Academy 1/400 Titanic - Centenary Anniversary Edition

gregfrank

Member
Joined
Jul 23, 2012
Messages
49
Hello everyone,

I've been looking at this kit in my closet for over a year now and finally decided to open the box and get started. I've loved the story of the Titanic since i was a child and for the ship itself, I would say I have become quite enamored with it. Over the years I've learned as much about the ship as I can, so I think I'm finally ready to start this model and be able finish it with the respect the ship deserves. That being said, I plan on fully lighting the ship, and fixing any of the inaccuracies of the model (of which there are a few) to the best of my abilities.

So here she is out of the box! Bon Voayge and wish me luck!

Box Sleeve

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Production Number

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Box Art featuring an all new painting by Ken Marschall

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Side of the box

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That's a lot of parts!

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She takes up my whole desk!

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The bow

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And stern

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The decks and the base of the superstructure

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Funnels, lifeboats, windows, and railings

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Gold plated parts for the stand and propellers, the clear dome windows for the grand staircases, the raised roof over the 1st class smoking room, and declas.

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Now for the whole reason I really wanted this kit to begin with.

Painted Photoetch rails, steps, lifeboat davits, grand staircase dome covers, compass tower, poop deck docking platform, ladders, deck doors, cargo cranes, and other various bits and bobs. Also real planked decking!

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and... potoetch deck benches, rigging ladders, vent covers, the base plaets for funnels #1, 2, and 3, and a few 1/400th people for scale. Also, more decking!

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Finally anchor chain and gold leaf decals.

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I'm really excited to get started on this kit. If anyone knows a affordable reputable source of warm white led tape and smd led's that ships to the U.S. please feel free to mention them in the comments as it wouyld be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for looking! I hope to have an update soon.
 
I didn't get as much done as I would have liked in the first week. There is a lot more to do on this kit than I first realized. First off was drilling out the portholes. With 1,346 portholes on the actual ship, it took about 5 hours to drill them all out by hand. and that doesn't include the ones I have to add to the stern later. Only having about an hour each day to work on her, I've spent most of my week doing this. The next task is to get a plan for what needs to be added/removed. Due to the photo etch and wood decking, many of the molded in detail on the decks needs to be removed before many of the additions can be added. After going through the instructions I went over with a black marker and colored in all the deck detail that needs to be removed. This included benches, railings, vents, stairs, and other fiddly bits that are in the way.

First off is the hull. I like the fact that there are braces to hold her shape and give the superstructure something to sit on once it is to be attached. It does, however, block some of the drilled out portholes. I suppose those people will be somewhere else on the ship and not in their rooms then.

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A closer view

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She holds together pretty well just dry fit together. I've read that there a a lot of gaping issues between the hull and the superstructure, but I haven't seen that here.

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Now onto the decks. here's where things get somewhat disappointing. Underneath the forecastle and the poop deck there were accesses to the cargo holds and other crew areas. The detail is completely missing from this kit and it will have to be added. I have marked out where the walls will need to be cut out and the additional rooms will have to be scratch built. Luckily there is enough scrap decking around the pre-cut decks to extend into these areas.

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Any of the other areas marked in black will later be removed with either a chisel or a dremel.

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Although every kit I've ever owned of this ship (3 to be exact) have had the stairwells next to the bridge covered, the ship did not have them covered during her voyage. Supposedly there were canvas covers for inclement weather for these stairwells, but why every company feels the need to put that in I don't know.

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The next issue is the wheelhouse front. Although the wheelhouse on the Olympic (Titanic's sister ship) was curved, on the Titanic they made it flat, giving a greater field of view to the crew inside. The change in the floor should not be hard to fix. I plan to scrape up the rounded end and then fill excess gap on the floor with some scrap wood decking.

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As for the wheelhouse front itself, I am wondering if I can heat the part and get it to flatten out instead of trying to scratch it. I would appreciate any input or thoughts on this idea as I have never tried this technique. Here is the part.

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One of my biggest complaints, by a mile, is the placement of the first class forward grand staircase. While molded in B deck and C deck, they didn't mold it into A deck, which would be directly underneath the glass dome. The plan is to cut out the staircase from C deck and transplant it into A deck. Since the staircases are the only interior parts I plan to do any detailing to, I would like to have something to show... even if you'll never see it finished.

A Deck, marked where the stairs should be.

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B deck and C deck

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Showing A deck, with the 1st & 2nd funnel and staircase housing in place over it. This makes no sense

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Here are a few pictures of more of the benches and other details that need to be removed from the decks marked in black.

B deck

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C deck

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Fore well deck wall vent

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Other upper deck detail and funnel housings

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and the walls underneath the number 4 funnel.

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Finally, all of the rails on this kit have been replaced with photo etch. This isn't an issue as almost all of the railings on the kit are separate pieces, except on the parts for the forecastle and poop deck where they are molded on. The most viewed parts of the ship need to have the railings carved off, so I will need to summon all of my steady-handedness before I attempt it.

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That's all I have time for this week. Thank you everyone for looking!
 
Just a quick pic. I removed the necessary detail from the poop deck and dry fitted the timber decking. What a huge improvement over the molded in deck!

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A very ambitious project, better you than me ! Looking good so far, the wooden deck looks the biz.
 
Take your time on this one, she deserves it.
That said,it looks like you're off to an excellent start with planning your mods and making them
 
rookie said:
A very ambitious project, better you than me ! Looking good so far, the wooden deck looks the biz.

Thanks Rookie. The woods decks are great, and I can't wait to see it all on. They have a much better sense of scale than the molded detail, but they have no finishing on them so I'm going to need a thin varnish to protect them.

Quaralane said:
Take your time on this one, she deserves it.
That said,it looks like you're off to an excellent start with planning your mods and making them

Thanks Q. My ETA to completion is about one year. Since I plan to light her, there it a lot wiring and fiber optics needed for the superstructure. I am not the most experienced with these things so I plan on really taking my time with it. Also the photo etch. The more I look at the directions to more daunting it becomes, so many tiny parts that require multiple precise bends.

This will be my final post for this weekend since now I really need to start my stat's research paper that I've been putting off the whole weekend by building this. I cut out the entrances to the cargo annexes under the forecastle and poop deck and I have the walls put in place. I still needs to cut the floors, but I am going to wait to attach them anyway since it will be easier to mount the wood decking and paint the walls of the annexes without them attached. Here are some pictures of my progress

The cut-outs for the poop deck

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and for the fore deck

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The general shapes are based off of the original plans. The circles inside are the motor mechanism for the cranes above but you can see that the modeled bases (the sunken areas of the roof) are nowhere close so I'm just going to make them ventilators attached to the floor so they aren't empty.

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Under the fore deck was the entrance to the forward cargo hold.

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Aft starboard interior walls

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Aft port interior walls

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Fore interior walls

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The annexes with floors

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My plan it to have them filled, sanded, and at least primed by next weekend. The walls of the well decks are white on top and a rusty brown on bottom, and I plan to extend that into these areas. It was a hard choice to either paint them first or glue them first. I decided to glue them first so the delineation between colors would be even all around the well decks and the annexes.

Thanks for looking!
 
I agree! nice depth improvements!


Cheers,
Guido
 

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