METHOD 1 - MIKE & STEVE PELL'S PROCEDURE

Step 1 (painting the floors). After you have glued the A-Deck's bulkheads on to the A-Deck model piece mix up a custom paint color for the Palm Court floor. We mixed a 70/30 combination of Testor's Model Master FS13538 yellow with their Model Master Wood respectively. This was done on a scrap of plastic by adding the yellow first, then mixing in the wood to achieve that yellowish/brown tile color you can see in the colored painting in Illustrated History. You don't need to mix much, just enough to cover the small floor areas on either side of the palm court. When you achieve the shade you want paint both sides of the Palm Court your new yellow color Remember that paint dries darker than its wet tone so mix it a bit lighter than the finished shade you want. When it dries it should be the perfect shade. You can either scribe the floor to create guidelines (as Dan did) or do it freehand (as Steve & Mike did). When the yellow has dried use the Testor's Flat Military Brown. Start in one corner and make a brown do with the tip of the brush. Then shift the brush over by the same width of the brown dot, leaving a yellow area of equal size. Then add another dot continuing down the room. Then start alternating the dots. What you are after is a checkerboard effect with alternating yellow and brown tiles. When you have completed one side move on to the other.

Step 2 (making the bow end walls). These walls separated the Palm Court from the 1st class smoking room. Fashion these out of small rectangles of sheet plastic. Make the starboard one fit from the bay windows over to the raised deck support running down the center of the A-deck. Repeat for the port side wall but cut out a doorway towards the inboard side. This is where the revolving door will go in the next step. Once these walls are cut to size glue them in. Step 3 (making the revolving door). Now cut two rectangles of sheet plastic just slightly less than the dimensions of the doorway you created in the port side sheet plastic wall. Using your hobby knife cut each door lengthwise up their centers but only to the halfway point. Flip the doors so one door has the cut coming from the top down and the other from the bottom up. Now spread the cuts ever so slightly and then insert the one cut end into the other. Slide it down until their centers meet. The results should now be 3D X shaped door with each panel at 90 degrees opposite from each other.

Step 4 (attaching the door). Use a piece of pulled sprue or micro rod cut to the height of the sheet plastic wall. Glue this on the smoke room side (bow) of the doorway down the center of the opening. Add some glue to the center of this pole and push the revolving door onto the pole from the Palm Court side so the pole is hidden from view. The door should now be sitting like an X in the doorway. Paint the door brown.

Step 5 (making the arched mirrored walls). We opted for chrome peel and stick tape found in most automotive stores (Dan used chrome tabs - see below). Cut several rectangles out of the tape about 3/4's of the wall's height (approx. 5.5mm). Use small scissors to cut one end with rounded corners like the arched windows. Peel off the backing and apply to the walls where needed. Use the pictures of the Palm Court from Illustrated History as a guide. When all the mirrored panels are on use a glass cleaner and Q-tip cotton swab to clean the mirrors of your fingerprints. This allows for maximum reflective potential when viewing inside from any outside light source.

Step 6 (making plants). See the PRIVATE PROMENADE section (Step 4) for plant making. You can make the ivy for the walls by either painting green dots randomly around or separating a thread from a rag. Next glue this kinked length all around and paint it green.

Step 7 (making furniture). See the PRIVATE PROMENADE section (Step 3) for making the chairs and round tables. For the square tables cut the tops out of sheet plastic and glued on the same sprue bases and glue according to positions seen in actual Palm Court photographs or use Dan's diagram below. Paint all furniture a white/tan color to simulate wicker.

Step 8 (making the sliding glass doors). Cut these out of acetate and glue them partially open so the viewer can see in and look at the details. Create the door frames and the mullions by painting flat white lines across the back of the acetate. See Father Browne's photograph of the area on the Titanic.

Step 9 (making the decorative window frames). See WINDOWS section of tutorial for information on constructing the windows.

METHOD 2 - DAN CHERRY'S PROCEDURE

I have given the most attention to these rooms on A Deck because of the large arch windows on the aft ends of the promenade and the large aft facing sliding doors. If you do not modify the Palm court these doors will reveal this area to be a lot of dead space and you will be able to see most of the way into the model.

UPDATE.

Photo of Dan Cherry's work on the interior of the Palm Court Cafe.