Dirk's Titanic Wreck Build (Bow Section)

This next build is going to be somewhat of a challenge for me and completely out of my wheel house. I discovered my love for the Titanic in the late 70s when a friend of mine had to go to the library to do some research for a school project. He had asked me if I wanted to go with him. I must have been bored that day because I said yes. Back then library's  weren't cool like they are now. They were early quite, the smelled funny, they didn't have computers, they had that daunting card catalog system, and they were run by crotchety old woman that held their glasses to their body with a long chain. When I think back to those times I always picture Anne Ramsey as the librarian (Throw Mamma From the Train, and Goonies)



Well withing minutes of getting  there I was bored. I had nothing to do and I felt like I was being watched by that mean Anne Ramsey. It was like she was waiting for me to screw up so she could pounce on me. Anyway while walking the isles I came a cross the novel "A Night to Remember" by Walter Lord. The book itself was a bit over my head at the time but I was able to figure most of it out



That was it, I was hooked. I searched for everything I could find on the topic but mind you there wasn't much. i mean at that time there wasn't a lot known about what had happened. Sure there was a book about the hearings that followed the disaster but that was some pretty dry reading. Sure you could find lots of stuff on the Lusitania, the Impress of Ireland, the Andrea Doria and even the HMHS Britannic. We knew where they were. Even back then dives had been made on those wrecks but the Titanic... The Titanic was still lost.

After reading "A Night to Remember" I came across the book, "Raise the Titanic" by Clive Cussler.



Now this was cool and I found out that the ship was discovered by.... Me! Holy crap the protagonist was named after me... Well not really but we did have the same name. I thought that was awesome! Then in 1985, the unthinkable happened. The Titanic had been found. Well that set me on a course that I still follow to this day. I don't think there is a documentry that I haven't seen on the Titanic and I've read almost all that has been published.

Back in 2008 just after getting back into the modeling hobby I came across a build on a Titanic forum that I became totally engrossed in. Some kid (high school or early college age) was building a model of the wreck. It was amazing. It was the first time I ever saw someone build a model of the wreck. I wanted to try this but at the time I knew I didn't have the skills. Now you can find wreck builds quite frequently online but in my mind none of them are as complete and step by step like that first build I found. Sure there were better ones but none that showed you how the builder got to the final result. It was just "Look what I did." For me I like to see the path it takes to get to that finished product.

While I still don't think I posse the skills to pull this off I decided to give it a shot anyway. While I've been reading up on the Titanic for all these years I don't profess to be an expert. I'm open to corrections and constructive criticism. That said if you are one of those that feel compelled to tell me that my crack in the hull is to far forward by 6 rivets or some other nitpicking information, you can keep that to yourself. This is going to be my representation of the wreck, NOT an exact copy. So the time is now and I invite all of you to come along on the journey. Hopefully this will create some great discussions along the way.

For this build I will be using the Revell Titanic kit. Its not the best of the Titanic kits out there but it will do for this project and to be honest I can't see buying an $80 plus dollar kit and cutting it up. This kit can be had usually for under $20. Now that is aces in my book

Ok I've started the work on my version of the sunken Titanic bow section. To start we need to map out several important points on the hull where we will be making modifications. We are going to start with the Port (Left) side first.



First are these two reference points. These are the sections of the ship where she broke her back upon impacting the ocean floor. We will get into these two points in a little bit but they had to be identified

1 - The rear of the Well Deck, right under the bridge
2 - The expansion joint



3 - Forgive me I don't know the actual name here (see I told you I didn't know it all) but there are missing sections here on the Well deck. When removed this section will be level with the deck itself. I'm going to assume these doors or gates were able to open to make it easier to load cargo into the Titanic's holds.



4 - This is a damaged section of the hull. I've yet to find a decent picture of this but I've heard some call it a flap, to others its a tear with an outward bulge.
5 - This is a huge crack in the hull

Now lets flip over to the Starboard (right) side of the hull



1 - A distinct bulge and separation of hull plating
2 - The Well deck access area, same as on the port side



3 - This portion between the two arrows is Revell's way of making a railing. What it actually looks like is a WALL. This needs to be removed from both sides of the ship and will be replaced with some photoetch rails. I think I have some somewhere, if not I will need to move my fanny and purchase some quickly.



4 - The location of the Expansion joint
5 - Mirror image the location of the break at the rear most part of the Well Deck right under the bridge



Next we need to get rid of the stern section of our hull but where to cut? Well the bow section of the Titanic comes in at around 470 ft. If we times it by 12 we get 5640 inches. now we divide this number by the scale of the kit which is 1/570. We get almost 10 inches. So we measure from the tip of the bow back 10 inches. I add an addition inch for good measure. I rather have too much and have to trim rather then be too short and... Well I think the term I'm looking for is "boned."





