| Publisher | Designer | Scale | Price | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JF Schreiber 1986 |
Thomas Pleiner | 1:400 | In print, article number 72414 | |
| Wilhelmshaven 1998 |
1:250 | DM 90 $63 |
Limited edition of 500, to be published April 1998. | |
| Ouest France | 1:600 | DM 28 | A set of 3: France, Titanic, Normandie | |
| Taschen 1987, 1993 |
Thomas Siwek | 1:200 | DM 9.95 $10-14 |
Trilingual edition (English, French, German). Out of print, but still available from some sources. Will be reprinted in April '98. ISBN 3-8228-9445-1. |
| Perigee 1981 |
Alan Rose | 1:200 | Out of Print. ISBN 0-399-50564-4. | |
| Chatham River Press | Out of Print? Three models, before, during, and after sinking. ISBN 0-517-68131-5. | |||
| Dorling-Kindersley Press | Book and model included. Intended for children. | |||
| "Make Your Own Titanic", Parragon Publishers, 1998 |
$2.99 | 8 sheets. ISBN 0-75252-838-6 | ||
| Betexa | 1:600 | In print. Czech, English, German. | ||
| Mega Graphic/ABC | 1:400 | Czech. | ||
| GPM | 1:700 | 5? zloty | Sinking diorama, with iceberg and lifeboats. |
from Thomas Pleiner <Thomas.Pleiner@t-online.de>: The Schreiber kit was based on a french plan from the fifties for a wooden model and a Revell plastic kit. In terms of the number of the bridge-windows the Schreiber kit is correct. On the other hand it is very, very simple and shows reduced details--e.g. all life-boats are box-shaped.
from Peter Heesch <106022.2701@compuserve.com>: I have just heard from the Möwe Verlag that Wilhelmshaven will be bringing out a 500 copy limited edition of its own TITANIC. The kit will be available 1 April in Germany and 24 April in the United States. The scale will be the standard Wilhelmshaven ship scale of 1:250, which means the finished model will be 1.07 meters long. As the parts are still being arranged on the sheet for printing, the total number of sheets in the kit has not yet been finalized, but it is anticipated that it will be between 10 and 12 sheets. I have reserved a small number of these kits for sale by H&B Precision Card Models.
from Martyn Griffiths <nipngnwm@q-net.net.au>: Just got Christopher Cooke's latest Marcle newsletter. He mentions the mistake in the Wilhelmshaven Titanic instructions, arrived about 3 days too late for me Chris! Heh :) Not to worry, it's only that part 14 is called part 19 in the instructions, not a problem. One other bit about the model is that several of the formers are too wide or too narrow at the top, you need to watch out a bit there, also the spine is a little too low under the well decks and several other formers don't quite reach the top of the spine, or are *too* high. Um, what else? Oh yes, there are some alignment problems for the rear deck just forward of the aft well deck. (Does that make sense?) Anyway, the location markings for the section of the deck that goes into the interior of the model (which are printed on formers and the spine) appear to be much too low. Doesn't affect fit though, it seems to actually have to go in the right place. Unless I've made some heinous mistake here and the whole thing is now ruined!
from Ingo Hohm <iho@datenrevision.de>: I have seen both the Wilhelmshavener and the Taschen Titanic finished at display at the shop of http://www.scheuer-struever.de.The overall impression of the WIlhelmshavener Kit is quite good, but when I went closer to look at the details to my great astonishment I found no details. It is a fine but low-detailed Kit in the style of the old reissued ships like Olympic Mountain, Willem Barendsz, Alstertor and so on. It has not the details to be found on newer kits like Otto Hahn, Nella Dan etc. I would recommend it if it were much cheaper. Sold for less than half of its price it would be a good buy, but for the details it has the price is outrageous.
