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 The drawings
I am a very impatient person. So, I want to see results very fast, which doesn't always goes with the goal of a model builder. Thus, I did not do complete drawings before the construction, but drew them as the building progress demanded. That needs some understanding of the material, but I haven't regretted it personally. Of course, it is easier for those who take the availiable commercial plans, but they did not correspond to my imagination.
Those who have the money can buy the copies of the original- building maps at Harland & Wolff and do not even need to draw themselves. Tom McCluskie, former worker of the Belfast shipyard, brought out a book in which many maps, views and pictures are published ("Die TITANIC im Detail", ISBN 3-8298-5335-2) By the way, I often get demands for maps of the titanic. I have to refuse them; you can, however, refer to a good map, which you can find at www.titanic-plan.de. It is drawn by Robert Hahn CAD and also presents the smaller details. Those who start to do such a model should spend some money for this good plan.
I also recommend getting a lot of literature, so that you can always look at original pictures again.
Do it yourself
 At first I copied the plans that you can find in the shipbuilder-reprint, so that all the lines can be seen very well. Those who have the technique or who have the access to it can bring it on the corresponding yardstick right away. Unfortunately the maps don't offer tears of frames and the ones that you can get in shops didn't convince me at all because of the incorrect presentation (Robert Hahn's plan didn't exist back then). Therefore, the tear of the frame had to be done with the available material. That's not too hard. However, it needs some patience.
At first you draw lines perpendicular to a certain point (has to be the same with every deck). With 15 to 20 lines (frames later on) you can do it pretty well. However, you should choose smaller distances in the stern- and bow area, since the cambers are bigger here. Then the best thing to do is to take a piece of graph paper and to draw a vertical line on the left margin.
That'll be the symmetric axis of the frame later on. On this line you draw the distances of the single decks, which are easily to be taken from the side view and are shown in many maps. Right at that point you then draw horizontal lines on the graph paper. That still works pretty easy. Now a troublesome tash has to be done - the copying of the single points of every single frame. Here, of course, we just measure from the outer skin to the middle line of the ship. You have to measure exactly! Also you have to be clear up to which deck you draw the frames. In this model you go until the end of the b-deck.
 So, several points on line 1 have to be measured and have to be converted on the graph paper. Now everybody has to decide, if he starts a new paper for frame 2 or if he draws several frames on one sheet. I drew 10 frames on one.
At first, the tears of frame just consist of points, which now have to be connected. You should not do that with a regular ruler, because the hull would have angular outer contours, but with a curved ruler, which you can get in every school supply shop. Here skills and imagination are required. Fortunately, the frames of the middle ship are all equal, so that you save some work here. However, you should always measure again, where things can change. Even with the frames in the middle of the ship changes are necessary later on, because the notches for the roll keel have to be put in here.
 You should also pay attention to which of the upper deck promenades and entrances have to be left out (especially in the back area of the c- deck and the front area of the b- deck). You also have to think about the fact that the corrugated decks lie deeper and still have to be filled with a pavement. By now you probably cannot wait anymore because you really want to begin. Before the tears of frame can be transfered onto the wood, you have to be clear about how strong the outer skin of the model will be because this strength has to be taken on every frame. Mine is 5 millimeters. Now the cutting-out can start. Every frame should not be produced as a full frame, but should always be hollow. That reduces the weight and allows space for the components. For those whom it's a new experience to rebuild the Titanic it should slo be useful to get the corresponding model building literature.
The following books should not be missing in any bookshelf, for they give indispensable tips for the model builder:
Helmut Drexler, Schiffsmodell-Rümpfe selbst gebaut, ISBN 3-7883-0622-X
Theodor Viehweg, Schiffsmodellbau I - III, ISBN 3-7883-2101-6, 3-7883-0129-5 and 3-7883-0613-0
All four books appeared in the Necker- Verlag, Villingen-Schwenningen
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