I just finished the Revell 1/570 Titanic model, (with a few modifications). Pictures are posted on: http://www.flickr.com/photos/morepowder/. look under sets to navigate the photos more sequentially. Individual photos follow this post. This is the second scale model I have built and the first that is not a glue bomb. This is my first time airbrushing. I have been fascinated with the Titanic ever since I was a little boy and still find the grand ship mesmerizing, (especially now that I am a mechanical engineering student). I had a lot of fun building this and am excited to continue in the hobby.
Methods and Mods
Construction: This model is thickly molded and has lots of ejector pin marks, some flashing and casting flaws. I had to dewarp the hull halves under warm running water, then glued them together. Next I proceeded to sand and putty as I would an aircraft model until the hull looks like one smooth solid piece. I cut off the forward and aft "bulwark" railings as they looked ugly and left those decks without railings. I also cut out the prow of the ship as it appears in real life. Next I used a small drill bit to drill out some of the portholes. The instructions say to add the side propeller shaft casings last, but I added them at this step so I could fit them to the hull. After the hull I dry fitted the deck pieces and sanded them to fit. I had to replace a flawed steam pipe on one of the funnels with a straight piece of wire.
Painting: I airbrushed the hull with my badger anthem using Tamiya flat red, flat black, and flat white. I had made the mistake of using some of the red to practice airbrushing with, and then alas! The Japanese Tsunami interrupted imports. Next I went with Polly Scale SP Scarlet, and am more pleased with the result anyways. Using differing types of acrylic did not give me too much trouble as I gave ample drying time, however, there were a few spots that cracked and required sanding and painting. Next I shot the deck pieces with tamiya white, along with most of the fittings. I mixed a little of testors light brown with yellow and flat white to make the yellowish-tan pine deck color I was aiming for. I just mixed until "it looked right", using a piece of sprue as a test piece, (I did this for subsequent mixed colors also). I brush painted the decks and details. I mixed some polly scale earth with about twice as much polly scale SP Scarlet for the well decks, masts, and insides of the air vents. I mixed polly scale earth and white in about equal parts with a little reefer yellow and a drop of SP Scarlet to make "White Star Line Buff" To color the funnels. I used testors gloss black for the funnel tops. I used Testors Model Master Flat Black for the rest of the black parts. I used testors light gray for the funnel casings and rooftops, as well as tamiya light gray in one spot. I used testors light brown for the benches and rear docking wheel, and used testors gold for the nautical instruments. I masked the straight lines on the well decks and brush painted up to them. I also laid down tamiya flat black followed by splotches of tamiya silver for the skylights.
Finishing: I used masking tape and a sharpie paint marker to make the hull stripe, using testors gold to touch up. I inserted a piece of clear plastic packaging into the bridge for the windows. I extensively dull coated the hull and decks and then did a light coat on the whole thing after I was finished. the decals were thick and easy to work with, but took a lot of time and Walthers Solvaset to settle down. I left off the thick styrene ratlines and instead threaded black thread to make the outlines of them. I used more thread for the optional radio aerial. For the flags I decaled onto aluminum foil and then cut them out and superglued them onto the masts.
I found this model fairly straight-forward, most of the pieces being thickly molded aided construction. deck painting took some time, including the well decks and steps, as my brush painting isn't that good. Be aware of lots of fitting problems when making this model. I had to use all the rubber bands in the house to hold the hull halves together when I glued them, and also had to rubber band around the hull to squeeze the sides together to hold the decks when I glued them down. I made the display case myself out of acrylic material I got at TAP Plastics.