Well, it looks like i'm commited to this build now. I've no choice but to move forward

Till next time, B - Strong

Wow this is quite an undertaking Dirk. Great start and really looking forward to it taking shape. Keep up the good work.

Al. wrote:Wow this is quite an undertaking Dirk. Great start and really looking forward to it taking shape. Keep up the good work.

Thank you, Al

Now that the bow and stern sections have been separated it should be a bit easier to work with.





Using my dremel and a cutting blade its time to get to work disfiguring the ole gal



For the Starboard side we started with a simple but rough cross cut into the hull. This will be worked and shaped a bit more a little later on



For the port side we cut the aft (rear) crack in the hull. We then made the preliminary cuts for the forward damage. This will also be molded and reworked a little later on in the project.



Next we removed what Revell represented as a "railing"



We also removed the section of the Well deck rails. Both of these modifications were done for both the port and starboard sides of the ship

Next we will attach the two sides of the hull

Till next time... B - Strong

Now that we completed some of the major hull modifications its time to put the two halves together. The hull is kinda flimsy even without its back half removed. I had to make some extra support and bracing back when I built the Olympic kit and will need to do so here as well or else the hull will never stand up to all the handling and upcoming modifications



I choose to use some Tamiya Extra Thin cement for a stronger bonding of the parts



Then I cut the sprue that held the hull itself and glued them to the inside bottom of the hull using a super glue gel I got from the dollar store. This made for a strong seam line



To complete the shull support I took a thick glue stick and cut out two pieces to size and glued them into place at the upper most part of the hull. This will prevent me from squeezing the hull to hard and breaking it in two. These are only meant to be temporary until I get the deck in place. They are held in place with regular ordinary "Elmers" white glue.

Now once this is nice and dry we can start looking at what I think will be the most daunting challenge of this entire build. Bending the hull!

Stay tuned

So now the question is, How do we reproduce the 11 to 15 degree downward angle of the forecastle or "Fooksel" for short and Well deck. This is the area of the ship forward of the mast. What i've seen in the builds where people have shown how to do this, is they heat the area of the hull right below the bridge at the aft (back) most section of the well deck.



I hope this is making sense. The area in yellow is the area I see everyone heating and bending. This process leaves some overly exaggerated bulges in the hull.  While I'm not saying they are wrong I think there's a better way to do this. I just need to figure it out. Especially in such a small scale as this.

Here is what i came up with. First mistake... ok I won't say they are wrong. If it works for others then its not really a mistake now is it? The first misinterpretation is that the Well dek is the only place she broke her back. I say it happened in two places as you can see in the following pictures



As you can see here up to this point right before impact the bow is still in one solid piece. Now keep in mind the ship is not only going down but also slightly forward due to the natural aerodynamics of her hull. She is also traveling somewhere between 35 and 45 miles per hour.



Its at this point when the bow makes contact with the sea bottom at an angle of 15 degrees or so , driving the bow almost 60 feet into the sea floor (The height of a 6 story building) that she snaps at the Expansion joint.





Now with her bow implanted and stuck in the sea bottom the weight of the aft (Back) section and possibly the force of the downward blast of water forces the ship to the sea floor snapping or bending the ship at the Well deck.

So my approach will be to bend the ship in two places

Stay tuned for more....

To start we need to identify the areas where we want to bend the hull.



Here you can see I marked out the two places and also the identical spots on the other side of the hull



Next I made 4 more marks on the bottom of the hull joining the two sides



Next using my super delicate cutting tool I started cutting. Mind you this is not for the faint of heart. There was styrene blood everywhere









Then I cut up from the bottom of the keel all the way to "C" just below the Well Deck

And from the keel all the way up stopping at "B" deck. I also made a cut down through the Promenade deck, again stopping at "B" deck. Notice I made the cuts a "Smiggin" wider at the bottoms by the keel.



The Starboard side got the same treatment with one slight difference. I made the cut at the bottom of the starboard well deck slightly larger. The idea is that when i join the ends that it will pull the bow slightly to the right, a degree or two off center.

Say tuned for more...

Time for some bending. This has me excited and slightly scared. As a reminder you can se here were we gut up the hull in preparation for this



Next I setup my heat gun and cut up some styrene strip patches to assist in holding the hull once its in place.



I glued the strips to the inside of the hull at the very bottom. I only attached one side of each patch. Once secured I used the heat gun at its lowest setting and directed the heat toward the areas that we need to bend. I then re-joined to hull parts together. I then glued the other end of the home made batch and held together till the plastic cooled. The patches were then held with clamps till the glue dried. I started at the expansion joint. Once that was all set I then moved forward to the well deck joint.









