RMS Titanic, HMT Olympic, HMHS Britannic, scale 1/200

[strk]

At the end of the year, an international group of papermodelers, designers, artists, ship engineers and historians, is going to publish the most epic paper model ever seen. Over 10 000 parts...

Google T?umacz

[cardmodeler]

Let's see...10,000 parts, at the rate I build...should take about 47 years. Looks like it will be pretty impressive, however.

[Uyraell]

They are going to make a phenomenal trio Strk my friend.

I particularly like the look of the Olympic, but that's because of the camouflage scheme.
All in all, it will be a trio of vessels very well received in the paper modelling world, I would think.

Congratulations to the team of enthusiasts that has spent so much time, effort, and resources into designing and producing this fine trio.

Kind and Respectful Regards Strk my friend, Uyraell.

[flightsimmer2012]

WOW!!!! 10,000 parts that would be about 3 years from laying down the keel to lauch the way i build ships
i gotta get me them models

[peter taft]

Incredible - the speed i build things....OMG, i'd have to live long enough to see another 100 year mile stone

[Nik0lai]

that's gonna be the most excruciating build of my life... I needed an Oil Tanker-full of patience and skill.

[doctormax]

my that looks very nice cover on them

[NYC Irishman]

Wow, this is an excellent find. I was actually looking for the Schreiber Titanic as I have the Gomix version and the colours make my eyes bleed. This looks like a magnificent project that I think is going to turn out fantastic. I am just a bit off that they went with such a scale. I know it’s the standard for ships in this modeling class but I would have loved a bigger kit to reflect their stature…

I hope to get Titanic, I am not impressed by the Olympic scheme (but then again it would be somewhat laborious and repetitive to build Olympic in an identical scheme to Titanic. Britannic though looks impressive enough to warrant a purchase, so that in 15 years when I finish Titanic I can do it all over again..

Looks great, something to get for Christmas I think.

I had the pleasure of visiting the new Titanic Belfast Museum on April 3rd of this year and while there were some startling omissions I was still impressed and it kept me and my girlfriend very well entertained overall. I am a Steel CAD Draughtsman so right away I was very impressed by the building which houses the museum. It is a striking angular shape that reflects the bow, “iceberg” and the White Star line emblem.

It was cheaper than I though for us to get in, I do recommend booking online as at the moment it is too popular for walk in admission. Their website booking is tedious (Please enter date, please enter number of visitors, please enter time were requested on 3 separate pages and the 4th would then tell you that your requested selection was not available. That led to going back to page one and starting “Please enter date, please enter number of visitors, please enter time” all over again. A good hour later we got something. An option for “What’s available” would have been great but…

The story of Belfast and the Olympic Class ships was well detailed and even had a few surprises for me (I have been a titanic fan since before Dr. Ballard found her). Schematic drawings were projected across walls and floors ( I look at these things like a Rembrandt in a gallery) and there were some interesting smaller models of the yards and fitting out basin, very well made.

The tour opens with details of Belfast at the time, goes on to how the ships were designed and then build before showing samples of accommodation and such. It then shows the maiden voyages from Belfast to Southampton to Cherbourg and onto Queenstown( now Cobh which is next door to where I grew up). At this point the tour goes from “She weighed Anchor at Queenstown and headed out for New York” The next part of the tour is the Wireless Transmissions and “The women are in the Lifeboats”…There were two wall projections of the sinking, very very crude CAD drawings which left the Lifeboats on the Davits as she went under) and that was it regards the sinking…..

Did I miss a whole section of the tour? Surely there was more to detail /mention in there? That was pretty astounding to omit.

Next section was the discovery and exploration of the wreck with an auditorium repeating a guided tour of some points of interest but at the bottom of the auditorium was a glass floor that had a very realistic flyover of the wrecks that you could walk across. This was quite interesting and I believe there is some tie in with Dr. Ballard for interaction on his future expeditions.

As a modeler there was one thing that truly horrified me. As was to be expected there was a “Model” of the ship. I use quotations as I cannot express the revulsion to calling it a model. As a 7 year old I built the Taschen Titanic (It was longer than I was tall at the time) and I honestly think it was a better attempt than the one they had on display.

It was about 20 feet long and was actually displayed with a sheet of glass down the middle. The port half displayed the ship as she was upon launching and the starboard as she was finished. I thought it was a novel idea at first but now I believe it was more to save effort on the builder’s side. It is plated and I am not sure what the material used actually is (Plastic) but the “Golden Trim” between the black and upper white sections of the hull was only yellow electrical tape that I expect will peel away before the year is out. There is nothing to say of the port side…it was very bare with a few hints of the work done to build the superstructure etc prior to launch.

The starboard was filled out but with a very poor level of effort or pride. The decking was drawn on wood with a technical pencil, large plastic panels. The stays that attached to the funnels and masts were kinked wires that were fraying at points and was anchored with globs of glue or solder running down the wire. How could you do that? The deck Bench’s that dotted the ship were the only items of mention for effort, they did look good.

Most horrifying was the dent in hull just below the Aft Cargo deck on the Starboard side. It was not a force dent (like what might happen if not secured during shipping) but was more like a heat gun was turned on a plastic kit.

I kind of hope or want to believe that the kit was tossed together quickly because of a late order for the model, where they only gave 3 months for the model to be built. I cannot believe that a company could create such a mess otherwise.

I mean the entire process is completely detailed in Peter Davies-Garner’s book about the model, what more could you want? Ill stop there…it just was so disappointing.

Like I said it was still worth a visit, I will return there sometime and hopefully get to see more of Belfast.

Thanks for reading

John

[Bengt Fredén]

Hi strk,

This is indeed GREAT news! I agree with John that the GOMIX/Fly Model's colors make your eyes bleed (especially the pink hull color and the too dark orange-brown decks) so I am looking forward to a much better color representation of the bright Oregon pine decks and the deep red anti-fouling hull color. The creamy beige-yellow White Star Line 'buff' color of the smokestacks/ funnels and the yellow top line of the hull is also an area for significant improvement. Compare with the funnel color of this newly renovated tender - one of Titanic's two original tenders, the 'SS Nomadic' - the only one of White Star Line's ships in existence today:



It is also interesting that this design endeavor includes the other two sister ships, even if I, too, would be more interested to buy and build the 'RMS Olympic' as it looked as a passenger liner in the 1920s, after the Titanic disaster, with an updated number of life boats.

I have recently bought the new Schreiber-Bogen 1:200 scale model, and it really is a vast improvement över the GOMIX model as far as the overall coloring is concerned (for example a little less strikingly blue windows). Here is a (low-res) photo from a German card model exhibition:



However, in my personal opinion, it seems that the detaling of the GOMIX model is slightly better, if you look at very small parts like the lifeboats and davits. There is also a 1:200 scale laser-cut hull kit (formers and bulkheads) for this model, as well as railings.

John,
Thank you for the insightful report from the Belfast museum! I must go there when I visit Northern Ireland. I was thinking about the model that disappointed you so; could it be that the new 1:48 scale model that Peter Davies-Garner is working on at the moment (which is a 'half' model, just like the one you describe) is meant to replace it? It must be. Check out the in-progress build photos at the TRMA web site - meanwhile, here are two of them:

The hull with some parts of the interior visible (e.g. the resin cast boilers):



The aft pine boat deck:




Anchors away!
Bengt

[NYC Irishman]

oh dear...

Bengt, That is the model i saw. Its PDG's work?

Nothing was visible inside; did he hope to have it done better than it was for opening day?

This is disappointing,

John