1/400 Academy Titanic Build Log

This promises to be an interesting endeavor. I look forward to further posts.

me too

Just a little more progress, as most of the day was spent trying to complete the 1:570. Carved off the poop deck benches with an xacto and drill, and completed the opening of the potholes on the superstructure...

...and carved off the covers of the boat deck crew staircases.

One of the things that is kinda cool about the Academy is that the B, C and Boat Decks have the deck plans molded in.

Spent a few days with the relatives for turkey day, and found this in the mail when I returned...

(Sorry for the bad image - I tried about 6 times and somehow this was the best I could do.)

The 1:400 decking was tough to find for some reason, but I found a source in Australia. (Perhaps I just don't know the right places to look yet?) I've been waiting on really digging in until I had this and all of the photo etch to plan my attack. I was disappointed to to find that the decking assumes everything on the Academy is going to be used as is, so i'll have to deal with the cutouts for the moulded-in benches. anyone have any tips for adding really thin decking lines to the blank wood squares that will be under the benches? 

The drilling out of the moulded portholes is finally done, though I still need to add the missing ones. I carved off the moulded railings on the white fore and aft hull pieces and glued them down. Not sure if I'm going to bother to putty the seams; they are minor and right where the hull changes color; my guess is that it will never be noticed either way.

Test fitting the poop/well deck revealed that it needed to move ever so slightly aft, which was easily solved with a little sanding. A preliminary test fit of the superstructure and A deck, however, showed that the whole middle assembly may have to move backward slightly. I plan on modifying the the superstructure locating pins and removing the locating pins on the foc's'le and poop decks to allow everything to move back and forth a few millimeters when the time comes.

I was debating on whether or not to paint the white portions of the kit until I realized that I am likely to have to putty a number of the superstructure connections, and I'll have to paint the white portion of the well decks and and the docking bridge supports anyway. I'd like to use a dirty white for scale effect, so I guess more quality time with the airbrush is in store...

I noted at the beginning that scratching the missing well deck annexes was way outside my comfort zone, and now I'm wondering why. A precision ruler, a pencil, sheet stock, a sharp knife, glue and about 45 minutes took care of the forward one fairly easily.

Anyone know if there were any doors or other details in the fore annex?

...and built the aft well deck annexes and added the doors...

They will have to be painted and decked (using scrap material from wood deck sheets) before being glued in, as it will be nearly impossible to do either after. I'll probably paint the well decks first, too, to avoid having to mask them off.

Your thoughts on the scale of the grain of the wood decks now you have them in your possession?

I'll have to keep looking at this thread over and over. It's starting to make me want to work on the Titanic enclosed box diorama idea I came up with over 13 years ago. I've got Academy's 1/350 scale kit I bought years ago. I don't even know if that scale of the Titanic is even available anymore. The largest I ever see is 1/400.

Felix - they look very good to me, and they're miles ahead of the overscaled Academy moldings.

Jim - Minicraft still makes the 'definitive' Titanic in 1/350 scale. The Academy is a 'second choice'.

I may have to consider getting the Minicraft kit as well.

Looking around the bench this morning, I realized that the paints have proliferated beyond all reason. When I was building the 1:570, I started with Tamiya in the basic recommended colors, only to replace them with a bunch of Testors, Model Masters and Floquil based on recommendations from Titanic-Model.com. Then I got talked into trying Vallejo at my LHS and was completely won over. And so I replaced them all again. In less than 3 models I went from 0 to over 80 paints. Yikes.

In a related story, the airbrush gives beautiful results, but I still don't enjoy using it. I much prefer hand painting, especially with the Vallejos. This makes me wonder if I should be working in 1:700 scale rather than 1:350/400; it seems that the smaller the scale, the less important it is to have a perfect finish. Working on the Academy and comparing it to the 1:570 Revell, I'm also finding that I'm more impressed with my own work the smaller the scale is.

So, anyway, I've been plugging away at the fore well and poop decks, with following results:

The Artwox decks are beautiful; they really take the model to the next level. I've already bought sets for the next two ships in the stash.

