By each davit at the foot of the inboard worm gear davit frame sat a belaying bitt on the deck. These can be clearly seen in the Cork Examiner photos of the Titanic. This following project is not necessary to do but does add great detail and realism to the model and is best suited for those that have elected to use either brass photo etched railing kit by GMM or Tom's Modelworks.

Using these add on kits will allow the A/M railings to be utilized for other projects and as source material for the bits as one such project
in particular.

  • Note: It is best to do this project after the davits are on deck but BEFORE the lifeboats are placed on.
 

Parts required:

 

No. Req. Part
 
32
 Small `+' (cross) shaped units

MAKING THE BITTS

 

Step 1

Cut off 17 panels of the 4 bar A/M railings from (part C22).

Step 2

Now cut out the center junctions between rails and posts with the tip of a very sharp hobby knife as shown in the diagram below. Make 32 of these.

Step 3

Dab a very small point of glue on the deck at the base of each inboard davit frame support underneath each pulley on the frame arm (Use a piece of thinly pulled sprue or the `GluSquito!') . This pulley needs to be added to the A/M set or is part of the GMM davit set. See LIFEBOATS section.

Because the glue dries fast it is best to do two at a time. This keeps deck blemishes from the glue to an absolute minimum

.

This is a photo of the Olympic's davit the bitt on the Titanic was orientated port to starboard. See step 4.

Step 4

This step depends on the type of glue you are using. As we were gluing plastic to plastic we opted for the regular model glue.

Use tweezers to grab the `+' (cross) on its top half and place it on the point of glue.

Model Glue:

Quickly do the other as well and don't worry if they line up perfectly perpendicular to the davit frame at this time.

Now with the tip of your hobby knife pivot the `+' around on its one leg so it is perpendicular to the davit frame. The Titanic's appear to have the bitt `arms' pointing towards port and starboard where Olympic's appeared to have the bitt's `arms' pointing towards the bow and the stern. Refer to the photo above.

As the glue sets the bitt will be easier to balance on the single foot and pivot around to line up as needed.

CA Glue:

If you used a CA type glue then only do one bitt at a time and make sure to position it as fast as you can.

Step 5

Repeat the process for the remaining bitts.

Step 6

The Titanic's bitts look to be black. See Ken Marschall painting on page 44 of Ballard's ' Exploring The Titanic'. It is possible however that they are the rust red color which can also look dark in photographs. Modeler's choice. We painted them black.

 

 
 
This site was created by David Cotgreave January 2000