill.  I just love re-using old junk and creating something usable.

 

[JeroenS]

Well well Paul, this should be interesting... Guess I'll follow me a ship build then. 

[HoolioPaulio]

OK, so minor update.  As I want this to be the best my skill level will allow, I'm doing way more thinking than acting at the moment.

 

I did a test drill of one of the port holes with the pin vice.  No where near as painful as some drilling I've done, went through relatively quickly and easy, I assume because all the holes are recessed making those bits thinner already.  This is promising, as I have a feeling I'm going to struggle to get a straight chuck on the battery powered drill, plus I need to use the smallest 0.5mm bit I think, maybe the 0.6 on some holes so not sure how this will work in the dowel.  No idea how I can adapt some dowel to be a suitable chuck for drill bits this small.  Looks like hand drilling is the way here...

 

Also rethinking the lining with foil idea.  I'm not sure I can keep the holes on the inside clean when drilling through the foil, based on how it looked with the test hole.  There was some burring (or whatever the word/phrase is) on the inside, and I found a few light turns with the 1mm drill bit cleared those and left a nice hole.  So I'm going to test the abilities of primers and some alu paint to see how that looks on the bottom of the hull.  See if it stops the light sufficiently, and if so I'll paint the interior instead once the holes are drilled.

 

 

[GrantGoodale]

9 hours ago, HoolioPaulio said:

I'm going to struggle to get a straight chuck on the battery powered drill,

I bought some micro chucks for my Dremel. Got them from Amazon a few years back. An absolute necessity. HTH.

[HoolioPaulio]

5 hours ago, GrantGoodale said:

I bought some micro chucks for my Dremel. Got them from Amazon a few years back. An absolute necessity. HTH.

 

Good shout, the drill is getting a remodel.  Thanks.

 

I did some testing with painting the inside of the hull.  As expected the light grey primer and aluminium combo didn't perform too well, but I wanted to test it anyway

 

The black primer and alu performed spot on

 

Probably even give it an extra coat of primer inside to be safe, and the outside will have a few layers of primer and paint.  With the paint successfully tested, it was time to begin the drilling of port holes.  Doing it by hand is not taking as long as expected, however I have to do it in three stages due to my cheap pin vise bits from Ebay.  The holes are best in 0.6mm I think, but that bit takes forever to drill through (cheap).  The 0.5mm goes through in 5-6 seconds, so its quicker to drill 0.5, then expand to 0.6, then from the back the 1mm bit to tidy it up.

 

Here's the comparison after the holes are cleaned up inside

 

And here's how far I got in about 4 hours on and off throughout the day.  The second row down needs cleaning up inside still, but I got much further by hand than I expected

 

Probably won't be any updates for a while now, I'm not going to post after every row of holes.  I'll check back in when they are done

[JeroenS]

I remember having a job once, in between 2 studies (where the first was left unfinished), where I was at the drill stand for 6 months, drilling holes in various alu profiles. Gosh that was fun! I've drilled enough holes to last me a lifetime. So good luck to you 🙂 

[HoolioPaulio]

I'm slowly making progress with the port holes by hand, as I'm still waiting on the mini chucks to arrive.  The drill is ready to go, if it works (fingers crossed).  I'm doing them in short bursts every few nights, after nearly giving my finger a blister from doing the ones above all in the same day.

 

But back to the actual update.  I ordered the photo etch parts from TomsModelWorks

http://www.tomsmodelworks.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=532

and

http://www.tomsmodelworks.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=533

 

Once the port holes are done I shall be waiting for these to arrive so I can assess the build process, this will be my first PE, and I'm assuming I need to remove some plastic to replace with the PE.

[HoolioPaulio]

Another minor update, the micro chucks have arrived!  And after reversing the polarity, as I never noticed the motors turn anti-clock wise if you use the red wire as positive, they work spot on.  Great control, as the buttons are push to drill, so it only fires up when I'm ready.  Gonna save me some time and a very sore finger  

 

[HoolioPaulio]

Well, I had to upgrade the battery pack for more horsepower in the end (now I'm finally able to test it), but it blasted through the rest of the port holes.

 

Would anyone like to guess how many port hole there actually are on one side, clue my initial guess of 150 was way off.  Have a guess before peaking...

Spoiler

618!  Yes, I checked it twice.

 

[JeroenS]

6 minutes ago, HoolioPaulio said:

 

  Hide contents

618!  Yes, I checked it twice.

 

Oh, what fun that must have been 😉 

[HoolioPaulio]

19 minutes ago, JeroenS said:

Oh, what fun that must have been 😉 

 

Much more fun with the battery drill  

[HoolioPaulio]

Yay!  Told you this would be a slow build, no rushing.  My PE might have finally arrived now my local sorting office is back open (was shut for nearly two weeks due to staff testing positive for Covid), but I still have to sort the display case and base before much more progression can take place.

 

Going to look at getting the hull together and inside painted next, or inside painted and then together.  Not sure which way will be best yet...

[HoolioPaulio]

The hull has had a couple of layers of light grey primer, to try and prevent the black dulling the outside too much, followed by a couple of layers of black primer, then alu colour, and finished with gloss top coat to prevent scratches.  Then the two halves were finally joined together.

