Academy 1/400 RMS Titanic Centenary Anniversary Edition

Robert W Martel
Since I can't paint yet I decided to start a long term project too. This will take quite some time !!! I did get a cheapo light kit for it also.
Also bought Toms windows & detail sets. The kit comes with a lot of PE, but no window frames !
I'm not sure what all the rave is. Everywhere I read says they are a MUST HAVE, but I don't get it. Firstly the directions say to remove the window frames from the kit. RIGHT. They are pretty small, some are tiny. I tried 1, and it would be near impossible to do without making a mess of them. Then when I tried to match the PE ones to the windows, They Don't Fit !! they are either too big or too small. You'll either see plastic inside the PE frame or see gaps at the top or bottom. You cant really just put them over the windows, you will see the plastic frames under the super thin PE ones, not much point in that! So I'm supposing I'll have to try painting them one way or another. The Toms frames may be accurately scaled as the full scale ship, but they don't fit the Academy kit very well. You would think they would design them to fit the kit better. After all that's where the are being used. Right???

Thomas Mayer
I have the 1/350 scale edition, also collected some of Tom´s PE and a wooden deck from Scaledecks. Will follow your build; I am sure there is a lot to learn!
What about those strips of Tamiya tape on the hull on the first pics?

Robert W Martel
Hi Thomas.
LOL the tape was just to keep track of where I was drilling the holes. I did them in sections. It really did take quite some time to drill them all and clean them up as you get ugly burrs on the back sides. and all together with the deck sides there are over 800 holes. I'm also planning on filling them with Window Maker. I did buy a cheap light kit for it, so that will also take some extra time & effort!
I hope the Tom's fit better in 350 than they do for this 400. I'm not too happy about that. I'm going to have to paint them I guess, its gonna take some time! But then I did say it was a long term project didn't I. Longer than I anticipated I suspect. The wood decks aren't going to be EASY either! We'll see about the rest of the PE that came with it, railings and benches wont be too difficult I'm hoping.
I do really like the kit and it's one I've been looking forward to building. I bought it 4 years ago, it's been sitting in my closet! It will be cool when finished, I'm taking my time!
At this point I'm getting what little parts I can cleaned up and waiting for some Tamiya paint to get here, PE bender and a few other things. Also waiting for better weather!
I think the worst part about this kit is the lack of coordination between the original instructions and the new sheets that show the PE and wood. It's hard to figure what to do at which stage! Actually the plastic rails and such look pretty good and it would probably look fine using them, but the PE if manageable will probably look better. We'll see !!
Anyway, thanks for looking Thomas. The progress will be slow, and I'll be doing other projects along with this one.
Cheers !!

Thomas Mayer
Hi Robert! Surely these are not kits to be build in a hurry. Mine still is up on a bokk shelf, waiting for the mood to start it. One day... 😉

Robert W Martel
You got that right !!

Robert W Martel
SO,,,,, after doing some of the basic parts cleanup and putting together a few things, and studying the instructions over and over, I'm noticing a lot of stupid errors with this kit. This doesn't count that every review says that the railings(plastic ones), and other things are Grossly out of scale. I don't care about ant of that! What I care about is FIT of the parts and does it look realistic when assembled!!
Do ANY of these kit makers have someone building the kits to check for problems BEFORE the are put into mass production ????? OBVIOUSLY NOT !!! These guys are absolutely OUT TO LUNCH! There are so many obvious F ups it's hard to fathom.
The instructions are the first obvious flaw. Extremely poorly done for this "Deluxe" kit. They really should have completely redone the instructions, not just poorly tried to amend them with a few sheets of pictures !!I'll try to describe them as I go along with the pics in the project album.

Martin Oostrom
PE instructions can be a real pain in the ***
Just kerp thinking and you'll figure it out.
Good start 👍

Robbie
Great info. I have this kit in the stash. Even bought a ton of AM stuff for it. But what you have shown, I think this kit is going way, way back deep into the stash so far it might show up on ebay. I am getting too old for that kind of plastic anguish. I will still watch to see how you fare. Oh and to pile it on more, many sources say that the hull plates overlap in the wrong direction.
I even picked this up to help but so far your post has been more informative. amazon.com/Shipcraft..tannic/dp/1848321104

Robbie
One more comment, to strip chrome try soaking in automotive break fluid. That is what the Car model builders say.

Robert W Martel
Thanks Martin, I need some encouragement !! Yes it's going to take a LOT of thinking and planning. I'm determined to do it !! One way or another ! I am noticing the PE instructions are NOT so great! they leave a lot to figure out. But I'm a stick with it kind of guy, I'll get it done if it kills me ! Definitely not a quickie! Good thing I'll keep a couple other projects going on the side, so when I need some stress relief from this one I'll have something else going too. lol

Robbie, I getcha ! totally! I'm already too old for this kind of nonsense !! Yes, I read about the hull plates too !! AH, I'm not a big stickler for accuracy anyway, nobody that sees it will ever know the difference anyway. As a matter of fact very few will ever see it period, just ME ! As long as it looks good, I'm happy, inaccuracy doesn't bother me, it's detail of the little things, like inside out windows!, gaps between walls etc that bother me.
If I had only had a clue I might do the same. When I bought the kit 4 years ago all the reviews RAVED about it. Best Titanic ever,,,, bla bla bla. Obviously no one had built it yet !
You know,,,,, it could probably be just thrown together and look just fine, I'm just too picky for that!

The book would probably be helpful, especially for colors and part identification which this kit sorely lacks. I've looked at other kits instructions and no 2 are the same as far as colors go! But I'm not sure I want to spend MORE $$$ on this kit. I'm using the colors from the older Minicraft 1/400 kit instructions, they seem more logical to me, and they identify parts too. That's how I know what the 2nd class entrance is ! I've already bought paints, threads, misc "stuff", both Toms & Eduard PE sets, the windows on either one just don't fit! But on the plus side I have lots of spare railings and things. So far the kit PE looks the best of them all, but didn't come with windows! And why they primed one sheet and not the other is beyond me !!

Yea it seems some plating comes off better in different stuff. I have used brake fluid, purple stuff, bleach etc. some work better than others on different kits. Go figure. Actually when I took these out of the bleach the plating came right off with a toothbrush!

Thanks for looking & commenting guys. Everything is helpful. Do plan on this being a LOOOONG term project. Surely won't be done next week, next month, maybe even next year !! LOL

Like your logo btw

Cheers !