Airfix has has announced the June 2015 release of kit A50164, a full-hull version of the RMS Titanic in 1/700 scale.

This “new” Titanic model is actually a reissue of the Academy’s 2007 kit. It is, however, cleanly molded and easy to assemble, and while I'm no Titanic expert, the kit's proportions are convincing and the completed model looks like the great ship.

Detail is pretty good considering its size (15 inches), and much of it is is superior to many of the larger scale Titanic kits I've seen. This Titanic seems to have been designed with younger or more casual modelers in mind. The complex structures of the original are broken down into relatively few assemblies so that the model can be built up quickly. Nevertheless, the large amount of attractive molded on detail keeps it from looking too toylike. The crisp, precise moldings were a pleasure to handle with no flash, sink marks, or visible ejector pin marks anywhere. The parts are molded in black, white and tan plastic with components broken down so that one could build a nice looking Titanic model without painting it. Decks are in tan, for example, and the white strip along the forecastle above the ship's name is a separate part molded in white to be attached to the black hull. The result is basic but effective. This clever pre-coloring of parts is actually a return to the very roots of plastic ship modeling, like Revell's Taney and Eastwind kits from the early 1950s. Another nod to less experienced modelers (although useful for all of us!) was the inclusion of spares of some of the smaller parts with extra vents, crane assemblies – even a spare rudder!

As a more experienced modeler I was less than thrilled with the simplified assemblies which in places look a bit chunky, and the prominent hull plating, though dramatic, is overdone for the scale. There are also a few minor mistakes - incorrectly angled propellers, missing double row of portholes along D-deck, no stanchion at the forward open end of B-deck, and a much simplified, Britannic-style aft A-deck. These could all be corrected, and much could be improved with the application of photoetch as well, but ultimately the simplified molded in details and that plating mean that creating an accurate scale model from this kit would require a significant amount of work.

Perhaps the best way to experience this model is to take its designers aparently intended it: as an attractive, easy to build alternative to the more impressive, but also more challenging, larger scale renditions of the great ship.

The Airfix 1/700 scale RMS Titanic is available for ¥3,680 (approximately US$29.64) from Hobbylink Japan at http://www.hlj.com/product/ARF50164/Nav.