RMS Titanic

Can you see what it is yet





ken

Today I painted the cowl vents. There are over 20 of these tiny things which had to be fettled to shape whilst sitting in the deckchair in the sun. OOh it's a hard life.

I've also painted the capstan's black and these have been fitted to the fore deck and also the steering motor skylights have been completed at the rear.

Good detail,so far,this is going to be a lovely model.

Thank you Mark. Must insert some anchors. Seems they got forgotten about.

Ken

It looks realy nice Ken, your making a cracking job of it.

Don't forget foto's of the internals Ken


Alan

Thanks Alan. yes, I was going to start the insides today but got side tracked (like you do !)

My new book arrived today from Haynes Manuals. No, not cars but one about the Titanic. It's like a treatise on the ship and covers the finer details of the mechanics and construction of the real ship. (no modelling tips I'm afraid !!) but still an interesting read. That make 16 books on the subject in my collection now.

Ken

Looking good Ken.

You will have to come down and see Southampton's Titanic museum when they have finished building it.

Cheers Dicky. Nice to see you here.


Ken

Change of heart Ken.

Looking great Kenny,keep it coming.

Cheers Capt Jack.

I have an update on the pictures but it won't let me load them tonight.


I'll try later

Ken

On with the production line. I have made a few cowl vents from bits of wood and plastic.




Laid out on the spray paint line.




The ordinary version of the vents were fitted first




Then it was time to fit a dozen of the motorised vents.




The special compass tower was reconstructed and fitted between the funnels.

More deck furniture added

Great stuff Kenny,keep up the good work.

Thank you Mr Sparrow. I've been filling in the portholes with clear epoxy. Unfortunately the stuff runs through the port holes if I apply too much. Now learing the trick of little and often.

We're getting there, as they say, so Hopefully we can do a float test soon. oooh er!!!

Ken

It's captain!!

Hi Captain. I'm not used to going on board ship so you must excuse this landlubber.

The hundred LED's have arrived and I'm busy wiring up the matching resistors so there's nothing to show at the moment. Did you guys know how many amps these tiny things use, well I did a test run.

I've wired 24 in parallel to a strip of wood for laying down in the boat and illuminating the portholes. I then connected an amp meter to the battery and it measures half an amp. It's amazing how all those little milli-amps add up.

I'm thinking to save battery current that I might not use so many LED's as they are quite bright anyway, and I could space them further apart.

Ken

Sounds like a plan matey!

What voltage battery did you use? try putting them in groups of 3 or 4 or even 5 in series so each group is on the battery voltage, they should draw less that way as they are running on lower voltage.

They are either off or on, so you can be putting too high a voltage through them without much benefit until they just blow.

Brilliant idea. I have now done that and routed four in series and connected these in parallel all down the sides of the boat. It wouldn't run five so it must be alright on four.




I've measured the current draw and it's now only 0.4 amps. Not bad for 50 bulbs. Should last all day on my 7 A/Hr battery.


The motors have been fitted along with the rudder servo and the wiring is still in progress. There are three Speed controllers to be connected.







ken

Very very glad to be of service! Say hi next time you come in the model shop! (mad on models)

I do call occasionally. Do you work there ?

Ken

Yes, I am the 'well built' one that does the servicing and repair work for them. (ok we're all well built)

Well it's been 5 days and I've been testing out my Vari-focals. Yes, it's on to the smaller pieces.

The lights have been wired in (all 100 of em!) and the insides covered with Turkey foil to reflect the light back out. The upper decks need to be lit now, so that's a few more Led's, mmph!














ken

I have managed to get some bench seats from a model railway shop and these are fitted on the upper decks.











I have fitted the extra pipes up along the funnels.




and started fitting the life rings




ken

Now it was time for those ladders. These are very small indeed and I found it difficult to make them so it was off to the Model Railway shop again.




Must admit, they do set her off a treat.

Here is tour of the ship as she stands at the moment. Tomorrow she goes in the pool. ooh er !!













ken

Some more views














ken

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Waiting to be launched





Ken

Fantastic Kenny,she is realy starting to come to life now.

Cheers Captain


............ I'm waiting for the rain to go off.

..................Can't have her getting toooo wet


Ken

Like the lighting Ken, very effective and those seats look great. Very nice indeed


Alan

Thank you. I tried making some seats, but I won't show those.

The pool was filled and here are the results.










UNFORTUNATELY, when the top deck was added she turned turtle and it was only quick thinking which stopped her turning right over.

There is NO way this ship is going to float correctly. The top section is far to heavy. I experimented with lead sheets and batteries and to float without toppling over she would need 3off 7 amp hour batteries placed very low down in the hull.

As there is no room left inside for large items I sorry to say she will never go to sea.


