Zvezda, one of the mainstream scale modeling companies has put out a new model of famous and most iconic ocean liner. With the box number 9059 and date of production April 2016 it is a newly tooled scale representation of the famous passenger ship.
Introduction
The Olympic-class ocean liners consisted of three ships built by Harland and Wolff for the White Star Line, which were advertised at the time as unsinkable. The trio was named Olympic, Titanic and Britannic. However history can be cruel sometimes and time showed that the advert was not true, as two of the three were lost in their early days. Titanic sunk at its maiden voyage in 1912 as a consequence of hitting an iceberg, while Britannic was sunk in 1916 by German mine or torpedo from submarine U79 during WWI.
RMS Titanic
As it is widely known Titanic sunk on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, carrying some of the wealthiest people in the world at the time. She sank after colliding with an iceberg in early morning of April 15th 1912, carrying more than 1500 people to her watery grave (out of 2224 passengers on board), making it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in modern history (actually the third in the total number of casualties – Philippines’ ferry Dona Paz sinking claimed 4386 victims, and Senegalese ferry Le Joola claimed 1863 victims). She was the largest ship afloat when it entered service. She lacked enough lifeboats for passengers (there were enough lifeboats for only about 1200 people, which was around the third of ship’s full capacity).
Class and type: Olympic-class ocean liner
Tonnage: 46,328 GRT
Displacement: 52,310 tons
Length: 882 ft 9 in (269.1 m)
Beam: 92 ft 0 in (28.0 m)
Height: 175 ft (53.3 m) (keel to top of funnels)
Draught: 34 ft 7 in (10.5 m)
Depth: 64 ft 6 in (19.7 m)
Decks: 9 (A–G)
Installed power: 24 double-ended and five single-ended boilers feeding two reciprocating steam engines for the wing propellers, and a low-pressure turbine for the center propeller; output: 46,000 HP
Propulsion: Two three-blade wing propellers and one four-blade center propeller
Speed: Cruising: 21 kn (39 km/h; 24 mph). Max: 24 kn (44 km/h; 28 mph)
Capacity: Passengers: 2,435, crew: 892. Total: 3,327 (or 3,547 according to other sources)
Notes: Lifeboats: 20 (sufficient for 1,178 people)
She rests on the seabed split in two at the depth of 12,415 feet (3,784 m). But the memory on the Titanic disaster is kept alive by both museums around the world keeping the recovered artifacts and by works of popular culture, such as movies, books, songs, exhibits and so forth.
Review
Models of this ship are a not a big novelty in the market and the only ship that has more models than Titanic is the Bismarck. Namely, almost every scale model manufacturing company produced a model of Titanic at least once in its history. But the interesting thing about this 1/700 scale model is that it is a completely new tooled, and that the whole design process is made with 3D software. The number count of the parts is 150, and they are cast in three different plastic colors; black, white and brown, so the model can be assembled without any painting. As for the precision of the molding, the model has no flash whatsoever, but some details are rather huge for the scale. Such as anchor chains, size of the deck boards, bollards, while the stern deck benches are pretty simple. Therefore this model is by no means the top of the offering list when it comes to precision, but it is nonetheless, a very nice model of the most famous liner ship.
The box illustration represents a ship entering the danger zone filled with ice bergs, i. e. just before disaster. Instruction sheet is understandable and simple to follow with the model. A small sheet of decals (with flags, and markings) is supplied with the kit. A color chart (for those of you who decide to paint the model) is given by Zvezda in the Humbrol range. The model parts are nicely packed in the box of appropriate size. There are two parts on the of black sprue that are supplied to strengthen the hull and are a great help for aligning the hull halves together. The alignment parts support the deck so it can sit properly. Looking over the parts, it seems that the build will be an easy one without much work needed to clean the parts; although, judging by the look of some of the parts, it seems like the kit is older. The molds of the deck details look rather oversized. If a modeler wants true to scale representation of the RMS Titanic there will be a lot of work in getting it these parts to look correct. Therefore, this kit is probably planned as the introductory kit to ship modeling or as an easy weekend project and. The decal sheet provided looks nice and provides flags, nameplates and depth markings for the ship.
Conclusion
Despite a relatively wrong appearance to scale of some of the surface details (especially on the decks), in my opinion this model is quite good for newbies to ship modeling or possibly for the experienced modeler as a weekend project; a little break from photo-etched detail sets. Taking everything supplied with the kit into the account, the model is just right for relaxation or a first ship building project for the younger modeler. To those of you interested in this topic, the model would be a welcome addition to your collection. I would like to thank Zvezda for supplying the model for the review as well as for the prize pool for “Danube 1255” IPMS scale model competition.
Model Shipwrights would like to thank Rade Marjanovic for providing this personal review of Zvezda's RMS Titanic.
SUMMARY
Highs: Newly designed with 3D software, no flash, quick and easy build, great as an intro to ship modeling, relaxation project or quick buildLows: Over scale details, especially on decksVerdict: Decent scale representation of RMS Titanic. Easy assembly means that the kit is great as intro to ship modeling or as a weekend break from more advanced kits with super detail PE sets
Our Thanks to Zvezda! This item was provided by them for the purpose of having it reviewed on this KitMaker Network site. If you would like your kit, book, or product reviewed, please contact us.
I knocked one of these out OOTB a few years ago when it was first released (by Academy, I believe). With the precolored parts, it looked reasonable even without paint (at least as a room decoration for my teenage daughter who was a big fan of the DiCaprio/Winslet Titanic movie!)
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