Here we can see the difference between the newly modified hull and the non-modified hull of the Olympic. I have to admit, so far I'm pleased with the results

Thanks for taking the time to look at my project. Please Stand by for more updates...

Nice work Dirk. I remember someone on the old eScale site was building a Titanic. But instead of an iceberg it was being attacked by a monster. Thanks for the detailed steps.

coyote wrote:Nice work Dirk.  I remember someone on the old eScale site was building a Titanic.  But instead of an iceberg it was being attacked by a monster.  Thanks for the detailed steps.

I don't recall that build. I would like to have seen it.

110% committed now!

Thanks, Webby

Now that the hull joints are secure its time to finalize the hull damage. To do this I need to heat and bend the plastic but I don't want it to look like its melted plastic if that makes sense.



To achieve this I decided my heat gun would be the wrong tool for this. It would be like a bull in a china shop. I need something that I can use to better direct the heat as opposed to BLASTING heat everywhere and possibly distorting the entire model, but what to use? Then it came to me. My wood burner



This thing gets really hot and it will fit into the model to heat up the plastic around the breach rather then blasting the entire area. Also to help I thinned out the plastic around the hole. Once I got the plastic where I thought it should be I used my knife to sculpt it out to give it, its final appearance.

Next I filled the seams where we joined rejoined the hull to create the bend. For this I used regular ole bondo putty.

Next step is to level out the hull to be mounted on its base. What I mean by this is after making the modifications to bend the hull we turned the shape of it from a straight line (Arrow) to a curve (banana). creating a large gap under the Bridge and Well deck



In reality the Hull section is laying flat on the seafloor with the very front of the bow buried over 60 feet into the silt. If I was to replicate this on my model would need a base about two inches thick and dig a hole for the bow to sit in. That's just silly and I don't want or need a base that thick. So the fix would be to remove 60 scale feet or so of bow. Here is my plan.



Using this highly sophisticated and delicate modeling tool (a belt sander) I set to work. I mounted the belt sander and locked it in the on position. I then sanded the bow section until it was level with the rest of the main hull. Easy peasy. This is where re-enforcing the hull earlier paid off. It actually took a lot of work to hold the hull in place while sanding it down. It was ripped from my hands and shot across the room several times. I have no doubt I would have inadvertently crushed the sides together and broken the keel had I not re-enforced them





Much more gooder...  ;-)  :mrgreen:

Next I need to find some good pictures of both the port and starboard sides of the aft section where she tore apart from the stern. I know it doesn't have to be exact nor will it but I want to try and get close to what it really looks like.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to look at my silly project and a special thanks to those that have been adding to the conversation. You guys are the best

People have been asking what I'm using for reference material for this build. While the internet is a great source I find it difficult at time to find high quality images to inspect. Sure there are a ton out there but a lot are tiny or are blocked. So to get around this I'm going old school and thumbing through my library of books. There is one that I don't have that should supply a vast wealth of images but I need to purchase it as my Library does not have a copy. That is "Ken Marchall's Art of Titanic" by Ken Marchall. This guys paintings are amazing





Meanwhile back at the bench work continues. I hope to have more got you guys soon

I remember seeing on a TV documentary the captains bathtub. There were also tiled bathrooms etc. Fascinating.

coyote wrote:I remember seeing on a TV documentary the captains bathtub. There were also tiled bathrooms etc.  Fascinating.

And don't forget the most amazing thing, the pool is still filled....

Joking aside there are a boatload of amazing and fascinating things about this wreck.

I was able to locate someone who has the Photoetch detail set for the 1/570 Titanic. I wound up buying two sets, one for this build and one for the Olympic.





There is not a lot of parts from this set I'll be using for this build. The obvious is the rails and the Crains. There are still a bunch of items I need to identify before I decide what I can and can't use,

Thanks for looking

Back to the Titanic. What you are looking at is two of the forward sections of the Monogram Titanic kit. The painted one belongs to my build of the HMT Olympic. The painted surface allows me to be able to show comparisons from the Out of Box and what we will be doing. Not that i matters too much but I'm going to use the painted one for this build since I was unhappy with the paint work on the deck and when we are done it wont be seen.



I started by opening up the cargo holds.





Now there will be a scale issue here. I can't get the walls of the cargo holds thin enough to be in scale without removing them and replacing with some sort of aluminum. I am to lazy to go that far so I will file it down the best I can



Next I removed the molded in rails which will be replaced later with Photoetch replacements. I also started cutting styrene for the supports for cargo hold #1





Thanks for taking the time to check out my work

The next thing I want to tackle is the anchor well. It doesn't exist on this kit



Carefully we removed the tip of the forecastle





Then we built ourselves an anchor



Then created a new forecastle tip and reattached



This is more gooder...



Thanks for looking