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 Building of the hull
In the beginning I told you my method of getting to a tear of frame of the TITANIC. I am glad that I was not alone with that, for a lot of telephone caller who are model building colleagues and future colleagues used a similar way with their building.
The hull
However, let's get to the actual hull. It is advantageous, if not neccessary to have a "Helling" (that means a large board of at least 280 x 40 cm), on which then a middle line and the location of every single tear of frame is marked. The best thing to use is a joiner's plate, as it has a very soft surface and is also very cheap. Such plates are available in almost every builder's market. You build upside down, which does not mean, that the joiner's plate is screwed on the ceiling, but that the hull of the TITANIC is standing on the head, meaning with the keel pointing upwards. In the frame a notch for the wood keel is worked out at first.
With my ship it is pine ledge with a width of 10x20mm. Since almost all frames go as high as the keel, you already have a pretty good indication for the heights. On the sides as well I have fixed two helping sticks on every frame, which, however, are just 10x10 mm wide. They just serve for the exact positioning of the frame on the Helling.
 With the position you should consider that they will not be fixed there where later on holes for the portholes have to be drilled. When all openings are worked out, the structure of the framework can begin. Here you actually just have to consider that the frames have different heights. So, some have to be lined. Every frame can be fastened on the right side on the Helling very easily, by fixing a little stick in front of and behind the frame, in which you pinch the corresponding frame. If you have to line, then you first of all put some board with the strength under it and on that you then put the pinch sticks. Start in the middle with the frames, which are all equal. If you have stuck the keel ledge in the clef of the frames, an exact line hast to develop. This also can be controlled when the sideways ledge are glued in. I used waterproofed glue. If it has to go fast, you can also take the red bottle.
The plating
Now the plating can start. There are four possibilities. With my first hull I used keel ledge, with the second balsa wood. Since I recommend putting on the finished hull with an epoxy resin layer with fabric filling, I would prefer the balsa wood today because of the easier processing and lower costs. You can even use strong cardboard, if you afterwards put a stronger glass fabric on it.
I will describe the plating with balsa. Here you can at first process whole little boards of 100x100mm (thickness of 5mm) at the even spots of the hull. That's easy. First you make the piece fit, then you lengthen and smear the frame edges with glue. The balsa is laid on and is fastened with needles or thin pins. After drying it can be removed again. That is very easy, isn't it? It is going to be more difficult with the round parts. Here, narrower ledges have to be made to fit and have to be cut with a cutter knife. That needs some patience. The last part of the bow of the TITANIC and also that of the stern I produced out of balsa, which has been glued onto the last frame. It will take several hours to plate the entire hull.
You do not need to be very accurate as I thought in the beginning. Emery paper and file do their part. When everything is plated, the hull is put into form. It is varnished, at first with a rasp on the round parts then with rough sandpaper and finally with the thinner one. You do not have to work to hard as the GfK-layer will come about anyway. However, clear curves should develop and bumps and dents should disappear. It is better if it is a millimeter out. When this rough work is done, we spray the hull with filling, varnish it a couple of times with sand paper (granulation 80-100) and prime it. The tackle ledge should have been fixed already. Now you can cut them out of a wooden ledge. Since the hull is not straight with the long squiggle keel, following remains the same: I cut on a part where the squiggle keel is sitting, an app. 8 millimeter broad slit in the finished hull, pushed a balsa ledge with the same strength into it and could now redraw the hull form exactly. After the ledge has been taken out of the hull, I could saw- out the form corresponding to the squiggle keel strength and afterwards it was varnished peaking. This procedure takes only a few hours.
The wave tunnel is being put up before or after the laminating. To do it before you resin, has the advantage of a greater strength. For that you take balsa, which you spin around on a lathe and which you drill out with the strength of the shafting (8-10 mm). Then you make the wave tunnel fit on the hull and you cut a wide piece of flat balsa wood as a connection to the hull. Here you need to plan a little bit more time, because the shafting has to fit exactly. The laminating with the epoxy resin is not difficult if you consider some principles. The resin is mixed out of 2 components. Depending on the resin a processing time of 30- 45 minutes is needed. So you have to prepare a few things. I recommend cutting the glass texture in narrow stripes that may be 20x30 cm large, previously. If you use a hull you can choose longer strips. Then the resin is mixed (stir well and ensure there is enough) and is laid on with a small paint roller on the hull. Then you put on the piece of glass texture and roll over it again. You really have to pay attention that no air bubbles develop and that the resin is just laid on so thick that it does not run. The single pieces of glass texture should overlay themselves at by at least 5 mm.
Now you need patience
 Then the actual work begins which is determining the looks of the model, but this also demands the most patience: the polishing. At first rough unevenness in the varnish fabrics are polished away with rough sandpaper, and then the entire hull is filled. Here the best thing to do is to ask in a paint shop, because there are high-quality spatula masses, which get hard very quickly and are polished very well.
I managed to use a 2 kg container with my model. Again and again you have to polish and control the sidelight, where there is still unevenness in the hull. To be honest, those who want to be model builders and watch this procedure right now will lose their interest. With a big hull you could spend 50 - 100 hours just polishing and spatulaing and the sandpaper will get thinner an thinner. In the end you should take 160 or maybe even 240 grain sandpaper.
With the polishing of such things as the bulwarks, c- and b-decks (out of 1.5mm plywood or aluminum sheet), hawse pipes and hull are going to be added and polished. Of course, there are other methods to produce a hull as well, e.g. completely out of GFK with negative and positive form. Those who prefer so should do so. Nowadays you can also buy a ready-made hull in this yardstick.
The rudder
Mine consists of a plywood framework,for which I used laminated rudder hinges from an aeroplane model kit. Thus, the framework was sealed with a layer of 8 mm airplane plywood and then filled with varnishing resin. Here you have to pay attention that all rudder hinges lay in one level. For that you can stick a piece of brass wire through a single hinge opening and control the free run. This is crucial for the functioning of the rudder later on. Besides, you really have to pay attention with the varnishing resin, make sure that it doesn't glue up the hinges. By the way, a round stick out of messing wire into the hull. Later on, the mounting for the rudder machine is fastened on.
The portholes
 Now, after a hundred hours of work, stands before me the almost complete hull of TITANIC. However, the portholes are missing, a total of over 1200.
The single levels for the portholes are transferred directly on the primed trunk and then measured exactly. With this first model just 3 sizes were suitable; with my hull being in the final stages right now portholes with the size of 3-7 mm are build in, a total of five different sizes. You drill these holes with a sharp wood twist drill with the top. You should just use high quality tools because cheap drills aren't durable enough and sometimes they already get blunt after the tenth hole. Nevertheless you should also regrind the good drills or replace them with new ones, if you notice that you get messy drill holes. It takes quite a while until all drill holes are in the right place in the hull. You should also take your time because a slipped drill hole might disfigure the whole hull.
Of course, the portholes aren't put in yet, for the hull has to be provided with the famous steel plate imitation and has to be varnished as only then the TITANIC becomes the TITANIC. The portholes themselves are veered out of brass rod, are filled with epoxy resin and then being put in. The big portholes made of little brass plates are glued in front, because these windows are put into a round opening, but are more angular.
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