See the DOCKING BRIDGE section (Item 21) on how to make these. One was located on the center aft side of the docking bridge. Another was centered behind the bow anchor crane just forward of the chain hatch and stay. Bruce Beveridge has pointed out a third located just forward of the #1 hatch by the steam valves on the forecastle.

REELS

The "box" sat on the starboard forward corner of the aft Boat Deck's 2nd class entrance behind the raised smoke room roof. We have not heard any definite conclusions as to what purpose of this "box" shaped object served but we know for certain that it existed. See any uncropped version of the starboard Cork Examiner photograph. Make one from plastic stock, using a section of sprue tree sanded into a square shape. Cut this to a length of 3mm. This "box" sat on a raised base and was not flush to the planking, so make a tiny base from a cross section of sprue. Glue the stand to the deck in the proper location and then glue the "box" on to the top of it. A conduit can be seen running from the base of the "box" down to the deck planking. Use a length of pulled sprue to simulate this. For the lid/cover on top of the "box" cut a square of sheet plastic slightly larger than the perimeter of the "box" and glue into place. Paint the lid light gray and the "box" and conduit flat white.

BEADING

There was a brown 'beading' along the edge of the roof along the back of the Boat deck, A and B decks, the officer's deckhouse, Gym, and bridge.

Simulate this by gluing 4lb fishing line along the Evergreen strips roughly in the center. Paint it brown with a thin tipped brush -dragged- along the fishing line 'beading'. You may want to paint the line first before gluing but the glue can bother the paint when trying to place. We found it easier to just load the brush with minute amounts of paint and drag it along at an even pace and pressure.

EXPANSION JOINTS

One method is to cut a strip of masking tape 1mm wide with a straight edge and sharp hobby knife. While still stuck to the table paint it flat military brown or leather. Then pull it up from the table and cut it to a length. It needs to be long enough to go from the port bulkhead, across the deck, up the Officer's Quarters walls, over the roof, then down the starboard wall, across the deck to the starboard bulkhead.

This was repeated for the aft expansion joint measuring it along the planking from one side of the superstructure to the other.

Then drybrush a line down the outside edge of the superstructure and B deck to simulate the joint, again using the brown. It should be more pronounced on the starboard side because the port side was dressed up for the public before launch having faced the crowd at Southampton.

Brown India Ink and a small ruler may also work but we have not tried this ourselves. Another idea is to run a nail file on its edge across the roof, walls, and planking to create a slightly recessed line for a more 3-dimensional effect.

HANDRAILS & RAILINGS

Item 1 (improving the bulkhead handrail caps).

To simulate the handrail caps seen along the Bridge/Wingcab bulkheads and bulwarks down each side of the superstructure on A and B decks, glue Evergreen sheet plastic strips onto the tops of the bulkheads/bulwarks. Paint them brown .

Though this step is not really necessary we found it gave a better overall appearance to the bulwarks.

Item 2 (improving the deckhouse handrails).

Use the following guide for the hand rails...

1. Boat Deck: All rails on the Boat deck deckhouses were white.
2. A Deck: All handrails were brown on except for those around the Palm Court. One of the best ways of doing these rails is to use a brown waterproof fine tipped marker pen and a straight edge like a metal ruler.
3. B Deck: All handrails were brown.

Item 3 (Railing kickstrips).

All of the railings except some on the deckhouse roofs had a kick board at their base. This includes the railings on the forecastle and the poop deck.

Glue K1 Evergreen plastic strips on their side to simulate these. The kickstrips will aid tremendously in attaching the brass Gold Medal Models or Tom's Modelworks photoetched railings as it gives them something to "bite" against. Paint white. It also gives the deckhouse a nice clean edge.

Measure and cut them to the lengths you need and apply them with model glue. These were also applied to the bow facing poop deck/aft well deck bulkhead (above #6 hatch) and to the forecastle/well deck bulkhead. Make sure to leave the openings for the stairways on both.

