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 The plating
In the lines before, I described how you could get a hull for a TITANIC model with the yardstick of 1:100 (of course, other yardsticks are possible too with this method).
Now the hull is produced so far that it actually could have been varnished already. If you look at it closely, however, something crucial is missing: the rough hull plating of the original, for at the time of building of the titanic in the beginning of the last century the steel plates of the hulls were not welded, but riveted.
 I've been thinking for a long time about how these, over another lying steel plates of a one-inch strength of the role model, can be shown on the model. I rejected thin sheets of ABS-plates because of the bad bending property on the strong cambers; plastic-foil as well because of the soft material, on which scratches and grip points could be seen later on.
A possible method would be, to draw the steel plates on the clean varnished and primed hull and to supply those outlines with a thin glue seam. That required a very steady hand. You could use water proof wood glue and dilute it a little bit into a small plastic bottle. With an needle a thin line is drawn on the former marking. When the glue has set and the hull accepts the varnish, then the glues lines differ very obviously from the smooth surface.
It is just important to find the right consistence of the glue. If it is too thin, the so-called line turns out badly, if it is too hard, the lines get irregular easily and the big effort would have been for nothing. So, in any case try it with this method. There is an advantage: If something goes wrong, you can just wipe the glue away. By the way, you can also present excellent welding seams this way. Even the single blank can be rebuilt by small glue patches. At the end, however, I recommend going over the entire hull with a thin Epoxy-layer using this method again. This has to be done carefully though, for every "lump" can be seen! Nevertheless, I did not use this method, since I found a planking method that looks a lot more like the original.
It is, however, very time intensive as well. You can plan 3 weeks of work for this. You can accomplish it faster by working through the night but then you will likely fall out with your wife. I found an aluminum foil, which is like the one used with the production of street signs. It sticks by itself, is just 2 ten'ths of a millimeter strong, varnished wel and cuts well, adjusts itself well with the base and thus fulfills all conditions. Today it sounds so obvious, but I needed several weeks until I finished all the tests on the foil. I didn't want to run the danger, of spending so much time and then having to throw away the hull in the end because the glue sticks so well, that you will never get the foil off without tools. With the production of my first trunk I just had a few detailed drawings, and so that the single plate imitations where chosen as the drawings permitted it. That was enough for the normal observer and also for my opinion at that time. Those who have seen the model in Hamburg or Zurich can make up their minds themselves. With my now almost go 2nd hull I have already paid close attention that the plates sit like they did in the original. It wasn't possible to do this everywhere with my picture collection collection and so there are acceptions.
At first, lines were drawn on the hull with a pencil. I began with the mid ship at the app. height of the e-deck. Here the most careful work is necessary, because this dictates the quality later on. If you look at the original, you notice that an upper steel plate layer is fastened above the one that is lying under it. So, I cut stripes with the necessary width out of aluminum foil and I lengthen it like the plate measures were given (most of the plates of the original were standardized). On the end of this lower plate I stuck tiny holes with the distance of 1 millimeter from the backside of the material. For that I was laying a double layer of the same material under it, to get the wanted blank imitation by the piercing. I really liked this method. You can do the piercing with a small wheel too, just like the tailor uses it to mark a fabric. That's more efficient and looks nice and even.
 Now I glued the stripes, beginning on the heck, on the future-lower row. A small over-stand to the next little plate of about 1 mm caused an on-doubling. Then it was the row after the next one's turn, etc. the original gap is being closed by an upper plate. However, I put blank imitation on 3 sides of this plate, many with a double row of blanks as well. Here, I have to say, that I glued 2 aluminum strip above each other for this upper row. That strengthened the correct impression. Plate for plate you notice progresses, even if you want to give up sometimes. I did not count the plates, but some square meters of the foil were used. You should pay attention to the strengthened putting-the-plates-down in the area of the middle sip at the height of the c- and d- deck. Here the foil was glued above each other 4 times and many strengthening had to be fixed. This more- work, however, compensates the trouble in any case, because this putting-the-plates-down looks really good.
Here there are complete blank rows between the portholes, sometimes crossed, sometimes until 3 or 4 times blanked. For that, I tinkered a see-through plate out of parchment paper, have marked the position of the already existing potholes and then marked the blanks with the pencil. To have as many blanks as possible at one spot, I copied all possible pictures, which show this area and papered the complete wall in my garage with them. This expenditure was worth it though, even if this one-meter of foil caused as much work as the entire hull. A relieved feeling comes over one, when the last plate is being fixed. This result was rolled over with epoxy-resin too and since then the plates are unshakable.
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Introduction
