1/570 Titanic Build WIP

More updates this week. I chopped the roofs off of the stairwells as suggested. I've been contemplating how I wanted to handle the skylights over the staircases. At first, I was going to paint the window areas with a metallic blue. I wasn't particularly fond of this idea as it would look fake. So I went ahead with plan B.

Plan B was to ream out the windowed areas with my Dremel. Then I would follow up with files and a knife to finish it up and then use window cement to make new windows. As you can see below, I destroyed the skylights. I was quite upset and gave up for the night. I was contemplating ordering a new boat deck from Revell. But, then I didn't want to have to throw away all my work on this deck. So, I threw around some ideas.

I knew I had some styrene sheets, clear and white, that I had purchased for another model. So, I thought of two options. I could completely cut out the skylights. Then I would either put down clear styrene with white strips for the window frames, or I would use clear styrene and paint the window frames. I went with latter.

Below is the finished result, more or less. I have some touching up to do and I have to add clear styrene under the engine room skylight. I know the glass isn't accurate to the real ship, but it's better than the stock model. I coated the top and underside with Future floor polish.

I can't wait to see how the fishing trawler will look.  The ship remains me of the trawlers where I stationed at in Denmark.  The crews would use these cables anchored in the ocean and pull them onto the beach when not in use.  If you think its a good model, I will put it in my stash.

Time for some more updates. I sprayed the underside of the officer's quarter's roof and glued it on to the boat deck. I used a file and knife and scraped the paint away from the glue joints.

I wasn't happy at all with the wing bridges on this model and I decided to do something about it. As you can see in the picture below, they look like crap.

So....with my handy Dremel and a file, I cut them off!

I don't have much laying around for spare plastic and I wasn't about to buy a pack of styrene for two little pieces, so I decided to recycle and reuse. These number plates were slightly thinner than the half walls on the boat deck, but as long as I lined the outside edge up, nobody will ever notice the diffference inside the wing bridge...not unless they have a magnifying glass.

Glued in place after some filing and fitting.

Ground, filed, and shaped...

I referenced some Titanic photos to see if the rear half wall had the same curve in the metal as the bridge side or it was a 90 degree angle like in the picture above. Alas, both walls have the curve. At first I tried modeling putty but that wasn't looking good, so I cut up another number tag. Good thing I know my model enough not to need them.

Filed down and looking good.

The finished product. I'm very happy with how it turned out. Now it matches the bridge side.

If I ever build another ship with all that white paint,I'm spraying it and going with real wood decking.

Ha ha, TD! I hear you loud and clear there! I'm on coat number 5 at the moment.

It just occurred to me that in the attempt to build and paint this kit as a kid,my absolute loathing of white paint was born.

Thanks, Mark. I'm really trying to make a good model out of it. Revell is really fighting me on this one in regards to quality and accuracy. Most of the 1/570 Titanics I've seen done aren't all that good. I just finished re-fabricating the wing bridges last night. I'll get some pictures up soon.

I just received my PE parts for all my 1/350 scale ships; the Titanic, the Bismarck, and the Lusitania. And PE parts for a 1/400 QM 2. As soon as I opened them and looked at them, my first thought was, "What did I get myself into." I usually work on models to relieve stress, but I think once I get to those ones, I'm going to need some liquid courage and soothing music to get through it.

Very nice work on an Oldie but a Goodie.....Cheers mark

My cup 'o parts.

As I mentioned, I should have sprayed the white sections, then taped off, and sprayed the deck. I tried spraying the white superstructure, but I was getting a lot of overspray. Below are pics of the first coats of white on the superstructure. Another thing that would have helped would have been to primer in white instead of gray.

Some pictures of the two different grays that are used on the bridge roof and funnel bases.

I use Model Master acrylics.Good stuff.

I'll have to remember that, TD! Thanks for the info. The more and more I come across Testors products, the more I hate them. I've given up on their paints (switched to Model Masters. It's Testor made, I know.), their brushes, their glue, their knives, and I'm pretty much done with the tape.

Below is some of the work I did on the well decks. I tried to tape off what I could to get nice clean lines, but some of it was just a pain in the butt.

In the picture above, you can see where I tried airbrushing the superstructure. I was getting overspray everywhere so I gave up on that idea pretty fast. It would have been easier to airbrush the superstructure, then tape it off and do the decks.....next time.

In the picture above, you can see my shotty work with primer. The gritty texture from spraying too far away.

I had brush strokes and runs on top of the hatch cover. Since this is a highly visible part of the model, I wasn't happy with just leaving it, so I sanded it smooth and I'll try again.

Looks like a nice,clean build so far.For future reference,Tamiya tape rarely allows paint to bleed through.Worth its weight in gold.

Here's some of the other parts I've been working on also. I've been using the TRMA (Titanic Research and Modeling Association) website for my color matching. They have a great webpage that not only gives the colors of the Titanic, but also tells you which colors by manufacturer are the closest match and at what ratios to mix them.

I built this kit twice. Once for myself and then years later for a friend. It definitely needed some work to improve it.

The hull is painted up minus the yellow stripe. You can see where I puttied up the hull where the 2 halves come together in front of the center prop. Not my best work, but definitely better than just out of the box.

 Unfortunately, one of the things I should have fixed was the misalignment of the hull halves at the center prop. I wasn't too worried because I consider this model more of a beginner's model for me before i get into the larger, more detailed, serious ones.

A little bleed through where I taped off for the black. And some white overspray to take care of, but otherwise crisp clean lines which is exactly what I like.

To get the waterline, I set the hull on a flat surface, then used a pencil taped on a set of books set at the proper height and just dragged the pencil along the hull. Unfortunately, Revell didn't do such a fine job of porthole placement, so in order for portholes not to be underwater, the Titanic sits a little higher in the water than the actual one did. Maybe she'll miss the iceberg then!

I masked off inside the hull where the well decks are painted.

Masking off for the trim line was nothing short of frustrating. I used Testor's tape for the stern, because it bends without wrinkling. I only wish it was a bit more adhesive as paint tends to bleed through pretty bad.

Not too shabby, eh? I still have a few "bleed thoughs" to fix up, but I'm very happy with the results.

A "classic" photo of Titanic in the "shipyard."

Ah, there we go. :)

Hmmm, where'd my pictures go?