Consider the price in comparison to other kits in the same scale: The probably most detailed kit available is Pleiner's Prinz Eugen (see http://www.helo.de/pleiner/kart-peg.htm) with about 6000 parts, which sells at exactly the same price as the Titanic. The Bremen from Hamburger Modellverlag (http://www.scheuer-struever.de/classic/hmv.html) which gives a ship of comparable size is full of details (nearly 5000 parts if you choose always the difficult style) at a price 20 DM less than the Titanic.
The Titanic from Wilhelmshavener is considerably better than the one from Taschen, but both are quite simple models and the difference in quality does not justify the difference in price.
from David Hathaway <david@dhathaway.freeserve.co.uk>: I am building this for my kid - ha! I'm doing it he's watching. It is a good kit and is going together well. I just have the lifeboats, funnels and vents to do. Then I have to decide where to put it!
It's good fun and a not too difficult (but big) introduction to card modelling for anyone you know.
And he later adds: I finished my copy of the Taschen Titanic over Christmas. It has been a lot of fun and I can only give a couple of bits of advice to any prospective assemblers:
1. Reinforce the base and hull sides - gluing sheets of heavier card to the sides would be a good idea. The base in particular gets bent easily.
2. Install a lot of extra deck braces or the deck tends to sag.
3. Make sure the funnel mounting places are all horizontal or the funnels will not be parallel.
4. The piece that makes up the front of the bows seems short and need to be mounted higher up then you think appropriate or you get a slope on the roof of the bridge.
5. The rigging plan is obviously simplified - if this is ok then good, otherwise some research is needed.
6. You need to make the crows nest on the foremast they spotted the iceberg from.
7. The orientation of the navigation bridge on the stern is not obvious.
8. The ventilators point backwards.
Otherwise a damn good fun model to build and suprisingly rigid for its size.
from Martyn Griffiths<nipngnwm@q-net.net.au>: The bulkheads inside the hull should be backed up with heavier stock to reduce warping, they're a little weak.
from Peter Wehrhahn <PeterWehrhahn@t-online.de>: I´ve got one of this, but haven`t built it yet. I don`t think that this model can compare to the Wilhelmshavener models I`ve seen. It may be a good model for a first try to shipmodels.The complete adress of the publisher is:
Benedikt Taschen Verlag GmbH
Hohenzollernring 53
D-50672 Köln
Germany
from Bill O'Neil <mobilone@iac.net>: The Taschen paper kit looked "off" to me in the bridge area; proportions of the bridge windows and height of the area immediately below. Well, I'm partly correct; there are nine windows on the bridge, not seven as in the kit. How many in the Alan Rose kit? Plus the open sub-bridge deck seems too high. How can a kit designer make such errors when such a well-documented subject is being done?
from Thomas Pleiner <Thomas.Pleiner@t-online.de>: Indeed the Taschen kit is partly incorrect. It shows seven bridge-windows instead of nine. My impression is that the Taschen kit is based on Alan Rose's drawings. Some parts of the kits look quite identical. The drawings of the Taschen kit do not look very professional to me.
from Peter Ansoff <peter_ansoff@compuserve.com>: I also received my Taschen Titanic and had a chance to compare it to the Alan Rose version. First impression is that they are two completely different models -- structure and details are considerably different. The Rose version seems a bit more colorful and attractive.
The Rose kit has nine bridge windows. Like the rest of the windows on this kit, they are plain black rather than "shaded" like the Taschen version.
from Jeff Cwiok <cwiokster@aol.com>: I noticed one problem with this one. The stern is too full or bulged out at the waterline, where it should taper more gradually to the rudder. It should be fixable though.The following sites show built up examples of the Alan Rose kit:
from Robert Tauxe <Tauxerob@aol.com>: A few years ago thre was a cleverly done boklet of the Titanic, which had three versions. A half model (the flat side was printed with the interior), a dramatic Sinking model (including little lifeboats pulling away), and the wreck on the floor. I built it, and dont have the booklet any more. That's the only half model that have seen - it sure would save on space.
from Bob Pounds <Bobp@dynamite.com.au>: I have a copy of this publication. While the models are a bit 'chunky' in appearance, they are still an interesting set to have.
