Posted by Scott Andrews on June 05, 2000 at 13:56:30:
In Reply to: Re: FLOATING 1:570 MODEL TITANIC posted by Bill Walden on June 03, 2000 at 21:05:31:
: Actually that is the method I have used in the past. Worked once and totally failed another. Take the comment about the weight of the upper decks seriously -- they are enough to cause a severe list. I had everything adjusted perfectly before I built rest of the model. When it was finished it had a terrible list -- the only thing added was the upper decks. I had the same results with my Lusitania model -- hull floated in swimming pool perfectly with water just below waterline. Completed model lists dramatically to one side! So don't assume the upper decks won't affect how the model floats!!
: Regards,
: Bill Walden
Bill,
I've had the same experience as you on this one. Part of the problem is simply material thickness; due to the constrictions place by the requirements of injection molding, the weight of the superstructure is completely out of proportion to what it needs to be inorder for many of these models to float correctly. The only thing that seems to help is to get rid of any material that you can to lighten things up. For instance, in many places, the decks in the superstructer are carried solid across; you can cut away any portion that is within the interior of the deckhouses. Make the superstructure as "hollow" as possble. In some cases, even this won't be enough. The Revell Queen Mary was one that I finally gave up on. Short of scratchbuilding the bigger parts out of much thinner material, there was no way to get that sucker to float upright. Of course, it didn't help that the real ship was known to be "tender" in the first place. These models will tend to exhibit some of the tendancies of the real ship, with the nonscale top weight just making things worse!
Regards,
Scott