Existing comment:
Fine Art Models
Titanic Model
Scale 1:48 -- Length: 18 feet
Hull: fiberglass form plated and riveted with brass
Rivets: three different styles totaling more than 3,376,000
Deck planking and deck furniture: wood
Courtesy Fine Art Models, Birmingham, Michigan
www.fineartmodels.com
The tradition of creating builder's models of ships probably started in the mid-19th century. Made to celebrate and advertise a shipyard's work, models were displayed in boardrooms and offices, and occasionally sent to international expositions and museums. Today these models remain long after a ship has sailed its last, offering an opportunity to examine accurately rendered details and the artistry of the shipbuilder.
Harland and Wolff never built a model of Titanic, perhaps because a model was made of the first ship of the class, Olympic. Fine Art Models approached Harland and Wolff with a proposal to build the definitive model of Titanic. The builders agreed and offered unprecedented access to Titanic's original plans, drawings, and measurements. Development began in 1995. This model was completed in 2002 at a scale of 1:48. The hand-carved case is based on the design used by Harland and Wolff to display other models.
While it took nearly three years to build the original Titanic, this model took seven years of painstaking labor to complete. Building wooden sailing ship models is somewhat easier than recreating the iron and steel ships of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Their elaborate metal parts can often only be duplicated by metal casting or fabrication with jeweler's tools. It can take hours longer to complete something in miniature than to make the same thing at a scale of our daily lives. |