Don, Mike, Peter and BILL,
Thank you very much for the kind words! I can tell you it is a very fine model, which is delicately and precisely designed by David Hathaway, who spared no effort to ensure that the shapes, measurements and detailing are very true to the original
SS Nomadic steam ship. The further I go into this build, the more I realize the amount of work that has gone into the model. And BILL - I can whole-heartedly recommend it! You wouldn't regret it. You even have a choice now of 1/250 or 1/200 scale, thanks to the generosity of David, who also provides an ingenious template for making scale railings.
cbg and Mike,
That's a very interesting discussion on modern ocean liners;
I have also always thought that they look dangerously high, which perhaps was confirmed both in the awful Estonia liner tragedy in the Baltic in the 90s and more recently with the liner Costa Concordia off the coast of Italy, where both ships fell over very rapidly. In any case, they aren't exactly as beautiful as the long and elegant liners of the bygone era, the White Star Olympic class liners in particular. The sweeping curved lines with the open boat deck, the straight, sharp bow, the overhanging stern on top of a high rudder and the immense four funnels (of which only the first three were actual funnels) is certainly more pleasing to the eye.
Therefore, I was delighted to receive the recent very good news from Australia, that Professor Clive Palmer, in Brisbane, is now going to actually build a replica of the
RMS Titanic, called the
Titanic II. A huge undertaking, to say the least. The Finnish ship design company DELTAMARIN (just across the Baltic from us here in Sweden) has already drawn preliminary deck plans for the luxury liner, and the Chinese shipyard CSC Jinling has agreed to build her and to have her ready in four years (late in 2016), incorporating modern technique and safety within the same hull measurements and appearance. Clive Palmers new shipping company, The BLUE Star Line Pty, has all the information and two downloadable plans, one with a top view of all the decks and one with a cross-section midships of the construction of the hull. It certainly is exciting - have a look under 'Engineering Plans':
News - Blue Star Line
Professor Clive Palmer, in Brisbane, Australia:
Ship ahoy!
Bengt