• Note: Both GMM and Tom's railings have this kick strip built into the railings. It is up to the modeler if they wish to add the K1 kick strip to assist in gluing the rails into position.

Item 4 (No 4 Funnel deckhouse/vent safety rail). Add a panel of safety railing between the vents and deckhouse bulkheads. Make this from spare panels of brass photo etched railings and paint them white when glued into place. If you are using Tom's misc set a good substitute are the spare parts for the forward anchor well grate.

Item 5 (No 1 Funnel safety rail).

There were seven poles along each side of the No1 Funnel with a safety line strung between them. See page 44 of Exploring The Titanic for their location. Create these from micro rod or pulled sprue and string 4lb test line between them.

Paint the poles white and the line light gray.

Item 6 (Boat Deck class divider railings).

For the Boat Deck class divider rails use left over Lusitania rails from the GMM Merchant Marine Titanic/Lusitania kit.

To make a `class area divider' take a span of 6 bar railing and cut to create a three bar railing with a gate.

Remove the top rail where the gate will go while keeping the rest intact. Then remove EVERY OTHER rail segment down each panel until the bottom is reached. This will leave a bottom rail for the gate while the other sections will have single posts. Apply CA glue to the bottom of the gate rail and down one outside post and glue it to a deckhouse wall and deck floor planking. Then once secure, tack the rest down using a pin point for gluing to keep glue marks on the deck to an absolute minimum.

 

Keep the rails you had removed for they will be of use with the next specialty item.

Item 7 (Tank Room railings).

There was a railing/catwalk along the top of the Tank room roof. Pictures of the Olympic show them with the tank room covers resting in an upright position against them.

Make these out of spare GMM or Tom's Modelworks "1-bar" brass photoetched railings. If you have no 1-bar left you can use others but make sure to trim the interior rails off leaving only the top and bottom rail. Photos of the Titanic's show that there were four panels down each side and one panel at either end, totaling 10 panels. Due to the scale of the railings when compared to the model part you can actually fit 5 panels down the sides of the catwalk but to be historically accurate you should only have four! If you jockey them around and be generous with the end panel bends the four will fit and look pleasing enough to the eye.

After you bend the panels to the 1,4,1,4 configuration join the open corners together with CA glue and then glue it to the tank room. Paint the railing white.

STORAGE BOXES

According to Titanic and Olympic diagrams it appears as though there were storage boxes spread around the Boat Deck and A-Deck forward.

Make a small box from plastic stock sand into a rectangular shape, then glue it into the recessed corner of the starboard wing cab aft bulwark.

Outboard of this box was another more trunk like box. This is thought to have stored the falls for the lifeboats. Mirror this trunk on the port side aft wing cab bulwark.

In the corners of the A-deck forward open promenade appear to be small boxes. These were thought to store the sounding cables when they were not in use. As before, fashion these from plastic stock sanded into a rectangular shape no higher than 50% of the height of the bulwarks. Glue them all into place and painted them with Model Master Leather to simulate a darker wood.

In the corners of the aft end of the Officer's deckhouse where it joins with the wider Grand Staircase foyer deckhouse you will see knee wings along the roof line rather than a tight right angle. These can be seen in the wreck mosaic in the October 1987 National Geographic or Robert Ballard's "Discovery Of The Titanic". Construct these knee "wings" from sheet plastic and glue them into place. Remember though the officer's deckhouse roof line and the Grand Staircase roof line are NOT the same height so the aft end of the wing sits on the foyer bulkhead.

OFFICER'S QUARTERS ROOF OVER MARCONI ROOM

Use the following diagram as a reference.

Item 1 (skylight orientation)

It is now believed that the apex of the gables for both skylights ran bow stern not one bow/stern and one port/starboard.

To read Bruce Beveridge's good argument on the placement and orientation of the skylights visit the Titanic Picture Palace.

Item 2 (position of marconi antenna pole)

Refer to the Ken Marschall painting of the bridge on page 81 of Titanic - An Illustrated History in the top left hand corner and the painting of the wreck on page 133 of Ballard's Discovery of the Titanic.

