DAN CHERRY'S PROCEDURE

For the advanced modeler, detail is all important in achieving a high level of authenticity. The tank room aft of #3 funnel has eight large square openings you can see into, unless you choose to have the windows covers in a closed position. In most Titanic pictures, the covers are propped open to let light and air into the engine room below. The openings did not have glass in them and relied on the covers to keep debris and rain from falling down to the machinery. There are four portholes in each cover that had glass in them.

With this in mind, what sort of detail was in this shaft leading down to the bottom? No photos exist of this area, but ship plans provide some insight. Refer to the plans on page 42 and 43 of Anatomy of the Titanic.

 

Step 1 (making the shaft opening on the Boat deck). First, cut the plastic out of the square on the boat deck to create an opening for this shaft.

Step 2 (adding the two interior doors). There are two doors aft of center on the p & s walls. Fabricate these walls out of thin sheet plastic and glue a door in place on each wall, also with sheet plastic.

Step 3 (providing catwalks and ladder access to lower levels). Common sense would dictate that there must have been a catwalk system or ladders to below. Make these from unused GMM railings perhaps some of the kit's stairs, either unpainted or painted steel (Testors 1180). I suggest that you only detail the shaft down to A-deck. Paint the A deck section underneath dark gray to simulate the shadowy depths. An extremely dedicated modeler may wish to re-create this shaft down to the engine room and build the engine heads and pipe systems, ribbing, etc. This detail would be very difficult to see without the aid of a pen light or direct sunlight and would be there more for the modeler's satisfaction.

Step 4 (painting the interior floors of the tank room). The outboard windows can provide a glimpse into the p & s tank rooms. The cutaway painting of Ken Marschall's suggests that crew area flooring was sort of a rubber tile, reddish color. Paint the floors 'bubble gum red'.

Step 5 (making the tanks for the interior tank rooms). For the tanks shown on page 42-43 of Anatomy of the Titanic, I used kit parts G30, painted white. Glue them in the proper place, seen as the 'hot salt tank' in the port room, and the unmarked tank in the SW corner of the starboard room. For the remaining tanks I glued scrap plastic to the floor. Not a whole lot will be seen through the windows, but it does add depth to the rooms. A note of caution, most of the plans in Anatomy are of Olympic some years after the Titanic disaster, and are not to be relied upon as patterns for the Titanic model. These plans are one of few which depict the configuration of crew areas and should be used with discretion.

Photo of Dan's finished Tank Room.