I hand-painted th white and red/brown foreward well deck bulkhead, and the results came out better than expected. The Vallejos really go down very smooth, and I was surprised by how well the 1st coat of  white covered the gray primer. (No, I'm not being paid to advertise! I just really like them. The lack of odor alone is worth the price of admission...) 

I also began assembling some of the boat deck structures, and began the painting of the scratchbuilt annexes. Once I fit a piece of decking scrap, the fore annex can be glued in.

I didn't add any glue to the decking; I'm relying on the adhesive backing and using a pencil eraser to make sure it is firmly attached to the model. Am I asking for trouble? If so, what's the best way to make sure it stays down?

You are off to a great start.Gotta keep an eye on this.

Not long after my last post the Artwox decking I laid down on the fo'c'sle began to peel and I decided I needed a break. I had decided that I really, really hate working with the airbrush - it feels like too much prep and cleanup time - and don't really enjoy anything about it. And I was starting to drive myself crazy with all of the things I felt I should do to the model based on too much time with the rivet counters. I had let my fun little hobby become 'work'.

About a week ago, though, I bought some contact cement on a whim and decended to the bench for the first time in months. After carefully bending the unstuck portions of the deck as much as I could without breaking them, I laid down some cement with a toothpick and everything seems to be holding fine since. Encouraged (and armed with a fresh perspective), I decided to just build the damn thing and do as little - or as much - extra detailing as felt fun, and who cares anyway as there is always going to be lots of people out here who surpass my work by miles.

But no airbrush unless I've no other option. Paint brushes and spray cans...

Pics man! pics!

Well, OK, then - here are the pics...

No real change from last time here except that there is contact cement hiddden beneath the decks.

The aft decks are glued down and the annexes are finished and glued up. Some scrap decking was used on them, but I made no attempt to duplicate the lines around the planks. (How is this usually handled?) The same problem exists with the decking under the benches - it would have been nice if Artwox had done the lines on them so than anyone who chooses to carve the benches off has something a little more realistic to lay down.

Slow going when you've only got about an hour a night. Did some touch-up painting, then added capstans, steam winches and electric winches.

I've since realized that the electric winches are the wrong color (should be dark greeen), so I'll need to repaint them. The capstans also need to be topped in bronze. I've also started to re-aquainting myself with the Rivet Counter guide to be reminded of correct colors and the items I need to scratch.

Brian,

Those Artwox decks look great. I love the effect that it adds. I wish I had read your posts earlier and could have warned you about the adhesive issues. There was a 1:400 build on the Titanic-model website a while back where the builder had issues with humidity and his decks buckled and popped free in places. Ironically, he worked for an adhesive manufacturing  company. I think his solution was the same as yours... contact cement.

I think your welldeck annexes turned out great too. Not too shabby for being your first attempt at scratch-building. My first attempt was the anchor well up in the bow. Not really a huge accomplishment on my part but it proved that a little success can boost all kinds of confidence.

I hear ya when it comes to that airbrush. It always seemed such a waste of time to paint some microscopic part, only to spend the next 20 minutes cleaning up. I was lucky to find rattle can versions of the brand and color I was using for large areas of the model, so my airbrush now only comes out for the custom color mixes.

Keep it up... even if it's only an hour or so a day. I should take that page from your playbook and apply it to my build.

Matt

Thanks for the feedback, Matt - I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who feels that way about the airbrush. I'll be breaking out the rattle cans for the hull this weekend.

I had seen that some had issues with the decks, but somehow I had convinced myself that Artwox had fixed the issue since - not sure why other than just wishful thinking. The contact cement actually spreads with a brush better than expected, and the fact that you can wait 15 minutes after applying it means you don't have to rush.

I had done just a little scratchbuilding with the 1/570 Titanic, and you're right - it did a lot for my confidence to start small and work my way up. Just got the Academy 1/700 Titanic with the Rainbow PE set a few days ago; I'm thinking of doing the well deck mods on that, too...