The Marconi pole on the wreck is in the wrong place. A small mushroom vent should be in this location (see Item 3). The antenna pole was further inboard. Cut a small square of thin sheet plastic (approx. 2mm x 2mm), paint this white and glue it to the location indicated on the diagram. Then drill a hole through this plate and the deck the same diameter as the new pole.

Construct a new pole from plastic scraps from the sprue tree (1mm diameter sprue x 2mm high). Next drill a small hole through the pole near the top so you can insert the marconi cables when your doing the rigging. Glue into position thorough the base plate on the deckhouse roof.

Paint white.

Item 3 (mushroom vent)

Create a small mushroom vent by drilling down the centre of a 1.5 dia piece of sprue with a 1mm drill bit. Then glue a 1mm piece of sprue into the hole you just drilled. Allow to dry. Trim the larger diameter sprue to about 1mm, this will become the head of the vent. Trim the narrow section to about 4mm.

Paint white.

Remove the old Marconi pole and sand the deck to remove any damage. Then drill a 1mm hole in the center where the old Marconi Pole sat.

Glue the mushroom vent into deck so that the top sits about 1.5 mm above the deck level.

Item 4 (skylight)

There was small skylight slightly forward and starboard of this vent. See SKYLIGHTS section for information.

In the corners of the raised roofs of the lounge, reading/writing room and the smoke room are drain holes. Add them as you did the window clips and circular sill objects. Dip thinly pulled sprue into black paint and touch the corners. Refer to Illustrated History (page 42, 103, etc.). If you wish a more 3-d relief version, heat a pin and press the tip into the plastic. This should create a hole and plastic lip which simulates quite closely the drainholes seen in the photos. We recommend that you practice this technique on scrap plastic first so you know how much pressure to apply to achieve a good result.

1st CLASS LOUNGE ROOF

Roy Mengot points out in his Guide, the Titanic had a roof over the alcove between the two bay windows on both the port and starboard sides. Make the little roof inserts out of sheet plastic and drill a small opening for the vent duct work (of G16A/B) to pass through.

Make sure when you are doing your RAILINGS that the railings go along the straight edge and to -not- angle them in to follow the existing edge as presented in the kit.

See the Odell photos in Illustrated History to see how the roof and railings went on the real Titanic.

Item 1 (horizontal cover position). In the Cork Examiner photos you will see that the tank room covers were open horizontally, sitting on supports so they sitting slightly above the horizontal. We chose to have the covers in this position. We used the GMM brass tank room covers. To make it easier to glue the hatches into position drill small holes along the top of each opening and glue small pulled sprue or microrods into each hole. Paint the rods flat black. Paint the covers flat white and glue their outer edges onto the black micro rods. Each tank room cover had four portholes. Fill these with Kristal Klear.

Item 2 (boards) . Along the top of the aft roof line above the aft Grand Staircase skylight cover, behind the railings, sat what looks like two boards attached to the railings. Make these from planked sheet plastic. Cut it to a length to match the width of the skylight cover and a height of two planks. Paint leather brown and glue to the roof railings. It is our guess that this was a protective barricade to keep items from being kicked over and off of the tank room roof through the glass skylight cover and dome below.

This fix is for the half height gates in the hull on the open promenade (one forward, two aft, on either side of the ship). The railing across the top of these doors was cut to allow the door to open, there were brass plates where the breaks occurred to stop wear to the timber. Refer to Marschall's painting on page 44 of Exploring The Titanic. To simulate this use these brass strips taken from making the class area dividers and glue them across the wood rail cap at the hull gates' jambs. One strip on each corner of the gate and one strip on the main hull railing adjacent to it.

A DECK AFT DETACHABLE STAIR CLIPS

On the top of each detachable well deck staircase were retaining clips that the stairs slipped into and be held in place. These can be imitated with small plastic pips from pulled sprue or a dot of black paint in the top inside corner of each well deck stair case.