 

After that I had to dry fit the first to decks so I could get the masts on as I need to know the dimensions of it when finished so I can order a perspex case and start making the plinth.  Looking rather majestic already.

 

After that I had to solder up the LED lighting for a test run so I can check for areas of light bleed that need attention.  And I have to say, this is when I really got excited about modelling for the first time in a few months, it looks ace.

 

The photo makes the LEDs look quite excessive, but they are pretty much spot on, and there is tons of light bleed out of the top as the decks have no paint yet.  Although the warm white might not be quite warm enough for the period, so I'm toying with the idea of a light coat of clear yellow over the inside of the hull to try and yellow it up a bit.  Or an idea that just came to me, I could make a cover for the LEDs out of plastic milk bottles.  I've done that before for an onboard camera flash, to soften and diffuse the light, and it was very effective.  Then light coats of yellow on those until the desired colour cast is achieved.  That might soften the lighting a little too.  Hmmm, interesting...

[OutcastJoel]

This is looking gorgeous.

I agree that a slightly warmer colour would look even better.

I would be interested to know if painting the inside yellow would work, but I think the thing I would go for would be plastic bottle sides and misted over with a thinned spray of yellow paint.

[HoolioPaulio]

1 hour ago, OutcastJoel said:

This is looking gorgeous.

 

Thanks

 

1 hour ago, OutcastJoel said:

...but I think the thing I would go for would be plastic bottle sides and misted over with a thinned spray of yellow paint.

 

Which is exactly what I went for, well just a brush coat of Tamiya clear yellow on the inside

 

Now you'll have to excuse the horrific image quality, I was rushing at the time doing dinner for the family, and its all packed away now, but you can see the important bit which is the yellow colour cast has worked out very well I think

[HoolioPaulio]

Well, that looks like all the light bleeding has been cleaned up on the hull now.  Had to fit the rudder and side prop pods so they could be sealed from behind too.  Almost ready for paint...

[JeroenS]

That does look quite grand!

[Gimme Shelter]

Nice to see another Titanic being built. I am building the new Trumpeter 1/200 monster which took me 18 hours of porthole drilling out time with the use of a pair of drill jigs which start at 1mm and go up to 4mm in diameter. I've also got the Pontos detailing set which is a beast of detail but worth the extra money. I was tempted to display mine nose down taking on water but decided to do a waterline crossing display instead. In total I've had to buy 22 pots of Mr Hobby paints to cover the Hull and main superstructure making my project well and truly a titanic challenge. Good luck with your build 

[HoolioPaulio]

A minor update on this, its been pretty stagnant due to me running two GB's at the same time, and that I've been waiting for some spare cash for the display case as I want to get the base all sorted with wiring before construction continues.

 

I have primed all the hull and aim to get the three colours down over the next few days.  I have also painted the stand/base plate and applied the "RMS Titanic" decal and top coated (pics to follow).

 

I now have the custom perspex box on order, which was a decent price I think at £34 including shipping.  Its 480Lx160Hx120W (in mm).  Once that arrives I have to source some nice quality 30mm thick wood for the base, which needs to be that deep to house the 9v battery box.  Machine the the space for the battery box out, and a groove for the perspex cover, then stain it.  I'll probably go with a mahogany colour which feels like it fits with the Titanic theme, but still mulling that over so if anyone has other suggestions to consider feel free to shout up.

 

Long term plan is to store it in the display case between building to reduce dust as much as possible.

[HoolioPaulio]

So, the case is a good fit.  The wood under the base plate simulates the expected overlap between the perspex and base

 

I've found colours to be somewhat of a minefield, due to a lack of colour photography during the period of these ships.  So I eventually went with what I thought looked the best of what I found on http://www.titanic-cad-plans.com/color-guide/ which alludes to most people painting the antifouling section of the hull too dark and too red.  Their claims are supported, somewhat loosely by a photo from the wreckage showing the antifouling.  With a lack of evidence, I think anyone who builds a Titanic will have to go with their gut, so here I am

 

As you can see, annoyingly the second layer of tape came unstuck during painting, but while I was doing the bottom of the hull so it went straight up under it in places.  Some of the white will require a respray 😡

 

Following the colour guide, and to be honest as I already theorised, the black will be the same mix I used on the rotors of the Comanche, 5 parts black to 1 part anthracite.

[JeroenS]

That is a pretty decent case, good price for it too. 

[Major_Error]

Really nice project.

Titanic is a wonderful model, and has a dedicated place in history.

I future I will get one in my building queue.

 

I am looking forward to follow you progress!

 

8-)

[Jasper dog]

Looking really good, doing the same kit on and off as we speak, apart from the lighting. 

Do you have any info on the supplier of the case, it looks ideal.

 

Great work

Darryl 

[HoolioPaulio]

2 hours ago, Jasper dog said:

Looking really good, doing the same kit on and off as we speak, apart from the lighting. 

Do you have any info on the supplier of the case, it looks ideal.

 

Great work

Darryl 

 

Thanks.  The case came from Puffin Plastics and they do bases to go with them, but as I need my base 30mm or deeper for the batteries I'm having to source some appropriate wood and machining it myself.