from Jeff Cwiok <cwiokster@aol.com>: I've seen this, and as a shipmodeler I was disappointed. Good idea, but too crudely executed. The ships hulls came out looking like a '1912 stealth liner', all flat planes instead of graceful curves.
from Lou Coatney <mslrc@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu>: I might add that among other interesting TITANIC materials is the Chatham River Press book MAKE A MODEL: TITANIC (ISBN 0-517-68131-5) which actually contains *3 neat* models. The first is a full-length half-model showing the ship's exterior on one side and a cross-section of the interior on the other. The second model is of TITANIC stern-high, just before she took her final plunge ... and with a model of the suspect iceberg in attendance. The final model is of the wreck on the sea floor, with exploration vehicles about. This sequence of models in their own way impart the historical process, of course.
from Gunnar Sillén<gunnar@modellbyggare.com>: Titanic, scale 1:600, published by: Betexa Z.S., Stefanikova 11, 602 00 Brno, CR (e-mail: betexa@betexa.anet.cz). 8 pages on glossy paper (3 pages with model, the rest with drawings, history and instructions in Czech, English and German). A rather simple model, possible to motorize.
from Liane Struever <liane.struever@scheuer-struever.de>: The Betexa Titanic is now available at S&S.
from Gunnar Sillén<gunnar@modellbyggare.com>: Titanic, scale 1:400, published by: Mega Graphic in collaboration with the ABC-magazine. 10 pages A4 in a 4 page wrapper with history, pictures and building instruction. Only in Czech, but with clear diagrams.
from James G. Pepper <Jpepperos@aol.com>: My Titanic, made out of paper, 3 bamboo skewers (for the working drive shafts), toothpicks for the Engine Pistons (the engine turn over), wire, 5 paper-clips and string for the lifeboats, is on display at http://titanic-model.com/pepper_model.html. (I am not otherwise associated with that site.)This ship will be on display September 15 through October 15 at the Fondren Library at Southern Methodist University (exhibit website). Two ships will be at the main entrance to the Library so everyone will see them, people have to pass them to enter the Library. Also an article with a picture was written on the exhibition. I used the plans from "Engineering Magazine," I found it in SMU's Science and Engineering Library. These same plans are on Mr. Knapp's site. [Editor's note: an illustrated article describing Mr. Pepper's models can be found at The Debris Field.]
from James Nunn <jnunn@tstonramp.com>: If you get a chance to visit Southern California you my like to visit the Los Angeles Maritime Museum in San Pedro. They have a model of the Titanic in what appears to be 1/4 inch scale (it's over 12 feet long) that is a full cut away showing every thing down to the chain locker and its all card stock and paper! I understand that the builder took over 6 years to build it.
from Dariusz Lipinski <TonClass@netcom.ca>: I think this model of TITANIC you've mentioned had been build by fellow named Roberto Pirrone. In scale 1:48 the model is 18.5 feet long and consists of four interlocking sections. The short feature about this model was written in SCALE MODELS magazine, I think, several years ago. In issue No. 7, Spring 1996, Cardboard Engineering Group's newsletter remembered this article, that's why I know about it. It says that even the machinery, whenever possible, actually works. For example, "the steering gear turns, the cranes move, the davits lower, and the propellers rotate." I wonder what's happened to this fellow, did he build anything else, do you guys know anything more about him?
from Peter J. Visser <peter@peterjvisser.demon.nl>: When everybody was talking about the Titanic (the film and the model) I remembered that I made the perfect model to go with it: an Iceberg! I made it years ago and just for fun, it was never published, but I thought it would be nice to put on my homepage. It's not the perfect model kit, but it is nice to put next to your Titanic model. It's black and white only (add some colour if you want) and only 51K. Editor's Note: M. Visser rotates the models on his home page fairly regularly, so get the iceberg while you can.
cardfaq@bellsouth.net
| Steve Brown
|