A DECK AFT KICKBOARD SPRINGS

In the aft corners of the rearmost part of A-deck you will see small springs at the base of the railings and kickstrips. Refer to page 139 of Tom McCluskie's "Anatomy Of The Titanic". The purpose of these are unknown to us though we think that the railing was possibly removable for the crane booms working #5 hatch or placing items on to A-deck from C deck The springs may have aided in the removal of the rails.

For the springs cut the filament from a small 15 watt "fridge" bulb. Cut to length and CA glue them into each corner, attaching to both railings along the right angle turn.

Outside of these springs was some type of plate that sat on an angle right on the corners of the kickplate. Make these from Evergreen plastic strips.

LEADSMAN PLATFORMS

 A DECK PROMENADE AFT POLES

If you look at the Father Browne photos of the aft end of the A deck open promenade (pages 65 & 66 of Last Days of the Titanic) you will see a pole stored in the corner of the railing aft of the crane.

Make this from 0.20mm Evergreen Rod. The color of the pole is unknown, brown or black are two suggestions.

 

A DECK NO 4 CARGO HATCH MYSTERY OBJECT.

UPDATE

There was a rectangular object with what appears to be a handle protruding from the bottom on the bulkhead above the number 4 cargo hatches. This can be seen in this photos of both sides of the ship.

Cut a small section of PE railing to approx. 1.5mm long and glue into position.

Thanks to Dan Cherry for this new find and the drawing.

In addition to the lamp on the flagstaff there was also a cleat on the aft side. Make this from the junction point between 5 bar railing panels. Cut off a post between two railing panels, do not not cut the railings flush to the post but leave tiny bumps to give the cleat some visual relief. CA glue to the aft side of your common pin flagstaff with the bumps facing port to starboard and then paint Model Master Wood to match the flagstaff.

We have crew members undertaking duties like rope stacking, deck mopping, davit repair, signaling, etc. Public members are seen strolling up and down the Grand Staircase, along decks walking a dog, someone bending over to pet the dog, reading a paper on a bench, kicking a ball, lounging in deck chairs, etc. We also used many of the classic Titanic photos for positioning people such as the Captain and Purser McElroy, the Spedden boy with his spinning top, the Cork Examiner A-deck aft photos, Jack Odell and A.Butt under the bridge, etc. You are limited only by your imagination and numbers of people to work with.

As we have the band on deck they needed to have instruments. After we bent the arms into the appropriate poses we fashioned the bows for the bass fiddle and smaller fiddles out of rails from a single GMM railing panel. Once they were separated by a hobby knife we dabbed a small bit of CA glue to the people and fiddle and then using a toothpick which had been moistened touched it to the rail/bow which picked it up and allowed for us to position it on the hand and fiddle. This tiny detail pays big dividends in making the band look more realistic. Note: by fiddle we mean violin

You can create the hoses out of pulled sprue. Once cut, drag the sprue over the back of the hobby knife to curl the line. This will simulate how a hose might appear on deck. On one model we have a crew person holding the hose with water coming out. The jet of water was created by using 4lb CLEAR fishing line from the end of the hose arching down to the deck. A pool of water was created by applying large drops of Kristal Klear at the base of the "jet" and letting gravity flow it out around the planking. When dry it looks exactly like water coming out of a hose.

Use the kit's rigging thread to make ropes. First fold a loop of masking tape, sticky side out and press it flat to the table top. Cut the threads to length and either coil them manually or in a lazy figure 8 (as seen in the ropes that lay behind the forecastle's break water bulwarks). After you have the shape

you want soak them with a liberal dose of Kristal Klear. This will act as a sealing/gluing agent. Next paint them with Testor's flat military brown. After the paint has dried they look exactly like braided ropes. Using the hobby knife, pry your ropes from the masking tape as single units and apply them to the decks. Note: The reissue of the 1:350 Minicraft Titanic no longer comes with cotton rigging thread but nylon monofilament. Use black cotton quilting thread instead.

*IMPORTANT*