Generally the 1/350 model has the majority of the portholes included but several are missing and some misaligned.

 

The modeler has a few choices for the portholes:

  1. Paint them with gloss black to simulate glass.
  2. Color them in with a graphite pencil again to simulate glass.
  3. Drill them out and fill with Kristal Klear or acetate to simulate the glass. If you are lighting the model this is one of the options you can use.

Drilling these out is a long and tedious job and requires two sizes of drill bits, #78 (0.78mm or 0.0250") for the larger portholes and #68 (0.68mm or 0.0310"). for the smaller ones.

Lay the ship on its side and use a light weight hand drill in a drill press like motion. Keeping hand and wrist movements to a minimum will help you avoid fatigue but if you are getting tired then stop. It is better to drill the portholes out in stages than trying to do them all at once. It is important that you drill them in straight lines as tiredness can cause you to get out of alignment. If the drill bitt clogs up with melted plastic have a candle nearby to burn the plastic off the bitt or the portholes will start getting larger.

 

MISSING PORTHOLES

FORECASTLE

Along the port bow the model has the wrong count of portholes there were sixteen portholes on the white area, not fifteen as seen on the model.

An additional porthole needs to be marked then drilled in the following location:

 BOAT DECK

Two portholes need to be added to the stern side of the Grand Staircase's Skylight cover. See the SKYLIGHTS section.

Add portholes to the following doors:

2 x Wheelhouse
2 x Officer's Deckhouse
2 x Grand Staircase Foyer
2 x 2nd Class Entrance

A-DECK Add portholes to the following doors:

2 x Forward Grand Staircase Foyer
2 x Aft Alcoves behind cloakrooms
2 x Aft Grand Staircase Foyer
2 x Doors by Palm Court

B DECK

Add portholes to the following doors:

4 x Cafe Parisien
4 x 2nd Class entrances forward of the 2nd class Smoke Room
2 x 2nd Class entrances under main mast

POOP DECK

In front of the docking bridge there are two skylights (parts J39). Portholes need to be added to the aft side of these skylights to match the forward side. Either paint on with black paint or drill them out.

STERN HULL - PORT SIDE

Refer to this diagram for the following section.

C deck level

Add 8 portholes along the white area of the stern. The grouping of four around the flagstaff and then a pair on each side.

The model comes with 12 portholes along each side of the hull in this area. Starting just aft of the well deck and ending just aft of the docking bridge by the bollards. With a pencil mark a dot the following locations, all centered within the white painted area:

  1. 9mm behind the 12th porthole. Repeat this for the other side.
  2. 9mm farther aft from the above mark. Repeat this for the other side.
  3. 8mm from the above mark. Repeat this for the other side.
  4. 7mm from the above mark. Repeat this for the other side.

Now the portholes should appear symmetrical on either side of the flagstaff with a 7mm gap between the last two pencil marks. Now either paint black dots or drill the portholes out with the small bit that you used for the small portholes along C deck

If you drill these, placing acetate in behind them under the poop deck's model piece (I-5) is next to impossible. We found the easiest solution was to just fill them in with Kristal Klear.

D Deck Level

Use the Olympic photo on page 20 of Leo Marriott's book as a visual guide (see above). The portholes on the model's hull end with a large porthole found just forward and under the 3rd porthole aft of the well deck in the white area.

You need to add one more large porthole and nine smaller portholes in line and aft of the last -MOLDED- porthole.

Making ten added on each side. The large porthole is the size of the existing portholes molded on the hull and the remaining nine are about one half the diameter of the larger portholes.

Use diagram opposite for a rough guide to position the new portholes.

The last small D deck porthole should sit just under the first hawse hole.

We recommend that you draw the center of the first and last portholes so you get the proper length in the hull and then place the missing ones in between them. Jockey the distances if needed.

E deck level

Several portholes are missing here.

Locate the E deck gangway door that sits just forward of well deck above. There should be a series of 8 portholes grouped into four pairs aft of this door.

On the model the first pair is missing the forward porthole. So drill or paint a porthole in line with rest 5mm behind the door. It should line up vertically with the 3rd window from the end of the rectangular C deck windows above. Use this to triangulate the exact location.

Based on the Olympic photo on page 20 Leo Marriott `Titanic' aft of the 4 pairs grouping there should be sixteen evenly spaced portholes. The model's hull only has seven. Therefore you have to add the missing 9.

Rather than provide specific measurements we recommend you use the following method to mark out the portholes.

Draw the aft most porthole first. This is located above the second to last porthole on F deck.

Then mark eight evenly spaced points between the forward porthole and the one you just marked. Keeping them in line with E deck.

Once marked either paint them with gloss black or drill them out with the small drill bit used elsewhere on the stern.

F deck level

Another incorrect count but you can get by adding one porthole.

Moving forward

  • The last windowed hull plate has one porthole. The model gets this one right.
  • The next plate forward has 4 portholes. The model is right again.
  • The next plate forward had 5 portholes, the model has only 4. Add a fifth to the bow end of this hull plate and you are all set.

G deck level

The last hull plate aft with port holes had three portholes in it, the model has two. Add a third porthole 3.5mm behind the last molded into the hull but make sure it is before the hull plate seam.

Paint it on with gloss black or drill out like the others.

STARBOARD HULL

We do not have clear enough photos to get an exact count of the portholes or their placement for the starboard side but we feel it may not have been much different than the port side. Until we can come up with correct information we recommend that you duplicate the port side layout, or temporarily leave it as is until the data becomes known.

ALTERED PORTHOLES

AFT GRAND STAIRCASE SKYLIGHT COVER

Remove all portholes on the aft Grand Staircase's Skylight housing. See the SKYLIGHT section.

ABOVE #5 HATCH

Remove the two portholes along the bulkhead above #5 hatch.

Fill in with a putty or your favorite sealer, sand and then paint the top half white and lower half rust red.


ABOVE #6 HATCH

There was a pair of portholes on the aft Well deck/poop deck bulkhead that leads to the 3rd class area behind the #6 hatch. These portholes had bars over them to protect the glass. These can be seen in the photo of the Titanic on page 716 of National Geographic's December 1985 issue.

  1. To make the bars use sections of spare GMM or Tom's Modelworks brass photoetched railings.
  2. Take a section of 5-bar railing and cut a panel (panel= two posts and cross member rails) in half so you end up with one post and 5 half length rails.
  3. Trim the outer rails off so that leaves one small section of post and the three interior rails.
  4. Slip the post down behind #6 hatch so only the three rails can be seen over the porthole. The post allows the rails to remain as an unit and easier to cover the porthole rather than trying to lay three individual bars. Make sure the bars are perfectly vertical.
  5. Glue into place with CA glue and then paint them white. When the paint has dried you can then add Kristal Klear to them and it will recede in behind the bars.

 

 
 
This site was created by David Cotgreave January 2000