Update on the build: Spent last night working on the poop deck funnels. Did some 'reverse scraping' with the Xacto on each to remove the seams, then sanded the bells smooth and drilled them out to give some depth. Took about an hour to do all 8...

Not much time at the bench over the last few months. Once the spring began in earnest I had bigger 'models' that needed attention for a while, and then the Encore USS Olympia I've had in the stash began calling to me (I'll start a build log on that soon). Consequently, there's not much progress to report.

Got a few additional foc's'le and well deck details in place and painted the hull both above and below the waterline. I'm still trying to decide how/if I want to do the yellow stripe on the upper hull.

Also added a few details on the poop and aft well deck. Note that the funnels closest to the aft-most cranes need to be cut down to clear the crane booms. Also began the B deck bulkheads and put down a few more sections of decking.

The bulkheads interlock with a little key at each corner, and I'm also mulling that over. They are too fragile to build off the decks and then putty and sand, so I can either deal with them in situ and then paint the whole assembly white before laying the decks or just leave them as is and gamble that they really won't be that visible. Frankly, I'm inclined to the latter - which is probably why I'll always be a middling talent...

The windows are painted and ready to go. Based on what I've read, this is going to be a tedious job! I'm already having trouble reconciling the instructions to the model, so plan on this operation taking another year.

On a more general note, I've decided to change my relationship to my airbrush. I've been approaching the thing with an 'I hate this' mentality - thinking of it as 30 seconds of brushing for each 30 minutes of cleanup. I've made a committment to myself to think of it as an indispensible modeling tool that I'm lucky to have, and to increase my skills with it this year. I plan to occasionally cheat with a rattle can, though.

Hi Brian,

Glad to see you back posting. Everyone needs a break from a beast of a project like this one.

As to your airbrush comment..... I'm with you when it comes to the "love / hate" relationship, but I've come to the realization that we are lucky to have the option of using the airbrush or not. I've read some posts recently where modelers don't have access to an airbrush or lack the funds for one. When I read those, I really feel like a dirtbag for complaining about using my airbrush.....kind of like complaining about your 5 year old car to someone who doesn't have the means to own one. I guess I should just embrace the fact I have one, where others must get by without.

Ok.....enough on that. Those windows are a bear to sort out. The set from Tom's Modelworks comes up short on a few of the windows. Sometimes there are extra 4 pane windows and then there is a shortage of the 6 pane type. It can be very frustrating at first....until things get sorted out. Unfortunately, the PE window guide over on the TRMA site is MIA. For some reason the link is down. But I did find this for you:

titanic-model.com/.../dcboard.php

This is a conversation a couple of us had when we were trying to tackle the window placement. You are going to have to dig out the airbrush again and hit the windows on the top with some white paint (type 4, 8, 17 and 18). Also the top panes of type 5 and type 7 will need to be white as well. Just follow that link above and check the groupings. It will make sense when you see it. Keep trying the Reference Library on TRMA....that link is bound to work sooner or later. I'll dig through my files and see if I can find what you need. If I have it, I'll PM you and email you the pdf file.

Remember, not every window on the ship is represented on the PE sheet (the aft 2nd class library windows are one example.) There are a couple of windows that you'll have to either paint by hand or do like I did and buy a second sheet of windows. There are some windows on the kit that need to be added and the best way (for me, anyway) was to buy a second sheet.

Hope this helps a bit.......

Matt

You're a godsend, Matt - this will be the inspiration I need to start again (just as soon as I need a break from the Olympia project). The link is working, and this will save tons of time sorting everything out. That TRMA site is unbelievable.

Glad that link is working for you. It must be something to do with the tablet I'm viewing from.

The only issue (if I remember correctly) is that the guide uses the Minicraft instructions as a cross-reference. There are scans of the Minicraft instructions linked on the home page of TRMA.

Your brain will want to explode at first..... but then it will all click and make sense. I don't envy you right now. I'm glad my sheet of windows is empty.

Matt