Ken

As the sun was out, I thought I'd assemble her and take a few more pictures.

It's taken 25 weeks to get this far.










Thats yer lot ....................... I'm going to try a Tug next




Regards
Ken

Looks fantastic! All that work and it tips over, surely you could do something with some bladders that you fill with water at the pond side or similar? Don't give up!

Looks stunning,shame about the owner!!

Balance and scale draughts often don't coincide mate but one way round it is a removable external keel weight that is only added at the pond side this wouldn't have to be as heavy as the required internal weights as it could be slung some 6 inch or more below the keel to give stability. and painted matt black it wouldn't be very noticable if at all.

Congrats on a fatastic build a true credit to you mate


PS she's closer to scale than you realise after all the reall lady sank on her maiden voyage too

Great looking model, Kenny ... well done !!

Kenny Great job but a shame about the stability problem. I had the same thing happen
with my battle class destroyer as I had made the radar picket version and the additional
masts caused mine to start to turn over (just caught it in time). I made up two half moulds of
a bullet shape and melted about 1 1/2 lbs of lead and sandwiched them between a piece of
7mm ply - shaped and smoothed them off and coated them in epoxy and now have a keel
about 3 1/4 inches deep which can be bolted on for sailing and taken off for display.
Had it out on the river the other evening and it went like a charm. All that is on the hull
are two 1/2 inch strips of angle alloy painted in the antifoul red which the ply keel slots
inbetween and two bolts fit it in position ( I used nyloc nuts to make sure it did not come
off at an embarrassing moment ) the keel is painted dark primer grey and is totally invisible
on the water. The build is on mayhem under HMS Aisne (havent got round to updating this site
since its re-incarnation. hope this helps

Geoff

great build kenny...just get it down the lake now and terrorise those iceburgs, lol

Great build, great work. It would be a shame if it wasn't seen on the water......

Mat

Thank you to everyone for your nice comments.

I like the idea of an add on keel. Maybe I'll try one. I'll keep you posted.

Came down this morning and the pool had gone down overnight and all the water dispersed. An omen perhaps I shall continue with the final detailing as there are still parts to go on.

cheers

ken

I'd seriously go for the keel idea mate and as for the pool going down being an omen more likely you snagged it lifting that behemouth of a model out

Today I stripped out the internals, motors and wiring and weighed her without the top decks. She came to 11 pounds (5 killo) which was not exceptionally high, so it must be the fact that she's tall and thin that overbalances her.

A sailing keel is the obvious choice so I'll see what can be done.


Ken

Hey Ken.
A fantastic model. Too bad that the stability was wrong. About the photos if they are in the right order, you have managed to keep the good mood. Do not know if it's any help. But in some of my models, I have filled liquid filler. It's like concrete. And have a very high density. The mass flow into every corner. I fill in this Stabilizes the boat for the water line and let the boat stay on the water, until the mixture has hardened. The boat floats perfectly
Regards Ole

Worth thinking about Ole. Thanks for that.

No, I'm not dis-heartened. I rise to every challenge.

cheers

ken

Kenny Just to add to my entry about fitting the keel on my destroyer - I took 1/12 lbs of lead sheet
out of the boat to make the keel - with this same weight in the boat it turned over. Imoved itdown onto the
keel and it is very stable - I could not add any more as it would have taken the boat too low in the water
The bulb is about 4 inches long and about 1 1/4 inches across so the top of the lead is only 2 inches below
the hull - it doesnt take much of a keel to make it stable.
what I did was start with a 6 inch deep keel and keep shortening and trying it in the test tank ( 4 pieces of wood
on a flat base with a pvc lining) until I got what I thought was about right without it being too stiff
Hope that makes sense.
She is too nice to just sit as a display model !!

Geoff

Hi Geoff,

I spent all day yesterday cutting out the guts of the boat and 'thinning out the frames to reveal more of the bottom. This gives me much more space inside now.

This revealed more of the inside edges of the portholes so I have been coating the walls with more clear epoxy to seal the windows better than just from the front.










Doesn't look her best at the moment, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.


Now she will be totally waterproof I shall be loading her on the water with lead to find the maximum allowed. (ref your floating below the waterline) and I will then know if an external keel is required.

keep you posted.


ken

I found the keel quite easy to make - made the half moulds out of plaster of paris - left it a few days to
make sure it was bone dry - didn't want a molten lead explosion. then just melted the lead with a plumbers
gas blow torch. Worked a treat. drilled it through the plywood and countersunk the bolt holes and filed any
rough edges and covered it and the ply keel in West epoxy which was rubbed down and painted a dark grey colour

Geoff

Yes, it's the way to go. The load arm length would have more effect than placing weights in the hull.

The connecting of the temporary attachment would have to be unbreakable when sailing as it's loss would be catastrophic.

Ken