Posted by Dan Dalton on February 23, 1999 at 20:05:15 in 153.36.96.97:
Wow, I wish I had found this wealth of information (and inspiration) earlier. I hope you don't mind newcomers here.
Unfortunately, I found your site AFTER finishing my 1/350 scale Titanic model. The results of just 2 weeks of work, as you might imagine, are only slightly better than the horrendous model pictured on the box. The advice given here will help me in my next attempt, but I'll wait for the "improved" Minicraft version with the etched brass railings (hopefully this will include stairways and ratlines too) and do some research in the meantime. Now that I have one complete, I hope to be able to muster the patience to do a great job on the next one.
The most important question I have now is how to improve the rigging. The thread is out of scale, and it's already sagging where it has loosened from the funnels. Also, if you rig the thread through the boat deck, as in the instructions, it's quite visible when viewing the model from the side.
I remember building several battleships in my youth and rigging them with plastic "thread" I made by melting the middle portion of a straight piece of sprue over a candle flame and pulling the sprue apart with both hands into a fine thread. It was possible to control the thickness of the "thread" by how quickly and how far you pulled it. The resulting thread could be easily cut, painted and glued in position. It was even possible to recreate the "sag" seen in loose lines.
To me, this solution to the inadequacies of the thread rigging seems obvious, especially for the lifeboat and crane rigging. I MUST be overlooking something though, since I've seen nothing regarding this technique here, though site is INCREDIBLY arcane; far more so than most people would consider sane (haha, sorry - just a joke). Am I just pointing out something that's too painfully obvious? Are there easier and better ways (that are worth the cost) to replace the standard thread rigging on this model? On the real Titanic, what fittings were used to secure the funnel stays at the deck, and is it possible to reproduce these in such a small scale? I'm sure the wires didn't just run into the deck as the thread in the model does. Thanks in advance for any help!
Uh-oh - I think I'm starting to get obsessed - and it might get costly!....