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Titanic is probably the best-known ship in modern history. Since sinking in 1912 her story has entered popular culture as a tale of human pride and tragedy. Titanic was the second of three massive ships built by the White Star Line for the transatlantic passenger trade. At 883 feet long and over 46,000 tons she was the largest ship in the world when she embarked in early April 1912 on her maiden voyage to New York.
Just before midnight on 14 April Titanic struck an iceberg, damaging the hull below the waterline. Despite her elaborate system of watertight doors and bulkheads, the ship was doomed. Outdated safety regulations had provided far fewer lifeboats than was necessary to evacuate the 2200 passengers and crew, and most people were still aboard when the ship finally went down at 2:20 a.m. Only about 700 survivors remained when rescue vessels arrived at first light. News of the sinking caused shock worldwide. Maritime safety rules were immediately improved, including the provision of sufficient lifeboats on ships. In 1985 Titanic's wreck was discovered on the ocean floor, and in recent years several expeditions have visited the decaying remains of the once-great liner.
This model builds into a 1:1200 scale waterline replica of Titanic and is approximately 9 inches long when complete. You will need a colour printer capable of handling card or cover stock to print the parts sheets. 67 lb cover stock (approx 8.5 thousandths of an inch or 0.2 mm thick) is recommended.
My thanks to Gerardo Escobedo for test building this model and making helpful suggestions for improvement. Note to webmasters! If you want to offer this kit on your site, please read this first.
21 Dec 2009: Card modeler Jerry Vondeling has modified the Titanic model to depict her sister, the hospital ship Britannic. He has kindly made the new parts and instructions available on this site, and they may be obtained from the download page linked below.
12 Feb 2010: Jerry Vondeling has created another Titanic modification to show the ship as portrayed in the 1980 movie Raise the Titanic. He has kindly made the new parts and instructions available on this site, and they may be obtained from the download page linked below.
30 Apr 2010: Another Jerry Vondeling modification depicting the Olympic, Titanic's older sister, in two variations of wartime “dazzle” camouflage. He has kindly made the new parts and instructions available on this site, and they may be obtained from the download page linked below.
NEW- 15 July 2010: Jerry Vondeling has created another Olympic modification to showing the ship as she appeared in the 1920s. He has kindly made the new parts and instructions available on this site, and they may be obtained from the download page linked below.
The model files The parts and instructions are in PDF format. You will need a PDF reader to view and print them. If files are unavailable or slow to download, try at a different time of day, when the file servers may be less busy. Primary site: Go to the download page
Related links RMS Titanic - The Wikipedia entry gives a good overview of the ship and her history. Titanic Research and Modeling Association - Created with the scale modeler in mind, this site contains a vast amount of information about Titanic and her sisters and an active discussion forum. Hospital Ship Britannic - A site devoted to the last Olympic-class liner, sunk by a mine during the First World War. Titanic photo gallery - From MaritimeQuest, a wonderful collection of photos showing Titanic from her construction to her final resting place. Olympic videos - From youtube.com, three short videos showing life aboard RMS Olympic, Titanic's sister ship. |
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Last updated on 17 July, 2010 Copyright 2007-2010 by Ralph Currell |
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